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...

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…