The Evolution of Warehouse Management Systems: From Manual to Automated
Warehouse management is one of the most important tasks you have to perform when running a business. You need to manage your inventory effectively to streamline the order fulfillment process. And you all know how important managing orders is for the success and growth of your company. Customer orders are the leading source of revenue generation for your company.
With modernization in every field of life, the warehouse management system has also become advanced. It has evolved greatly over the past few decades. It has converted into a digital and automated system now. However, it was not that same from the beginning. The current version of the warehouse management system is a result of evolution. Let’s find out more about this evolution and the factors that raise the automated version of warehouse management systems.
The Evolution: Beginning of Cloud-Based WMS System
Initially, warehouse management was a completely manual process. You need to hire staff to manage your inventory. They keep track of everything on papers. The evolution began when the hand written papers were replaced by typed and printed papers containing data of your inventory. The true evolution started in the 1960-70s with the launch of computerized technology to automate several tasks.
Overtime, the digital WMS was launched by numerous companies. And that was the point when the whole warehouse management system became digital. This digitization can now be observed in every warehouse management system. It has solved the problem of manual data handling and is giving more accurate data analytics.
Factors Giving Rise to the Automated WMS System
You must be thinking what made people switch from manual WMS systems to an automated or cloud based one. The answer to this question is a number of factors. Let’s go through them so you can have the answer.
Accessibility
One of the key things that is raising the cloud-based WMS system is the easy accessibility. You can have access to your warehouse management anytime and anywhere you want. If you have access to the system, you can even use the mobile version of WMS to track the management of your inventory. It doesn’t matter what you are doing, you can have access to the warehouse anytime you want.
Affordability
You may not realize this in the beginning but it is a fact that an automated warehouse management system is very affordable. You don’t have to pay the staff for managing inventory. Similarly, it avoids many other expenses as well by automating most of the tasks. So, an automated WMS system is pretty affordable for you.
Flexibility
Online warehouse management system is not rigid. It is flexible enough to deal with numerous alterations at once. As a business owner, you need to make certain changes in your business strategies and warehouse management techniques. The WMS system is flexible enough to not only bear these changes, but work according to these alterations or updates.
Scalability
As a business owner, you always look to grow your business. As your business grows, you need to grow inventory as well. Apart from that, you need to manage more orders as well because getting more orders and fulfilling them timely is the key to scale your business. Some business owners go with new order management software. However, if you have a good WMS, you don’t need another tool or software program to manage orders.
The WMS system is scalable. It can easily manage a grown inventory and bulk orders as well. You don’t need to get an order management software program when you have WMS. It offers efficient order management as well.
Data Analytics
A cloud based or automated WMS system provides you with deep data analytics as well. It can easily handle data and evaluate it to provide you insights to your inventory. Advanced data analytics make it easy for you to check the latest trends in the market and optimize your processes accordingly.
Bottom Line
The evolution of the WMS system has made it very convenient for you to manage inventory. The key thing you have to do is to get a reliable WMS. You can opt for Deposco as it is a well known and trusted software program to manage inventories. Its advanced features include order management as well. So, you can get dual benefits by introducing Deposco to your company.
