More and more businesses are using warehouse management systems (WMS) to improve the processing of online orders.
Online retail giant Amazon arguably pioneered quick delivery times, with its next-day delivery service and same day service in major cities. To help achieve this speed, the company uses robots and automation software. To be competitive, online retailers need to improve both delivery times and the accuracy of processing orders. Unless they have huge amounts of money to invest like Amazon, small to medium online retailers do not have the budget for fully automated warehouses. Their challenge is to compete with Amazon’s service while retaining their aisle picking trolleys and other manual handling equipment operated by human workers.
One solution is WMS software to organise the management of the picking and packing system. Large software companies, including AP, Oracle and JDA Software, are developing more sophisticated WMS software that makes picking, packing and delivering orders quicker and more efficient. The leading software vendors have increased sales of their WMS software in 2018 by around 12.5%.
Traditionally WMS software is a “within the four walls” solution, meaning that it controls how orders are picked and packed within the warehouse. New software goes beyond the four walls of the warehouse to monitor the whole supply chain. An example of how this works is when a delivery vehicle coming to the warehouse breaks down or gets stuck in traffic. The software is notified so that it can adjust the workflow in the warehouse to account for the late arrival of goods.
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