What is a Warehouse Management System (WMS)?
A Warehouse Management System, or WMS, has the basic functions of an inventory management system, or IMS, and includes more advanced features. An IMS will allow you to control inventory in a simple manner. A good IMS will allow you to receive, pick, and view where your inventory is. A WMS will have these same features but will also allow for automated put away, picking, and shipping. For example, automated put away will use business rules to automatically assign a product to a location, such as using the product’s size or weight to determine the location where that product would fit. Or if it is an item that ships often, it will put that product in a location that is easily accessible. A WMS can also prompt workers to do cycle counts on inventory. WMS solutions almost always have the option for real time data capture utilizing a wireless network.
