Warehouse Management System

Warehouse management is the control and optimization of the various processes in a warehouse. A warehouse management system (WMS) is an internal tool used to control and optimize the flow of materials. The functionality of the WMS is broken down into three operations; put-away, replenishing, and picking (Novák & Kraj?ovi?, 2011; Sahuri & Utomo, 2016). The basic principle for the WMS is directing the three operations to the relevant locations as per user defined criteria. A WMS can be a standalone or integrated with the organizations enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. This paper will focus on a standalone WMS and the discussion will seek to establish both software and hardware requirements for the server-end and client-end, then determine the competitive advantage for using WMS, provide recommendations for improvement and lastly, draw a conclusion.

Server-Side Hardware Requirements
There are various WMS solutions and each has specific requirements. While there are basic WMS systems with minimal server-end requirements, there are also advanced WMS solutions that require equally advanced server-end requirements. This paper however represents medium requirements for the average WMS solution that will provide optimal but not-highly sophisticated solutions to SMEs. The system requirements this include windows server R2 2008 minimal, Intel Xeon, 6 GB RAM, Database, 2 × 500 GB Hard Disk Drive, and colored monitor with 1024 × 768 resolution (Young, 2015; Kasat & Yadav, 2015).
Server-Side Software Requirements
For the windows server R2, at least Windows 7 is required. For the database, the database software required includes MS SQL, MySQL, and Oracle. In addition, a Raid level 0 – 5 is also required.
Client-Side Hardware Requirements
The system required to access the average WMS has an Intel Core i3 or higher versions. The system should have at least 2GB RAM free space, and a Hard Disk Drive of at least 500 GB. A colored monitor with a resolution of 1024 × 786 or higher (Young, 2015; Kasat & Yadav, 2015). A terminal server, Windows Server 2012R2 or other higher versions, and networking equipments, intranet with a minimal data rate of 10Mbs are also required.
Client-Side Software Requirements
To access this particular type of WMS, the client requires a supported OS system which includes Windows 7 and later versions. A database running on MS SQL, MySQL, or Oracle Java Runtime Environment of 1.7 or higher is also required. To interact with the WMS, a user requires a browser - Microsoft Internet Explorer 11, Mozilla Firefox 24.0 or other latest versions (Kasat & Yadav, 2015; Young, 2015).
Competitive Analysis of the System
Primarily, WMS competitive advantage to the supply chain is through performance improvements. These include both tangible and intangible benefit. The first competitive advantage is through order fulfillment. WMS enhances on time order delivery, significantly increases order fill rate, improves on order and line accuracy, and shortens order cycle time from 773 minutes to 236 minutes, on average (Ramaa, Subramanya & Rangaswamy, 2012). The second competitive advantage is through inventory management benefits. Through WMS, there is better inventory reporting hence accurate inventory auditing, better utilization of storage report, and decreases the average dock to stock time. Lastly, WMS delivers competitive advantage through improve warehouse productivity in terms of orders completed per hour, costs incurred per single order, lines processed per hour, and the costs per sales (Ramaa et al., 2012; Atieh et al., 2016).
The intangible benefits provided by WMS and that deliver competitive advantage to the supply chain include one, through WMS it is possible to time vehicle scheduling which helps to reduce supplier waiting time. Through the advanced shipment note feature, warehouses have prior information on good to be received which makes WMS assisted good put-away possible. Through the WMS RF infrastructure, warehouse has 100 percent traceability of goods. Through the WMS algorithm and auto updating of information, goods picking is simplified and error reduced respectively (Ramaa et al., 2012). In manual warehouse management, 19 paper sheets are used, but with WMS, only 4 sheets are used, which helps to cut down on expenses and the cumbersome paperwork that would be otherwise needed.
Recommendations for Improving the System
There are various WMS solutions in the market, and it is recommended that an organization should always acquire a solution that best fits its business needs. Nevertheless, with a focus to the average WMS solution which has been covered in the paper, possible recommendations for improvement include increase in processor speed, the ability to integrate more functionality to the WMS solution, and to further decrease on operational costs.
To improve on processor speed, it is recommended that WMS should increase the processor to at least Intel 2.5GB RAM for the client-end hardware requirements. In addition, increasing other components for example, using Intel Core i7 860 running at 2.80GHz would improve the processor speed significantly while at the same time allowing over clocking. A faster processor would also allow for multi-tasking, which also has a cumulative effect of reducing the order cycle time, which is a major benefit in using WMS.
It is also observed that, the majority of WMS solutions that target SMEs are rather restricted in their functionalities. One of the possible areas where WMS can be extended is to allow mobile based applications. Today, the majority of sales persons are using mobile apps, and with integration with the WMS, salespersons can easily replenish stocks that are running low.
Conclusion
It is undeniable that WMS has revolutionized supply chain management to render it more effective and a source of competitive advantage for organizations. Over the time, especially in the last decade, there have been significant changes in WMS solutions with options available for small scale supply chain, for large scale supply chain, and the advanced option. For the WMS solutions that target SMEs enterprises, there still is room for improvement in particular, to reduce cycle time and allow for integration of mobile Apps. However, and more importantly, it is important that future development seeks to allow for devolution of the entire WMS to sales persons.
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References
Atieh, A. M., Kaylani, H., Al-abdallat, Y., Qaderi, A., Ghoul, L., Jaradat, L., & Hdairis, I. (2016). Performance improvement of inventory management system processes by an automated warehouse management system. Procedia Cirp, 41, 568-572.

Kasat, Y., & Yadav, J. J. (2015). Microsoft Dynamics AX Implementation Guide. Packt Publishing Ltd.

Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2016). Management information system. Pearson Education India.

Novák, V., & Kraj?ovi?, M. (2011). Warehouse Management System. TRANSCOM 2011, 23.

Ramaa, A., Subramanya, K. N., & Rangaswamy, T. M. (2012). Impact of warehouse management system in a supply chain. International Journal of Computer Applications, 54(1).

Sahuri, G., & Utomo, F. A. P. (2016). Warehouse Management System. Information System Application, 1(1).

Young, N., (2015). Retail Warehouse Management System Installation Guide, Release 14.1. Oracle Inc.