WMS Software
Welcome to the WMS (Warehouse Management System) portal. WMS modules are often more than a just a warehouse management system program. Many applications also include sales, invoicing, purchase orders, accounts payable/receivable, report writing, job tracking, supply chain management, scheduling and other ERP/MRP software applications. The purpose of a WMS is to provide a way to track inventory levels, track product locations, track suppliers, orders and more. WMS applications can be integrated with bar code reading systems for more efficient tracking of goods and even RFID (radio frequency identification) for high tech tracking and other applications.div align=center>
Some systems offer traceability or genealogy capability by attributing raw material lots to production runs. See Inventory and warehouse management for more information.
Benefits of WMS
Faster time to market Faster order fulfillment More satisfied customers Reduced inventory carrying costs More efficient warehouse operations Reduced production down-time Automatic ordering from suppliers when pre-set inventory level is reachedWMS Innovations
RFID technology will eventually have a huge impact on WMS, due to the mountains of data it can generate about the location of pallets, cases, cartons, totes and individual products in the supply chain. RFID will allow for a high level of logistics processes automation and highly increased operational accuracy allowing manufacturers to increase efficiency, reduce operating costs and minimize errors caused by the human factor.Wireless WMS Software
Wireless technology has really come a long way in the last several years. WMS software has traditionally employed wirless technologies for bar code and and inventory control but developments in wireless smartphones and personal data devices now make it possible to communicate faster and make the enterprise lean. Smartphones are joining the ranks of very affordable cellular devices and they seem to be becoming an invaluable assett in many innovative organizations. There are a small collection of companies that produce browser based software systems that not only run on your desktop but on your PDA as well.
We talked with Paul Tupciauskas, the CEO of Tuppas software. According to Paul custom wireless screens are being implemented in almost all of their WMS software systems. Tuppas is a small company in the midwest that does systems that are highly configurable. The systems that they deploy for WMS generally focus on JIT (just in time), advanced planning connections to inventory optimization and they are very good at building screens for really quick access into alarming, inventory levels and available to promise functionality.
Whether you decide to implement an out of the box wms are a configured system wireless technology is worth checking out. It's a lot nicer to have critical data pushed to a device that travels with you than to find out there is an issue a week after you might have been able to do something about it.
