WMS Solutions

	WMS General	WMS Tutorials
	WMS Services	WMS Partners
	WMS Software	Priority WMS Specs

Integrated vs. Stand-Alone/Third Party WMS Solutions

Implementation of WMS solutions has always been a major challenge even when undertaken with budgets of $500K and upward, so it is understandably a greater challenge within the budgets that small and medium-sized companies can afford. A major contributing factor to this challenge is the integration complexity of a solution that is not part of the ERP system. Implementing a stand-alone WMS solution, in addition to the complexity of its integration, could have a tremendous impact on pricing and costs, overall system stability and the efficiency of day-to-day work.

Issues

Following are some of the common problems faced when integrating an ERP and WMS system:

1. Inventory balance discrepancy (or "mismatch").
2. Incremental system initiation. There are two ways to achieve incremental implementation:
• Isolate an area in the warehouse and implement the WMS on that area only.
• Isolate an activity (e.g., "pick") and implement throughout the warehouse.
3. Incremental system shut-down: warehouse management systems (integrated or separate) can suffer from erroneous data definitions that will result in system malfunctions. Incremental shut-down capabilities are a readily available option in a fully integrated ERP/ WMS solution.
4. Managing assemblies (packing small packages into larger ones, unpacking, etc.)
5. Data synchronization challenges:

• inventory attributes that are customer-specific in both what they represent and the business process/rules that they must fulfill, such as customer-designated inventory allocation (quantitative, prepaid, etc.), "ship to/bill to" locations and more.
• Synchronizing delivery priorities.

Solutions

Following are only some of the benefits provided by the integrated ERP-WMS solution:

1. Integration: Priority's integrated WMS solution enables the warehousing management functions to interact seamlessly with other system and corporate activities, be they manufacturing or distribution related.
2. Visibility: Priority's integrated WMS solution provides a greater depth and breadth to supply chain visibility, helping users not only to check order statuses, but also to meet ever increasing delivery standards, manage global operations on many levels more efficiently, and provide customer service reps with crucial information and alerts.
3. Unification: Priority offers its users unified data structures (part catalogue, warehouse/location records, etc.).
4. Interface consistency: With a unified user interface, training fees and learning curve times are greatly reduced.
5. Unified system maintenance: Of the many issues that could be covered, maintaining "user permissions/profiles" is one.
6. Overall benefits of the ERP system are automatically included in the WMS functionality: BI features including Dashboards and KPIs, BPM functionality and more.

Interaction

In Priority, as the WMS solution is part of the overall ERP system, warehouse operations can interact seamlessly with accounting, CRM, Supply Chain, production processes and more. Purchase, sales and inventory processes can be used to trigger the putaway, picking and replenishment tasks, or vice versa. Contact us to learn more about our warehouse management solution.

Back to top

About Eshbel    Site Map    Terms of Use    Privacy Policy

Copyright © 1986-2011 Eshbel Technologies Ltd. All Rights Reserved