What Is a Warehouse Management System (WMS)?
It’s a tool that allows you to optimize, automate, and manage daily warehouse activities, including stock receiving and replenishment, inventory control, warehouse navigation, order packing, and more. WMS is one of the key parts of supply chain management and provides transparency in all of the company’s inventory in real time.
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Main Warehouse Management Features
Features you need to boost your warehouse operations
Warehouse inventory management system
The system uses barcode readers and RFID tags to record incoming and outgoing inventory data, allowing you to effectively monitor items within the warehouse. It provides stock visibility, allows for monitoring the expiration date and shelf life of goods, and optimizes warehouse space.
Automated replenishment
An advanced WMS goes beyond providing insight into the availability and quantity of goods in stock in real time. It also features predictive analytics to forecast customer demand, based on historical data. Thus, you can understand replenishment needs in advance and procure products in a timely fashion, to eliminate shortages and be able to quickly fulfill a client order.
Warehouse navigation
Since the WMS keeps data on the location of goods, it allows workers to find items easily, minimizing order-picking time. This feature is especially important when it comes to large warehouses, where the same goods can be located in different stock parts. Thus, workers can create optimized routes and increase their productivity.
Order management
To fulfill orders accurately and in the shortest possible time, the WMS automatically creates picking lists, generates picking routes, and provides the workers with rules, such as lists of documents an order must include. The system is also responsible for order prioritization and scheduling as well as providing an optimized packing strategy for each order.
Labor management
The WMS allows for calculating, planning, and dividing the workload among staff, more effectively allocating human resources. The system assigns new tasks automatically, enables managers to control their progress, and provides an overview of employee productivity and performance.
Analytics and reporting
To keep you up to date on your warehouse operations and efficiency, the WMS provides analytics using interactive and customizable dashboards. Advanced technologies, such as AI, enable predictive analytics, demand forecasting, and potential risk analysis, which improves decision-making.
Why Use a Warehouse Management System for Your Business?
HQSoftware suggests considering custom warehouse management system software for your business in the following cases:
- you aren’t satisfied with existing off-the-shelf solutions due to limited functionality or lack of critical integrations
- your warehouses are distributed in multiple locations and you need a single centralized management system
- you have specific niche requirements that are not covered by ready-made solutions
- you are concerned about the security of business data and need a system with high-level security
WMS Development Services HQSoftware provides
Services to meet any tech need
WMS consulting
We select the most appropriate tech options and help you create a project development roadmap to allocate available resources effectively.
End-to-end WMS development
Qualified HQSoftware experts handle the full development cycle of the WMS system, reducing project efforts on your side.
System modernization
If your current WMS software does not satisfy you because of its functionality or any other parameters, we can upgrade the system according to business needs.
Migration to cloud
To provide you with a scalable warehouse management system that delivers data in real time, HQSoftware specialists implement cloud-based solution architecture.
Warehouse Management System Software Development: Why HQSoftware?
A trusted partner that delivers high-quality solutions
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Hands-on expertise
Over the course of 23 years, we have successfully completed over 450 projects for clients in various domains, including e-commerce and WMS solutions that have improved warehouse productivity and reduced costs. We work with large enterprises, small businesses, and startups, as well as 3PL organizations.
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Qualified team
Our team mainly consists of middle/senior specialists with average 4-year employee tenure. For your solution, we pick experts who have already worked with projects in your domain and have hands-on experience to deal with possible challenges. During our collaboration, you can easily scale your development team up or down, depending on the scope of work.
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Advanced technologies
To ensure your solution provides rich functionality, we connect it with all required third-party systems and your existing solutions. The implementation of AI and ML technologies enables predictable demand and labor forecasting as well as advanced analytics.
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Maintainable solution
Since WMS software has to cover many business operations, you may need to expand its functionality over time. So, we look ahead and create a scalable and maintainable solution that enables you to easily introduce new features and improve system performance.
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Predictable time to market
Depending on functional requirements, we assemble a team in 2-4 weeks to start project development as fast as possible. In the process, we adhere to project management best practices, meeting deadlines and providing project deliverables according to the roadmap.
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Customer-focused approach
We deliver high-quality outcomes, along with seamless and transparent collaboration. You can monitor the development progress via tracking systems, request additional information about any stage of the project, and interact with any member of your team at any time.
Benefits of Warehouse Management System Software Implementation
The business value a WMS provides
99% order accuracy
Visibility of goods in stock, automated data entry, building picking routes, and automatic picking confirmations — all these help workers fulfill orders correctly, increasing customer satisfaction and reducing returns.
20% increase in space optimization
The WMS helps efficiently allocate items to the warehouse according to their size and material. So, it eliminates time-consuming placement and helps put frequently used goods within easy reach of workers.
10%+ decrease in inventory costs
With predictive analytics and advanced demand forecasting, you can determine the ideal inventory levels to satisfy customer demand, minimize overstock, and decrease inventory costs.
30% increase in labor efficiency
Workforce forecasting minimizes over/understaffing, while the creation of picking routes, with visual or voice guidance, speeds up order fulfillment. Automatic task assignments based on workers' skills result in more efficient operations.
30% growth in inventory visibility
The system provides real-time insights into warehouse data. It helps you audit the warehouse to easily check expiration dates, detect damaged or spoiled goods, and avoid missing items.
25% increase in overall productivity
The WMS automates manual and repetitive tasks such as data tracking and recording, reducing errors and eliminating data loss. It also decreases order cycle time and enhances communication between workers.
