A warehouse management software benefits every manufacturing and distribution company whether large or small. A warehouse helps them to store their products on time for their customers. It's the facility where they can safely store their inventory or their ordered products.
A warehouse inventory management software provides these companies with the tools to manage and streamline their inventory and warehousing operations.
Which is the best warehouse management software available in 2024? We know, this isn't an easy question to answer. It depends on various factors, including the number of customers, the budget, and the number of products.
To make it easier, here is a list of the best warehouse management software for small businesses:
Best Warehouse Management Software
Understanding the functionalities of different warehouse management software providers helps to choose the best for your business. We outlined five of the best warehouse management software, along with their features, pros, and cons:
TranZact
Easy to use and flexible, TranZact is among the best warehouse inventory management software for small business enterprises. Combined with its dedicated cloud inventory management module, TranZact offers expert warehouse management solutions to digitize SME manufacturing businesses.
In addition to inventory and warehouse management, it also offers production, material requirements planning (MRP), quotations, and order management functions, all on a single platform. Features:
- Procurement and Purchase Management: TranZact allows businesses to manage supplier relationships, automate purchase order process, and track purchases effectively.
- Production Planning: It includes production planning functionalities, assisting businesses in creating production schedules, managing resources, and optimizing production processes.
- Material Requirements Planning (MRP): TranZact incorporates MRP capabilities, helping businesses forecast and plan their material requirements to ensure efficient production and inventory management.
- GST Compliance: The platform supports GST-compliant invoicing and enables businesses to save GSTINs, and add HSN or SAC codes for items and services to meet GST norms.
Pros:
- Multiple store creation and supervision facility to ensure warehouse control.
- Dashboard and reporting tools to track real-time inventory flow.
- Barcode scanning system to automate stock updation and warehouse monitoring.
- Critical inventory business insights with a dedicated inventory dashboard that helps management to drive decision-making.
- External applications integrations with Tally, BUSY, Excel, and Aftership for smooth business operations.
- Easy to use software without technical knowledge.
- Offers a base plan that is free forever, and also offers a free trial for the advanced plan.
Oracle Netsuite
Oracle Netsuite is a warehouse management system (WMS) that enables companies to track their products' expiration dates and shelf life. Along with ease of use, you can use this tool to manage Radio-frequency identification (RFID) based distribution channels.
Features:
- Real-time inventory tracking.
- Direct connectivity with shipping systems.
- Integration of inventory management, order management, and e-commerce marketing under a single platform.
Pros:
- Support for both B2B and B2C eCommerce.
- Convenience with drag-and-drop functionality.
Cons:
- Suited only for large manufacturers spread globally.
- Expensive licensing and operating charges.
Read Also - SAP V/s TranZact: Which is Best Software for SMEs
SAP Warehouse Management Software
With 40 years of industry experience, SAP is a well-known ERP solutions provider. The SAP WMS is designed to manage high-volume operations in warehouses. Using SAP, manufacturers can easily integrate business functions, including supply chains, procurement, and logistics.
Features:
- Multiple channel fulfillment.
- Cross-docking.
- Available as both on-premises and cloud solutions.
- Supply chain and inventory management.
Pros:
- Real-time inventory reporting.
- Complete visibility of warehouse operations.
Cons:
- High upfront and support costs.
- Suited only for high-volume transactions.
- Extended implementation time.
Sortly
Sortly is a digital warehouse software tool for small business enterprises. With this WMS tool, you can easily customize your warehouse management to track any inventory or product across multiple locations.
Features:
- Customized fields, receipts, and images for each inventory item.
- QR code scanner for scanning QR labels and barcodes.
- Personalized QR labels and barcodes.
- Comprehensive dashboard for users.
Pros:
- Easy to use interface.
- A cross-platform tool that works on any device.
Cons:
- Lack of third-party integration.
- Customer support only through email and the help center.
Odoo
Odoo is a one-stop destination for both sales and warehouse management. It offers a range of built-in productive tools for accounting and project management with its warehouse management solution.
Features:
- Automated quotations and order points to automatically replenish stock levels.
- Support for third-party integration.
Pros:
- Offers comprehensive first-party applications and tools.
- The basic plan is free to use.
Cons:
- Complicated customization process.
- Challenging to integrate project management and accounting tools.
Read Also - Obsolete Inventory: What's It, How to Identify and Manage It
Types of Warehouse Management Systems
Here's a look at the four different types of warehouse management systems:
Standalone WMS
A standalone WMS is primarily used for daily warehouse operations and is usually not suitable for anything else. Enterprises can use a standalone WMS to monitor the flow of goods to and from the warehouse.
Depending on the solution provider, a standalone WMS can have inventory-related functionalities like inventory replenishment, tracking expiry dates, and cycle counting. Additional features may include cross-docking and analytics.
This type of WMS is suitable for businesses that are not looking to integrate their warehouse management with other systems.
WMS Module in Supply Chain Management Tools
In this type of WMS, a supply chain management tool features warehouse management as one of its core modules. As an integral part of the supply chain, this WMS tool can automate inventory management, product cycles, and materials procurement.
This module-based WMS is best suited for companies planning to invest in a supply chain management solution to simplify their complex supply chains. Another benefit is that the WMS is fully integrated into the supply chains, and does not require any additional configuration.
WMS Module in ERP
Most ERP solutions offer a host of applications, including supply chain planning, materials procurement, customer relationship, and warehouse management. This type of WMS suits companies that seek warehousing and distribution requirements, along with end-to-end ERP solutions.
An integrated warehouse management system with manufacturing ERP software is a cost-effective option for small businesses because they get access to warehousing solutions along with a complete ERP suite of solutions without having to spend separately. However, if the ERP in itself is an expensive model, then overall costs may rise.
