Managing a warehouse may be difficult as your e-commerce business expands and becomes more complex. Fortunately, thanks to the emergence of specialized warehouse management systems (WMS), an e-commerce company can administer its warehouse(s) like large retailers, specifically for fulfillment service
What is a Warehouse Management System, and how does it work?
A warehouse management system (WMS) is a software solution that proposes visibility into a business’s whole inventory and oversees supply chain fulfillment operations from the distribution center to the retail shelf.
By coordinating and optimizing resource usage and material movements, warehouse management (WMS) systems allow businesses to maximize their labor and space utilization, as well as their equipment investments. WMS systems, in particular, are built to suit the demands of a worldwide supply chain, encompassing distribution, manufacturing, asset-intensive, and service industries.
A warehouse management system is a software that monitors and controls day-to-day operations. WMS software helps with inventory receipt, storage, picking, packaging, shipping, and replenishment in the most efficient way possible.
Connected customers want to purchase everywhere, fill anywhere, and return anywhere in today’s dynamic omnichannel fulfillment market. Businesses require warehouse management software that improves fulfillment capabilities to satisfy this demand. Our cloud-based warehouse management solution, which is industry-leading, helps you plan for tomorrow’s supply chain now. WMS extends supply chains to match inventory management and fulfillment services with current purchasing methods and provides real-time insight into a complete inventory through smartphone and browser: the only prerequisite being Internet access.
WMS’s Role in the Supply Chain:
The supply chain can only operate at the speed, accuracy, and efficiency that warehouse processes allow. A warehouse management system (WMS) is critical to supply chain management since it oversees order fulfillment procedures from receiving raw materials to exporting completed items.
The supply chain may be hindered or disrupted, for example, if raw materials are not received correctly; or parts are missing at a warehouse. WMSes are essential for ensuring that these operations run successfully by managing inventory and ensuring that things are kept, sorted, transported, and monitored.
Benefits of modern Warehouse management system:
A WMS may help you develop a more automated warehouse that eliminates manual rework by concentrating on duties like inventory counts, cost management, order statuses, and more. Your WMS serves as the backbone of your e-commerce warehouse, reducing inefficiencies and assisting in the expansion of your organization.
With the internet and digital technology transforming how customers make purchases, disrupting supplier markets, altering customer buying behaviors, and increasing supply chain complexity, fulfillment operations must adapt with their own digitally linked solution.
Warehouse management systems may provide a linked fulfillment solution that provides real-time visibility, scalability, and market responsiveness to the connected consumer.
Rapid implementation of the fulfillment process:
You should quickly adjust to being competitive in the new fulfillment economy. You can quickly scale up your supply chain system using a cloud-based system. Instead of months, powerful logistical capabilities are now available in weeks. Custom Crating and Logistics is pre-integrated with various platforms to enable sophisticated multi-channel fulfillment operations.
It provides the same level of warehouse management capability as an on-premises solution without the IT costs. Cloud computing eliminates the need to pay for hardware, software, and IT experts to keep the system running. You’re up and running in no time at a lower cost.
Lower upfront expenses by connecting logistics:
Cloud-based multi tenant solutions provide a fast return on investment and a cheaper total cost of ownership. There is no need for hardware, software, or IT expertise with the cloud. It’s pre-configured to work with various platforms and link all of your logistical operations from beginning to end.
A corporation with an on-premises WMS, on the other hand, may have paid for many adjustments and upgrades over five years. When it comes time to update, that organization will have to reinstall and configure everything from scratch.
There are never any upgrade or maintenance costs with a cloud-based WMS solution. IT infrastructure expenditures, and expenses for hardware, system, and database administrators, are not included.
More precise inventory counts:
A WMS can inform you exactly how much inventory is presently held in real-time, which may help you reduce inventory shrinkage if done correctly. It is accomplished by scanning new inventory barcodes and retrieving each unit chosen in order.
More effective order processing:
A warehouse management system (WMS) may be integrated with your e-commerce platform to maintain your stock up to current at all times. Customers cannot place an order for an item shown incorrectly as in stock. Orders are processed faster and more accurately with fewer inventory problems.
