warehouse management system, order management system, WMS, OMS, Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP In many cases, businesses are holding onto installed order management and ERP systems for more than 10 years – sometimes 15+ years – if they believe they’re the right fit. On the face of it, this is sound thinking considering the time and expense involved in implementing a new system. Your OMS or ERP system may be right for your call center, the merchandisers’ management of inventory, accounting systems and integration with your web platform. But are your fulfillment system requirements the same as they were 10-15 years ago? For many businesses, the answer is a resounding no. Maybe you’re being too conservative by expecting incrementally greater productivity from your distribution center’s fulfillment system each year without additional functionality. In most companies, direct and indirect labor accounts for more than 50% of the total cost of fulfillment, excluding shipping costs. People productivity in a DC is largely based on the feature/function set designed into the systems. What are your distribution center requirements as you look forward? Here are 13 major areas to consider: Supply chain management of vendors and partners including vendor portals, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Advanced Shipping Notices (ASN). This includes visibility into incoming receipts, management of vendor compliance requirements and communication of forecasts, purchase orders and invoices. More accurate four walls inventory (up to 99.9%), including full barcoding of products, customer orders and returns using scanning and control systems. Improved methods of velocity and hot pick slotting of merchandise, reducing picker travel time and increasing order throughput. Better management of warehouse cube utilization with directed put-away and online location control. Additional picking options to increase orders, line items and units picked per hour and order throughput. Department and employee productivity standards and reporting. […]