Examining warehouse management systems

Many organizations face the challenge of tracking inventory. When it comes to warehouse management systems, one of the hottest ideas is the use of the "template" solution. A recent article from Forbes examined this trend and discussed what it takes for a template system to be successful.

In the piece, author Steve Banker described these templates as solutions that are industry specific or based upon simpler systems. They are pre-configured packages that can be used to quickly get an idea off the ground. These have been talked about for some time, but Banker has not seen any in action.

The article goes on to profile one third party logistics and warehousing solution provider that touts the use of templates. However, they do require a certain level of customization. While warehousing is in a silo, every company has different challenges.

Organizations need to consider solutions that can handle a flexible number of inventory and storage locations, have a proper testing strategy and can incorporate virtualized systems which can help lower hardware costs. All of this can lead to a faster implementation and the ability to start reaping benefits more quickly.

Warehousing is more complex than most businesses would think. It is a straight forward concept that has many small hurdles that make it difficult to manage and can lead to major problems if left unchecked. With the help of an reliable third party solution provider, any organization can take steps to more easily manage operations and allow businesses to focus other tasks.