Labor challenges in US distribution are as high as we have ever seen. Almost everyone is scrambling for labor, and few are able to hire and retain all the DC labor they need.

Facing similar challenges, tool maker Hilti launched a program earlier this year to revolutionize the way it treats DC workers, across more than a dozen facilities in the US.

Here's a fact: if a company is deploying a new WMS solution, unless they are already using Voice or other picking technologies such as pick-to-light or “put walls,” these types of technologies are almost never designed in from the start, even if there is great interest in them for down the road.

But is that really the right approach?

One of the core concepts relative to Warehouse Management Systems is that of “directed putaway.”

While many logistics professionals are very familiar with this topic, it is clear from conversations with many companies that others don’t really have all the details – and that quite a few lack directed putaway capabilities with the system they are currently using to run their distribution center.

As the name suggests, directed putaway is all about the WMS communicating to DC associates through a mobile wireless terminal where in the DC a product should be stored, at the specific location level.

But to understand directed putaway, you also need to add the related concept of zoning or zone management.

A good WMS should allow you to define, practically without limit, different putaway zones for which rules will be applied relative to putaway. A zone is simply a grouping of locations.

In our previous broadcast, we discussed 5 of our top 10 catalysts for adopting a new WMS.

As a quick review, those 5 WMS project drivers were:

• You are Experiencing Rapid Growth

Now, let’s add 5 more...

In may be a mature market space, but by all counts, the market for new Warehouse Management Systems remains strong.

There are in fact a wide number of potential factors that drive companies to look for a new WMS solution, which we have handily grouped into 10 different logistics scenarios, and in Part 1, we lay out the first five.

You might need a new WMS if...

Dynamic Slotting is a technique available in some Warehouse Management Systems in which a forward pick location is created dynamically, rather than being dedicated to a single SKU.

This capability is needed in two primary situations: The first is when there aren’t enough pick locations to handle all SKUs a DC carries. The second scenario is when demand for SKU in a wave or general order pool far exceeds the storage capacity of the forward pick location for that SKU.

Autonomous mobile robots are coming to a DC near you - likely your facility - and probably soon. A.M.R.’s have taken the distribution world by storm, driven by both operational efficiencies and the challenges with finding enough labor in most US markets.

This podcast dives into the benefits that can be achieved, the challenges, and the keys to making your investments future-proof.

Warehouse Management Systems are well-known, yet we still continue to find many companies that are new to WMS. 

Even for managers with some WMS experience, we’ve found it useful to review the core benefits that a WMS delivers. Here they are...

Direct-to-Consumer (or DTC) strategies are very popular right now in retail and consumer goods companies and it’s easy to understand why - no company should be missing out on this megatrend with the numbers skyrocketing over the past year and COVID-19 pandemic.

Warehouse Management Systems – from some vendors at least – were a little late to move to the Cloud. Softeon has been doing Cloud WMS deployments for many years, but has really seen adoption take off in the past two year. 

This is due to the major advantages from Cloud deployments in such areas as time and cost of the implementations and ease of system management post-go live, requiring little internal IT resources.

After a significant number of Cloud WMS deployments, Softeon has gained insights that are potentially of interest to prospective WMS adopters, which we’ll summarize in this broadcast.