WMS Pioneers

One of the core concepts relative to Warehouse Management Systems is that of “directed putaway.” While many logistics professionals are very familiar with this topic, it is clear from conversations with many companies that others don’t really have all the details – and that quite a few lack directed putaway capabilities with the system they are currently using to run their distribution center. As...

In our previous broadcast, we discussed 5 of our top 10 catalysts for adopting a new WMS. As a quick review, those 5 WMS project drivers were: You are Experiencing Rapid Growth You are Opening a New DC You are Making Significant Logistics Strategy Changes You have or are Consolidating Facilities You Want to Significantly Increase DC Automation Now, let’s add 5 more...

In may be a mature market space, but by all counts, the market for new Warehouse Management Systems remains strong. There are in fact a wide number of potential factors that drive companies to look for a new WMS solution, which we have handily grouped into 10 different logistics scenarios, and in Part 1, we lay out the first five. You might need a new WMS if...

Dynamic Slotting is a technique available in some Warehouse Management Systems in which a forward pick location is created dynamically, rather than being dedicated to a single SKU. This capability is needed in two primary situations: The first is when there aren’t enough pick locations to handle all SKUs a DC carries. The second scenario is when demand for SKU in a wave or general order pool far e...

Autonomous mobile robots are coming to a DC near you - likely your facility - and probably soon. A.M.R.’s have taken the distribution world by storm, driven by both operational efficiencies and the challenges with finding enough labor in most US markets. This podcast dives into the benefits that can be achieved, the challenges, and the keys to making your investments future-proof.

Warehouse Management Systems are well-known, yet we still continue to find many companies that are new to WMS.  Even for managers with some WMS experience, we’ve found it useful to review the core benefits that a WMS delivers. Here they are...

Direct-to-Consumer (or DTC) strategies are very popular right now in retail and consumer goods companies and it’s easy to understand why - no company should be missing out on this megatrend with the numbers skyrocketing over the past year and COVID-19 pandemic.

Warehouse Management Systems – from some vendors at least – were a little late to move to the Cloud. Softeon has been doing Cloud WMS deployments for many years, but has really seen adoption take off in the past two year.  This is due to the major advantages from Cloud deployments in such areas as time and cost of the implementations and ease of system management post-go live, requiring little int...

Most WMS systems in the past did not concern themselves with utilization of materials handling equipment. The result: big peaks and valleys in volume, resulting in lots of wait time and reducing total system throughput. WES was developed to address that challenge, using algorithms to level-load cartons on to the equipment, and using techniques such as waveless order picking to meet that goal. That...

Why are put walls becoming so popular? Order picking efficiencies are gained through use of batch picking, where picks are grouped so that all items needed for orders to be processed in a given wall module or modules are picked in one stop in the picking area. This is generally much more efficient than discrete order picking

An introduction to the increasingly popular use of Put Walls for order fulfillment.

Before the virus pandemic, labor challenges in distribution centers were almost at crisis levels. The reality is there are many tools available to take on the DC labor challenge, whether your issue is labor costs, labor availability, DC throughput or like many all three.

In our previous episode, we discussed Distributed Order Management or DOM software solutions. In great summary, traditional order management systems are order processing oriented, while DOM is more focused on order fulfillment.

A DOM system serves as a powerful hub that enables omnichannel commerce; integrates the extended supply chain; optimizes inbound and outbound order routing; provides real-time network inventory visibility, allocation, and management; automates complex channel and customer requirements; and maximizes profitability while meeting customer service commitments.

What is zoning? In general, it involves grouping some set of individual storage locations of all types into defined zones that can be used by the WMS to improve operational effectiveness and precision. A WMS should have the ability to define any number of zones and create the logic for how the putaway logic is executed in preferred zone sequence.

Task interleaving is more talked about than executed, but in the right circumstances it can bring strong productivity gains. With the rise of autonomous mobile robots, or AMRs, a new type of interleaving has emerged.

Discrete engineered standards are great for those companies that want to use them, but a more statistical approach can often deliver most of the value - at far lower costs.

There is no question that Warehouse Management Systems – WMS – were late to the Cloud versus Transportation Management and other types of supply chain software, for a variety of reasons.