Warehouses today face many challenges that prevent them from meeting expectations, including poor inventory accuracy, late order fulfillment, inefficient operations, high turnover, and excessive labor costs. The root causes often come down to outdated legacy software systems that are obsolete and don’t take full advantage of current capabilities.
Upgrading Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and Labor Management Systems (LMS) can drive dramatic improvements by leveraging new features and moving systems to the cloud. WMS optimizes inventory control and order processing. LMS optimizes labor planning, scheduling, productivity tracking, and incentive pay. Together, they enable warehouse success.
If your systems are more than seven years old, replacement is likely needed as upgrades can be painful and often the data architecture is outdated. New systems should align with corporate IT strategy and support automation plans. Assessing whether current systems meet evolving business needs is critical.
When selecting new WMS and LMS solutions, it’s important to fully understand your unique operational requirements, evaluate vendor experience, calculate total cost of ownership, meet with vendor implementation teams, visit customer sites, and leverage third-party consultants.
Avoid common pitfalls like lift-and-shift mentality, lack of executive sponsorship, under-communicating changes, and inadequate investment in change management. The implementation team dynamics and customer adoption readiness are key factors for success.
Benefits of optimized systems include improved inventory accuracy, labor productivity tracking, performance dashboards, and greater employee engagement through techniques like gamification. Quick wins can build momentum.
With the right solutions and implementation strategy tailored to your warehouse’s needs, you can unlock major gains in productivity, accuracy and customer satisfaction. Assess where you are today and chart a course to a future enabled by technology.
To learn more about creating a LMS/WMS program that meet associate expectations, determine whether you need to upgrade your systems or completely replace them, and get more tips on selecting and implementing a joint LMS/WMS solution, check out our webinar: Unlocking the Future of Warehouse Associates: Optimizing LMS/WMS for Success with TZA & Alpine.
