Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) Reviews 2023 | Gartner Peer Insights - The first knowledge sharing application in Vietnam

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main capabilities of Warehouse Management Systems?

All solutions in the warehouse management systems offer basic core capabilities. Some examples of core capabilities / features are receiving, put-away, stock locating, inventory management, cycle counting, task interleaving, wave planning, order allocation, picking, replenishment, packing, shipping, labor management, and automated materials handling equipment (MHE) interfaces. There are also WMS applications that offer extended functions such as slotting, yard management, voice picking, parcel manifesting, and value-added services (light manufacturing/kitting and third-party logistics (3PL) billing).

How many types of vendors are there available in the Warehouse Management Systems market?

WMS market breaks down into five types of vendors which are:

Application mega-suite vendors : Offering broad portfolios of applications across most application categories.
Supply chain management (SCM) suite vendors: Providing a holistic warehouse management system as well as two or more applications primarily based on supply chain management.
Specialist WMS suite vendors: Independent software vendors that focus primarily, but not exclusively, on holistic WMS suites.
Independent WMS component vendors: Not providing a full WMS, but instead offering stand-alone components to supplement a WMS.
Material handling equipment/automation vendors: Primarily focusing on supporting the electromechanical aspects of large-scale, automated warehouses.

How do WMS offerings differ from each other?

WMS offerings continue to differ in areas like usability, adaptability, decision support, scalability, and life cycle costs. Focus on the breadth and depth of WMS offerings remains valid for the most sophisticated operations while other factors like simplicity, usability, and cost of ownership are more important factors in less complex environments.

What factors should be considered while choosing a warehouse management system?

Supply chain or IT leaders responsible for the selection of warehouse management solutions should:

Determine the people, process, organizational, data, and technology needs of each warehouse operation and focus WMS evaluations on the appropriate use cases.
Target the solutions best suited to their distinctive WMS use cases by developing a right-fit shortlist of vendors and solutions.
Embrace the importance of soft needs and benefits by reconciling the competing interests of functionality versus intangible characteristics such as usability, adaptability, implementation support, and simplicity.

How does WMS technology work?

Warehouse management systems exploit mobile devices along with bar code and, possibly, RFID (radio frequency identification) scanning/sensing to form the transactional foundation of a WMS. This enables efficiencies of directed work activity and the delivery of accurate information in near real-time.