More productive warehouse:
Rework is a significant expense for warehouses. Your warehouse is wasting money if your team is spending time counting inventory or repackaging items. Your warehouse will run more smoothly if order numbers are accurate and orders are chosen and sent quickly.
Less expensive:
While a WMS may appear costly, it compensates for this through increased efficiency. When a WMS is established, the expense of laborers manually double-checking inventory or transporting items to the right place is reduced.
Facilitated Logistical Expansion:
Customers expect quick delivery. Are you able to provide 2-day ground delivery throughout the country? You may use a WMS to precisely calculate shipment times and evaluate if increased shipping choices are feasible for you. When an e-commerce store’s operations are running smoothly, it may expand.
How Custom Crating and Logistics’s WMS helps your Business:
Our fulfillment facilities at Custom Crating and Logistics employ our warehouse management software. Unlike on-demand storage services, you’ll always know what’s happening in the Custom Crating and Logistics warehouses where your items are kept.
You may search orders by tracking number, destination country, amount of goods, sales channel, fulfillment center location, and more. You can also gain complete transparency into performance metrics like fulfillment speed, orders delivered on time, mistake rates, shipments shipped claim-free, and more.
Tracking inventory:
Inventory tracking is the process of keeping track of stock levels to determine which SKUs are in your warehouse.
You may see the status of inventory you send to us, stock on hand, and inventory performance indicators by using technology to set up real-time inventory count in fulfillment centers.
Picking and packaging
In a warehouse, the two most important duties are picking and packaging. Our WMS produces pick lists for each picker to obtain products as quickly as possible. He will receive a packing slip demonstrating the items ordered. He will collect the ordered products from their respective locations.
The following is how it works:
- All items are selected.
- A packer receives the order.
- A packer places products safely in a box or mailer while also providing packing supplies.
- The box or poly mailer is labeled with a shipping label so that it may be picked up by a carrier and delivered to its destination.
Receiving and putting away:
All warehouses receive inventory from trucks at loading docks through parcel or freight and then stash it away in a storage place. Our warehouse management system scans each new package. It is done to determine how much inventory it contains. After that, it will be transported to its short-term or long-term inventory storage facility, where it will be scanned once again.
Shipping:
The shipping company will pick up orders from the fulfillment centers and transport products to their next destination based on the delivery options and shipping services.
Our warehouse management system provides e-commerce order tracking information back to your store after the order ships, so your clients can follow their shipments.
A specialized 3PL takes warehouse management to the next level:
Warehouse administration is typically complex and costly for e-commerce firms. A specialized 3PL takes warehouse management to the next level. Many businesses prefer to outsource their whole retail fulfillment process to a third-party logistics provider (third-party logistics provider, or 3PL) with various fulfillment warehouses, also known as fulfillment centers. Here are some of the benefits of storing inventory and shipping orders with a fulfillment partner.
Optimization of regional warehouses:
Unless you’re a large shop with a massive distribution network, you’re probably just shipping from one place. When you work with a 3PL, you may be able to keep merchandise in numerous fulfillment centers (they frequently have many locations) to reach a large number of clients more quickly.
If you ship nationwide, it’s a good idea to have warehouses on both coasts. Because 2-day delivery is becoming the industry standard for shipping and consumer expectations, you can ship efficiently.
For example, Custom Crating and Logistics has a presence in the largest cities and areas across the US. It is so you can ship orders via ground to large populations very quickly. Minimizing the number of delivery zones a product must go through helps achieve customer expectations for 2-day shipping.
Savings of time:
The most time-consuming logistical chores (inventory storage, warehouse picking, packing, shipping, order tracking, restocking supplies, returns, kitting, etc.) and the stress of operating a warehouse are eliminated with e-commerce order fulfillment services from a 3PL.
Reporting and insights:
You will have visibility throughout the order management process by using 3PL technology. You can observe your inventory flow, including when items are received, stowed or put away, selected, packaged, and delivered, as well as any other activity.
Our amazingly simple-to-use platform at Custom Crating and Logistics offers daily insight into how your inventory and fulfillment work. We handle logistics for you as the premier 3PL for online firms, so you don’t have to bother about shipping, order fulfillment, warehouse management, and more.
