What Defines a good WMS?

Good WMS can streamline your warehouse operation process and provide great improvement in customer satisfaction leading to increased profit. There are various kinds of WMS software in the market. Some WMS served as a specialized stand-alone service; some offered as part of an enterprise resource planning or supply chain management suite. Warehouse owners, e-Commerce retailers, or 3PL owners who serve clients may have different needs and preferences for WMS software APIs. First things first, you need to be aware of if this WMS could really help simplify your operations rather than make it more complicated. There is no one-size-fits-all WMS that makes the 100% perfect solution, however, the following factors may be essential to consider.

Optimize labor-intensive Tasks

A successful WMS should be adept at handling major daily tasks like receiving and order picking as handling comprehensive solutions, like manifesting, paperless picking across multiple zones, truck route/stop management, or exotic lot number control, which might rely highly on outdated excel tracking in the past. It should accelerate your inventory process as well. For example, some software has smart barcoding scanning functions that make sorting, counting, picking, and receiving processes a breeze.

Comprehensive functionality

Warehouse management systems that worth your attention should provide as much as possible the following functions, if not all:

Inventory management and cycle count; Shipping management; Order fulfillment; Reporting; Productivity tracking dashboard; API integration；electronic data ingtercharge; carrier integration; cross docking 3PL billing; barcode scanning; customer return management; 24/7 customer service. These together lead to a more efficient labor management and improved customer experience , from stock visibility and traceability, accurate reporting, data visibility, automatic replenishment to organized return management and improved customer services.

Flexibility and Space to grow

You want to choose a system that fits your business currently and will allow your business to organically grow in the future.The WMS you chose should be able to adapt the change. The system is expected to be able to accommodate your special needs and wishes. For example, hiding and adding modules according to your needs so that the dashboard is always neat and clear. How frequently, consistently and extensively the WMS vendor upgrades its WMS, whether they are proactive in collecting customer feedback are also indicators to gauge.

Useful and Easy-to-read Metrics

Data is important, so is its presentation. One fundamental thing to have metrics that help you track performance of your warehouse operations; it’s quite another to be able to understand the data. A good WMS should allow you to easily create reports and charts that let you see how your warehouse is running. For example, a good WMS might track employee and warehouse performance in real-time across organizational groups, allowing management to compare performance of employee sets (morning pickers, evening pickers, receiving, etc.) and operational organizations (east division, west division, etc.). You want to invest in a WMS that measures the performance of individual employees against standards that include both speed and accuracy.

It makes it easier for businesses to transfer inventory or stock between multiple warehouses. Receiving and fulfilling orders via specific warehouses will come across effortlessly. With ShipOut, clients can speed up the warehousing process, intelligently schedule preparations, automate processes, and synchronize end-users’ operational control. Not only offers a wide array of features at a reasonable price range, ShipOut also allows users to choose only those workflows they want in this steady stream of new supply chain workflow. Although ShipOut is currently under Beta testing version, it provides personal customer service to answer all inquiries 7/24 and spare no pains to meet our beta tester’s demands.