Basic Features of a WMS

Warehouse Management Systems serve to manage local warehouse stock in real time, supporting the processes of storage and retrieval. The aim of all logistics is to provide goods in the right quantity, of the right quality and at the correct time and place, optimising both cost and performance. Decisive factors are the flexibility of hard and software, the efficiency of the warehouse staff and supply readiness.

All WMS systems must perform certain basic functions in the area of goods receival, storage, warehouse control, picking, retriaval and issuing of goods, as does our WMS solution, PROLAG^®World.

Goods-receiving

Processing of:

• unscheduled deliveries
• handling of goods received
• receiving of goods under one order number but delivered in several part-orders
• sampling, recording the quantity to be sampled or formulae for their calculation (Quality Assurance).

Storage

Processing of:

• storage of delivered goods: manual or automatic allocation of storage location.
• storage of goods in both single-article and mixed-article load units; adding of goods to mixed load units.

Warehouse Control

• Cross-docking: routing of goods from goods-in direct to issuing of goods, without storing.
• Relocation of stock within the warehouse (creating a transport order from initial to target location)
• evacuation of an entire storage area with a single order (e.g. for renovation purposes)
• reorganisation of stock

Picking

• "goods-to-man" principle
• "man-to-goods" principle
• creation of all relevant types of picking order
• formation of shipping units taking specific requirements into consideration generation of packing information, which defines the exact position and alignment of each package on the pallet
• generation of packing information, which defines the exact position and alignment of each package on the pallet
• picking using printed documents or mobile data entry devices via wireless data transmission
• use of pick-by-light, pick-by-voice, pick-by-vision
• retrieval verification by scanning location or article barcode

Retrieval

• using retrieval strategies or strict first-in-first-out (FIFO)
• quantity-based or soft FIFO

Issues of goods

• items at issuing of goods, ready to be picked up for delivery
• transport management system, or courier services
• management of certain data by use of shipping units
• re-storage of pallets which are not required, or the option to stack pallets
• generation of tour-specific freight lists
• vehicle loading in reverse order of delivery
• determination of the optimal shipment type (sea, air, rail, road)
• calculation of expected shipment costs
• automatic selection of the appropriate transport load unit (container, package, barrel) based on destination and shipment costs
• allocation of carriers to tours
• automatic allocation of carrier based on defined criteria, such as distance, load weight and number of delivery stops
• Controlling of freight cost (distance travelled, number of packages, number of delivery stops, load weight)