Types of Warehouse Management System Software
Choose the type suitable for your business model
Stand-alone
On-premises system with limited functionality, running only on the corporate hardware and network. It offers basic features such as warehouse operations and inventory management, at the most affordable cost. This type is suited for a warehouse management system for small businesses.
Cloud-based
Such systems store data in the cloud and provide easy access to it at any time from any location. The benefits of this WMS also include scalability, fast 3d-party integrations, and less maintenance. Ready-made, cloud-based WMS systems typically come in the form of SaaS.
WMS as an ERP module
The integration of WMS with an ERP system allows it to cover as many daily business operations as possible, which besides warehouse management includes finance operations, HR management, marketing and sales, etc.
WMS as a supply chain module
A supply chain management system is comprehensive software that provides visibility of the flow of goods throughout their lifecycle. The system includes the WMS module, order and return management, material handling, etc.
Integrations for Warehouse Management System Software
What integrations do we recommend to enhance your WMS efficiency?
ERP, CRM
Integration with these systems provides you with visibility into all essential business operations, gathering data in one place and offering easy access to it through a user-friendly interface.
Accounting systems
With such systems, you can seamlessly integrate all financial data, such as storage and shipping fees, with your WMS software. It also helps you automate and accelerate billing and invoicing processes associated with warehouse operations.
Vendor management systems
The system allows you to get real-time information on your suppliers’ capabilities and availability of goods, at your fingertips. It also automates the creation of procurement orders, thereby optimizing costs and improving supplier relationships.
Shipping carriers integrations
By integrating with shipping carriers’ systems, you can monitor, automate, and optimize shipping processes, manage shipping rates and overall costs, and ensure efficient delivery and order tracking.
Hardware
This mostly includes barcode scanners and RFI devices to streamline the fulfillment process, cut down on costly manual errors, and ensure accurate inventory tracking.
Sales channels
This can involve integration with your website as well as marketplaces to keep your customers and salespeople aware of item availability. So, you can meet customer expectations and offer high-quality services.
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WMS Technical Challenges HQSoftware Helps to Solve
Take advantage of our hands-on experience and get a high-quality WMS system
Smooth processing of huge amounts of data
Since WMS software must handle a large number of incoming requests and data simultaneously, it’s important to ensure seamless data processing, so you can get up-to-date information at any time. That’s why we focus on creating solution architecture that provides you with a scalable system that sustains any database growth.
Implementing advanced technologies for predictive analytics
To help you optimize your inventory replenishment, we can implement enhanced demand forecasting. It’s based not only on historical data but also on more specific variables such as weather forecasts, holidays, etc. Thus, with Machine Learning technology, you can find a balance between meeting customer demand and reducing inventory costs.
Using mathematical models to optimize navigation
To speed up order picking and increase employee efficiency, we can implement a system that offers optimal navigation through the warehouse. Even if the same items are located in several places at the same time, the system suggests the most optimal route considering the location of the worker and other items they need to collect.
Advanced audit
Even with well-organized receiving and picking processes, human errors are possible. This results in discrepancies between the data in the system and the actual facts in the warehouse. Therefore, constant stock auditing is necessary. We can provide a solution that speeds up audits by generating lists of items to check, verifying expiration dates, providing damage reports, etc.
Customer Stories
450 business goals reached through tech solutions since 2001
Partnerships Beyond Business
We work with people, not logos
Warehouse Management System Development Process
How we create WMS solutions
Step 1. Business needs analysis
As warehouse management is a complex field, we need to dig deep into your business and WMS requirements to create a solution that covers all your needs in the best possible way.
Step 2. Defining the scope of work
Once we’ve examined your requirements, we define suitable technologies, set up a project development roadmap, and align timelines, budgets, and the size of the development team.
Step 3. Designing
At this stage, we create the architecture of your solution, develop user scenarios, and create a user interface, with an emphasis on usability and intuitiveness.
Step 4. WMS development
At this stage, we create the solution itself with technical documentation. You get project deliverables according to the roadmap.
Step 5. Data migration
We transfer your data into the WMS system or import it from your existing solutions.
Step 6. Integration
We connect WMS with all required systems, which can include both internal and external solutions.
Step 7. Testing
Our QA engineers thoroughly examine your solution using several types of testing, to ensure bug-free performance.
Step 8. Deployment
After all tests are completed, we deploy the system on your server and, if necessary, provide user training.
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Warehouse Management System Development Costs
Factors affecting the total WMS solution cost
Main costs
This group includes costs associated with WMS software requirements:
- type of WMS system;
- number of warehouses that need to be connected;
- number of working models;
- integrations with in-house and third-party systems;
- customization level.
Organizational costs
The cost for the development team:
- in-house vs outsourcing;
- team size and expertise;
- developer’s location;
- project duration.
Additional costs
Other expenses that are optional and depend on business needs:
- hardware integrations;
- compliance with industry or regional regulations.
How to Start a Partnership
Start a partnership with HQSoftware with 3 easy steps
Contact us
to send project requirements or ask about our development services
Get prompt feedback
including all the details and available options, and then a free project estimate
Start WMS development
within a month of beginning cooperation
FAQ With WMS Developers
What are the four types of WMS?
What is the difference between WMS and SAP?
WMS vs. ERP: What’s the difference?
What are some warehouse management system examples?
What is WMS development?
We are open to seeing your business needs and determining the best solution. Complete this form, and receive a free personalized proposal from your dedicated manager.
Sergei Vardomatski
Founder
