Interfacing a WMS

WMS are at the heart of a company's physical, financial and information flows. As a result, they recover or capture, aggregate and restore significant quantities of data. We obviously find the classic management of warehouse processes, from reception to shipping.

Software solutions that can be interfaced with WMS

But a WMS is not intended to have infinite functional coverage. Thus, certain publishers offer IT business solutions

Indeed, rather than deploying heavy and time-consuming R&D investments, most publishers have undertaken actions to identify niche players (or “best of breed”), very often startups, to create alliances. These new services are often offered via activation of optional modules (add-on), sometimes as a “white label” and with billing for these services on a per-use basis.

The stated goal for these publishers is to be able to quickly offer new services to the market. However, the WMS must remain the “center of the village”, the element of coherence, the functional/business layer bringing together all these solutions.

Thus, WMS are evolving and are increasingly resembling “logistics ERPs”, aggregating around a logistics “core” modular functionalities which themselves interface with third-party solutions. The stated objective is clear: not to “suffer” from interfacing needs but to anticipate them, or even anticipate future customer needs.

What links with the WMS?

Due to its positioning as execution software in the warehouse, WMS therefore plays a crucial role in reporting data throughout a company's IT ecosystem.

This information will allow us to “discuss” with numerous solutions:

• ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), dealing with planning of company resources in the short, medium and long term,
• TMS ( Transport Management System ), key solutions in the management and optimization of transport activities,
• MES (Manufacturing Execution System), operationally controlling production operations,
• WCS (Warehouse Control System), software for monitoring and controlling automated equipment (storers, stacker cranes, AGV trolleys, conveyors, etc.),
• APS (Advanced Planning System), dealing with forecasts and supply management,
• “Best of breed” solutions (or business software), specialized in a business or functionality, and able to benefit from the same interoperability as other software,
• Etc.

Depending on the type of logistics profession in which the WMS is “bathed”, its positioning may be different and its relationship with other IT solutions may evolve.

Interfacing a WMS: the E-commerce sector

In this sector, the WMS plays a central role on 2 levels:

• Sales (with near real-time monitoring) and management (shipment from the warehouse following commitments made and management of a possible return),
• The link with the world of intralogistics execution (end of preparation chain conveyor, bar code or RFID reading equipment, etc.) and that of extra logistics (confirmation of a carrier delivery or information on a flow of goods returns following customer complaints).

A WMS interfaced with expert solutions can thus address a good number of issues.

Returns management

Companies have specialized in the management of “bulky” and “oversized” returns (these returns quickly lose value as soon as they are handled). These companies make it possible to give a second life to these returns: photos of the return with its defects, posting online on auctioneer group sites to revalue the returns, sale of the return, etc.

The goal is to compete with sales by paying more to the person holding this return stock.

Tracking tracking – Transport complaint

A WMS has within it all the necessary information to already warn the customer of the risks of delay. They can be supplemented by information from a TMS .

The objective here is to provide access to this information formatted in a dashboard or communicated using a workflow functionality to ADVs (sales administration). Customers are thus better informed about possible delays. They also have the possibility of being “better armed” when it comes to applying contractual penalties to their carriers.

MDM – Mobile device management

How can you ensure the proper functioning in real time of your equipment used in several warehouses at the same time?

Thanks to MDM solutions, logisticians have remote access to mobile terminals present in a warehouse. They thus see what warehouse workers “see” on their PDA, independently of geolocation, to help them remotely.

Taking dimensions and weight of the joints upon reception

At the entrance to the warehouse, it is possible to interface with dedicated equipment allowing the acquisition of this data in the WMS via, for example, measurement tables (Cubiscan®, Cargoscan from Mettler Toledo, infrared or laser technologies, cameras and photo taking, etc.).

Dynamic configuration of a picking zone

There are tools allowing dynamic management of storage parameters (replenishment threshold, etc.) depending on the lifespan of the product. For a product with erratic sales or new releases, sourcing behaviors and strategies must be distinct. Thus, artificial intelligence tools can analyze large quantities of data in order to propose new parameters for managing picking stocks (for example clipping abnormal behavior by analyzing histories and the non-regular nature of a trend, etc.) .