Parcel - June 2008 - (Page 17)

Although advanced wireless WMS may look expensive at ﬁrst blush, they pay off big in improved performance from the get-go. • Warehouse workers can perform their jobs much faster because they communicate verbally with the system, keeping their hands, eyes and ears focused on the work at hand. • Picking accuracy is improved with automatic, unobtrusive feedback that eliminates most errors resulting from refocusing attention from a hand-held device to the product to be selected. • Management receives real-time and summary worker productivity information, so the warehouse operates more efﬁciently. All things considered, systems that offer multiple modes of communication, such as speech, barcode scanning, browser-based graphics and text, touch-screen and other inputs and outputs deliver a wide range of features at a reasonable cost. • How was it built? Is it an older system, ported to a modern platform (like Microsoft NT) or was it written for the modern platform from the ground up? • How does it interface and exchange data with other systems? Through application programming interfaces (APIs)? Flatﬁle interface? EDI? XML? How difﬁcult is it to maintain these interfaces and to replicate data between systems? • Can custom reports and labels be created in-house, or must the system vendor build them for you? (Report and label generation is one of the most common requests for custom alteration of a warehouse management system). • Is the system rules-based? If so, does it support different rules for different clients and customers? Is it easy to set up inventory owned by different customers? Can each client’s inventory be arranged in electronic catalogs speciﬁc to each of their customers? Warehousing and shipment management technology is undergoing rapid transformation. The more capable and coordinated your systems are, the better chance you have to remain competitive and proﬁtable, well into the future. Joe Caston is president and CEO of Cadre Technologies, a leading provider of supply chain management software for the warehouse. For more information, visit www.cadretech.com or call 866-252-2373. ■ How to Select the Best WMS Whether you’re selecting a simple, low-cost paper-based solution or a sophisticated high-end application, multiple factors must be considered. • When was the system built? Even though mission-critical systems are judged strongly on past successes, if the history extends back too far, the system will be expensive to change and adapt to new business requirements. www.PARCELindustry.com May 2008 17 http://www.cadretech.com http://www.dmgincorperated.com http://www.dmgincorporated.com http://www.PARCELindustry.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Parcel - June 2008

Parcel - June 2008 Contents Editor's Note What Would Augello Say? Success Means Never Being Satisfied Moving from Manual to Automated Fulfillment Regional Carriers Move to the Forefront Understanding Warehouse Management Systems Negotiating Carrier Contracts It’s All About the Data! How Long Will The East-West Trade Imbalance Last? Educate the Shipper, or Fix the Software? Product Profile On the Mark New Products & Services Advertiser Index Wrap Up

Parcel - June 2008

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