How Small and Mid-Size Business Benefits From OMS Warehouse Management Solutions

Summary: Warehouse management software tends to be viewed as a strictly enterprise-scale system, meant solely for large companies with large inventories to maintain—but small wholesale distribution businesses can benefit too! Even a one-person business run out of a garage profits by graduating from the index-card label and Excel spreadsheet method of warehouse management—you may know that item #3 in your catalog is located in the laundry basket behind the half-empty paint cans, but you can still impose some order on your system.

Warehouse managementsystems were traditionally part of a larger ERP system, delivered as a component of larger ERP platforms. Do small wholesale distribution businesses need ERP? Usually not! But that's not to say they can't benefit from some of those modules.

In fact, in recent years MasterSystem has recognized that logic and, has been rolling out solutions designed for small to midsize wholesale distribution businesses. These include a wide variety of capable functions delivered on an affordable model. And thankfully for those small to mid-size wholesale distribution businesses in need of inventory organization, warehouse management is now available for them on this basis.

Automation is often resisted by small business, with the business owner arguing that it is not necessary because of the small scale, which makes it possible to continue executing processes manually. However, that argument breaks down. A small business with few employees tends to be stressed, because the lack of staff makes it impossible to delegate and compartmentalize business processes in the same way a large business does. The business owner and two assistants may be responsible for everything from marketing, to designing the web site, to product fulfillment. Any automation that can be achieved to reduce that burden will benefit the small business.

Warehouse Management for Small Inventories
The OMS warehouse management system (WMS) delivers warehouse management specially designed for small to mid-size wholesale distribution businesses. An inventory module can be especially useful, since even small wholesale distribution business can have hundreds of inventory items—and keeping inventory manually can be time-consuming and error-prone no matter what size your wholesale distribution businesses is. Bar code technology used to automatically track inventory is no longer costly, and it can easily be applied to a small wholesale distribution businesses environment for routine inventory management.

The OMS WMS has a facility for stocking inventory in multiple locations, and directing pickers to the correct location in the process of fulfillment. It also includes full bar code support, with a wireless bar code solution scanning system.

Another of the features a small to mid-size wholesale distribution business should look for when purchasing the OMS inventory control and WMS is the ability to create easily understood reports on-demand. These will help you to analyze your inventory and product line and accurately determine what is selling best, which items may be under-stocked or overstocked, and the ability to track merchandise from the initial purchase order, through payment receipts. 

By: Bob Greenberg, VP, Office Master System, Inc.