Custom-made or off-the – shelf warehouse management system for your organization

A warehouse management system or WMS is a software program that helps warehouse managers manage their inventory. From manual systems to semi-automated systems to automate the entire workflow in the warehouse, the WMS has undergone tremendous changes from the past. Today the warehouse is managed using new-age technology where different aspects of advancements in the field are applied for optimizing the process and closing loopholes.

The warehouse management system includes inventory planning and management primarily along with reporting features. The importance of being able to manage the inventory smoothly is critical, be it manufacturing units, or retailers. It is not just enough to manage the inventory, there needs to be strategic planning that should be part of the system.

 

Features of the inventory management module include:

 

- Detailed tracking of inventory movement, in and out

- Allocation of inventory;

- Schedule movement of inventory

- Labeling, packing and preparing products to be shipped out, as per orders.

- Plan the route of the fleet as a special transport management system

- Loading products and accepting returned products

- Manage fleet and labor on the job.

 

The reporting feature includes preparing specific MIS-related reports that give further insight so that measuring performance becomes easy. Reports are also generated about the fuel consumption, vehicle usage, labor productivity, orders received, orders dispatched, product-wise inventory and movement, and many more need-based reports.

 

The big question that business entities face is whether to go in for off-the-shelf software programs or should they get it developed depending on the specific needs and requirements of the organization. The pros and cons of both sides need to be evaluated thoroughly because there are cost implications here.

 

Using customized software can be a huge investment initially but it is much more effective performance-wise or output-wise. Ready-made off-the-shelf software programs can be cheap with no or little scope of customization that can prove a costly error after some time.