For most companies, supply chain processes themselves are not a competitive advantage; they typically follow industry standards with minor nuances. The real "game-changer" is the efficiency with which these processes are executed. This efficiency is what ultimately drives customer satisfaction, protects profit margins, and ensures market affordability.

Look Under the Hood

While a checklist is a logical starting point for evaluating a WMS, it is only a surface-level tool. Vendors use checklists to ensure their product "matches" your requirements, but to find the perfect fit, you must look "under the hood" of every checkbox. You need to understand exactly how the WMS supports each function and whether that method aligns with your physical processes.

Data Over Averages

Before engaging vendors, you must have an intimate understanding of your business requirements. This is no small undertaking. To build a world-class facility, relying on "average" throughput is not enough. You must analyze the historic peaks and valleys of your inbound, racking, and outbound processes.

Provisioning for these fluctuations in your design is critical. Use your data to gain deep insights:

• Are there upstream processes that create avoidable warehouse inefficiencies?
• Can these processes be challenged or simplified before the system is implemented?
• How much complexity can be removed to benefit your people and your bottom line?

Process Interdependency

Every process in your warehouse must be aligned. For each step, carefully examine the interdependencies between what happens before and after. Small changes in one area can significantly streamline the next.

When determining functional requirements, categorize them strictly: Must-Haves, Nice-to-Haves, and Future Requirements. Avoid the temptation to include "conceptual" requirements you may never use; doing so only narrows your options and adds unnecessary complexity and cost.

Keep it simple! As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry famously noted: "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

Beyond the Magic Quadrant

Do not select a WMS based solely on its position in the Gartner Magic Quadrant. While these evaluations are valuable, they do not account for your specific operational DNA. Selecting a system with far more functionality than you require often leads to over-complicated configurations and a steeper learning curve for your personnel.

The best system is not the one with the most features—it is the one that matches your exact requirements in the simplest, most effective way possible.

By: Hennie Serdyn, Advisor, Forte Supply Chain Solutions