Warehouse Management System Analysis

This analysis focuses on the challenges faced by an auto-part supply business with its existing warehouse management system. It discusses the system capabilities, benefits of adopting a new system, and recommendations for improvement.

ITC548 - System Analysis PG
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Contents
Problem statement......................................................................................................................................3
Capabilities..................................................................................................................................................4
Benefits:......................................................................................................................................................5
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................................6
References...................................................................................................................................................7

Problem statement
The problem describes the scenario of the warehouse management system. Adoption of a new
warehouse management system is a challenging task for the business. Before the adoption process, it is
required to understand the system capabilities, faults in the existing system and benefits of adopting a
new system. The given scenario is about the auto-part supply business. The existing warehouse
management system is not capable enough to handle the warehouse processes. It reduces the efficiency
of the business. The warehouse has inaccurate levels of inventory which gives a negative impact. This
increases the operational cost of the warehouse. The existing warehouse management system is not
able to properly handle the core processes of the business like packing, order processing, outbound
documentation and many more. The existing system is not suitable to provide high availability of the
services due to the absence of a backup plan. The natural disaster can affect the operations of the
business. The current system has a high operational cost because the operational cost and maintenance
cost of the equipment is high. This decreases the business productivity. The existing warehouse system
follows a pen-paper approach which is not secure enough and takes a lot of time to complete the
procedure. The existing system of warehouse management is also suffering from lagging. Also, the
system is not capable to provide a real-time inventory tracking.

Capabilities
The existing system is not able to reduce the operational cost of the warehouse management system. To
avoid this, the new warehouse management system should have capabilities to reduce cost, improve
productivity and provide efficient services. The new warehouse management system should be able to
perform all the basic operations like packing, processing and receiving orders. Inventory control, order
load management and generation of the system alert in an efficient way. To ensure the accessibility of
the services and data, the new warehouse management system should have wireless devices. This will
also help in easy management. The new warehouse management system should be connected with the
organization’s ERP system. Also, the warehouse management system should be accessible from the web
and be mobile-friendly. This capability of the warehouse management system allows the employees to
easily access the services of the warehouse in order to manage them. To reduce the operational cost of
the warehouse management system, the WMS should be capable to use the available resources in an
optimized way. The warehouse system should have an automated system to track the inventory and
tagging of the products. To save money, the new warehouse management system should be able to
adopt the changes speedily and easily. It should support cross-docking and wave picking. The system
should be scalable to track future possibilities and support data visibility. The warehouse management
system is capable to be versatile with the input methods (Whiting, 2017).

Benefits:
Integration of the warehouse management system with the ERP system will help in process expedition.
This dual-system collaboration enables greater accuracy for the delivery targets. This will also help to
alert the team the capabilities of the warehouse management system will be helpful to ensure real-time
information tracking and data accuracy across the organization (Cross, 2018). This will act as a central
place to store the information in a synchronized way. The mobile-friendliness capability of the
warehouse management system enables the easy tracking of inventory. It will allow the employees to
update the data instantly on the warehouse management system and this data will automatically
update on the organization’s ERP system. This will also help to eliminate the conflicts among employees
and departments.
The real-time inventory tracking feature of the warehouse management system enables the workers to
electronically generate the reports and do recording of the transactions and some other manual
processes. This eliminates the requirement of a pen-paper based approach. The new capabilities of the
system help to maximize the productivity and accuracy of the warehouse management system. It will
also reduce the inventory risk level. Products tagging is helpful in the improvement of efficiency and
elimination of conflicts (Davies, 2019). It is also helpful in process optimization and improves the morale
of employees. At last, it makes a healthy customer and supplier relationship. An intelligent warehouse
management system will enable to incorporate with a range of algorithms. Automation of the process
reduces the overhead of the team of outgoing shipments and enables them to handle the various
aspects of the business. This will help in the continuous improvement of business by tackling the task. A
well-designed warehouse management system effectively uses the space and labor which is helpful to
reduce the waste. It can be helpful to determine where to keep materials, equipment, and products for
flow optimization (Hitchings, 2017). A warehouse management system offers a real-time inventory of
data with the help of serial numbers, bar-coding, and RFID tagging. This visibility is helpful in the
creation of demand forecasts. This warehouse management system enables to use of billing that is
based on activity which tracks the activities within the warehouse that are related to the supplier
(O'Shaughnessy, 2019).

Recommendations
The warehouse system should be able to give maximum functionality. The warehouse management
software should be designed in such a way that it should be easy to use. This will reduce the time of
employee training. It is recommended to use security features in the warehouse management system.
This will help to reduce the chances of risk and threats. To improve the flexibility, it is recommended
that the warehouse management system should be capable with RF scanners, label printers, scales, etc.

References
Cross, J. (2018). 10 Key Benefits of Implementing a Warehouse Management System. Retrieved 27 July
2019, from https://blog.brightpearl.com/benefits-of-warehouse-management-systems
Davies, J. (2019). The advantages of using a warehouse management system. Retrieved 27 July 2019,
from http://www.winman.com/blog/the-advantages-of-using-a-warehouse-management-system
Hitchings, S. (2017). 10 Benefits of Choosing the Correct WMS for You. Retrieved 27 July 2019, from
https://blog.kencogroup.com/benefits-of-choosing-the-correct-warehouse-management-system-
software-wms-for-you
O'Shaughnessy, K. (2019). 10 Warehouse Management System Software Benefits in 2019. Retrieved 27
July 2019, from https://selecthub.com/warehouse-management/warehouse-management-system-
software-benefits/
Whiting, G. (2017). Your complete WMS features and requirements guide. Retrieved 27 July 2019, from
https://www.explorewms.com/complete-wms-features-and-requirements-guide.html