Customize your new ERP or WMS system

By Thomas Cutler -- Industrial Distribution, 3/1/2007

When distributors first start using an ERP (enterprise resource planning) or WMS (warehouse management system), many tend to make the same mistake. They get a new system but don’t make the customizations needed for their business to take full advantage of the technology.

“Anytime a company is implementing a new ERP or WMS, there will always be modifications to the base package,” observes Jerry List, co-founder of QC Software . “It never matches a company's needs out of the box ... and distributors pay for those modifications over and over again each time they upgrade to the latest version.”

Modifications are necessary when business processes change, when the facility layout is changed, or a distributorship has simply outgrown its current ERP and WMS systems. 

Some of the business process or operational changes might include:

• Going from paper based picking to RF (radio frequency);
• Going from picking into totes to picking directly into a shipping carton;
• Changing your picking verification from scanning every item at pack-out to a weight-based verification, using an in-line scale; 
• Deciding how you batch orders together for more efficient picking.

There are higher-level business decisions which drive upgrading a WMS system, but according to List, it is almost always influenced by one fact.

“The previous WMS just wasn't getting the job done,” List says. “We’ve seen distributors that had other technology solutions doing all of the pick tasks, and became quite frustrated with the slow response times.”

The amount of customization in any control system is directly related to its contact with the physical world (e.g., the distribution site). This explains, for example, why equipment control systems (PLCs) are highly customized, WCS (warehouse control systems) are moderately customized, and WMS systems tend to be only slightly customized. 

Increasingly, distributors want to eliminate contact between the ERP system or WMS system and the physical world to avoid costly customization. 

The most important aspects of WCS for distributors include dependability, modular functionality, configurable flexibility, throughput and reliability. 

The WCS market has grown because it has taken on the traditional “transactional” processes that the WMS historically provided, such as order fulfillment, shipping and localized inventory control.

As warehouses become more automated, there is increasing demand for real-time transaction management. A good WMS system is designed to manage that information.

The key capabilities of a WCS system include relieving a customer’s host computer from managing a real time material-handling automation interface, maximizing system throughput and performance, and utilizing the most efficient methods for pallet, case and item routing. 

WCS systems are PC-based and can handle all the physical aspects of a warehouse or distribution center with unlimited operator interface. Their capabilities can include support for various picking models, such as paper pick lists, RF terminals, goods-to-man, picking robots and pick-to-light and configurable workload balancing.

By providing elaborate statistical reports for maximum system uptime, and recommending equipment maintenance based on run-time and maintenance schedules, a good WCS system can operate as a self-maintained unit requiring no user interaction for file and system maintenance.

Thomas Cutler is president & CEO of TR Cutler, a Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based manufacturing & marketing firm. He can be contacted at trcutler@trcutlerinc.com.