Cloud-Based WMS
Alternatively, to on-premise WMS, SMEs can opt for cloud-based warehouse management software to save costs and improve efficiency. It helps optimize a variety of warehouse activities, such as inventory reporting and tracking. It also facilitates stock workflow management and reduces the manual effort for inventory updation.
A cloud-based WMS incurs lower installation and implementation costs, as the cloud service provider ensures quick implementation. It's also easy to scale according to demand. Based on annual or quarterly subscription plans, this form of WMS is ideal for smaller companies looking to digitize their warehouse operations.
Read Also - Key ERP Features You Need to Know
Benefits of Warehouse Management Software
By adapting to changing business dynamics, warehouse management software helps a business to scale effectively and leads to cost savings. It can benefit SME manufacturing businesses in multiple ways, here are some key benefits:
Lower expenses
With an effective WMS, organizations can determine the best warehouse locations to store their inventory, raw materials, and products. It can optimize the use of available space to reduce waste and operating costs associated with frequent material movement, storage, and retrieval.
Real-time visibility into inventory
The best warehouse inventory management software provides organizations with real-time visibility into their inventory levels and activities. This leads to improved supply and procurement of inventory, thus creating satisfied customers. Further, location-tracking technologies like barcode tracking and RFID ensure automated visibility and tracking of stock movements.
Optimized supply chains
Beyond warehouse operations, effective warehouse management software extends visibility into supply chains. For instance, warehouse management can streamline entire supply chain cycles, from inbound receipts to outgoing deliveries, by eliminating any process bottlenecks.
With an optimized supply chain, warehouse staff can reduce any non-productive work, and save time and shipping costs.
Improved tracking
During any supply chain crisis, companies can leverage WMS functionality to improve their traceability or inventory tracking. For instance, they can use lot or batch numbers to track specific inventories or product batches. This is particularly useful when recalling or replacing a faulty batch.
Manufacturing companies can use a WMS to retrieve data such as exact order or batch, warehouse address where it was stored, and the dates.
Better employee morale
With an efficient WMS, warehouse managers can allocate the right job to the right employee at the right time. By automating repetitive tasks in the warehouse, a WMS can improve employee morale as they can now focus on high-value tasks and utilize their working time efficiently.
Besides assigning work efficiently, the warehouse system can accurately forecast labor demand and required skills. This prevents overwork for the existing workforce and optimizes any labor-related costs.
Digital transformation
Smaller companies can achieve digital transformation through an efficient warehouse management system. A WMS can seamlessly modernize warehouse operations in any company, which would not be achievable using traditional methods.
Effective integration with accounting, logistics, and business tools, enables a WMS to simplify processes, and share warehouse and inventory data, thus improving business decision-making.
Having understood the warehouse management software benefits, let's look at the key features of a warehouse management system.
Read Also - The Benefits and Challenges of Implementing Continuous Manufacturing in Your Business
Key Features of Warehouse Management Software
Organizations must consider the features or functionalities of the tool to choose the right warehouse management software provider. Here are six key features to look for:
Inventory management
Effective inventory management is an essential feature of any warehouse management software. The software must be capable of tracking real-time inventory data using automated methods.
This feature ensures that inventory insights are available for business stakeholders and decision-makers at any given time.
Order management
Order fulfillment and management is another must-have feature of any WMS. With this functionality, companies can easily manage their customer orders by tracking the inventory or product flow from their warehouses.
Additionally, some WMS tools also provide seamless connectivity with the shipper or carrier, which can improve order tracking across locations.
Remote access
In modern times such as these, business owners and warehouse managers should have access to real-time inventory data on the go, even when they're not in the factory. Every WMS must come with remote access to view purchase orders, track inventory and product movement, and procure raw materials.
ERP Integration
If you have already implemented a successful ERP system, then your WMS tool must be integrated into the ERP. Through integration, you can store warehouse or inventory-related data on a centralized platform, and make it accessible to all departments.
This enables real-time tracking and management of inventory data across the entire organization. For example, your sales team can retrieve customer orders from the warehouse management platform and inform customers about delivery status.
Received goods
Every warehouse management software must update and verify goods received on a daily basis accurately. This is essential to eliminate discrepancies between the purchase order and the actual number of received products.
Additionally, the WMS should be able to optimize shelf space for received goods, based on their demand and category. For example, fast-moving items should be easily accessible, while fragile inventory should be stored in safe locations.
Analytics
Effective warehouse management involves generating a lot of inventory-related data, which businesses can utilize to improve decision-making using analytics. Warehouse management solutions can benefit companies by integrating their warehouse data with business intelligence.
Through analytics, high-quality data insights help companies identify areas of improvement and plan for improved warehouse operations.
Functions of Warehouse Management System
Following are the important warehouse management system functions and use cases of a warehouse management system:
Stock management
A WMS is among the best solutions to track the inflow and outflow of stocks into any warehouse. It enables warehouse managers to estimate the demand versus the supply for their products. Through this function, they can replenish their warehouse stock with the right quantity of supplies at the right time.
Layout management
With a WMS, manufacturing companies can plan and optimize the layout design of their warehouse facility. Layout management for warehouses is the process of organizing the physical space within a warehouse to ensure the efficiency of warehouse operations. An organized layout enables the effective placement of any inventory item based on weight and accessibility.
Customer service
Essentially, warehouse management is an important part of customer service. A WMS ensures that the right product is delivered to the customer at the right time. This helps companies provide customers with a customized and personalized experience through optimized warehouse management.
Paperless documentation
Through automation, a warehouse management system eliminates the need to maintain paper documents about inventory levels and operations. WMS provides a real-time view of the warehouse operations to business stakeholders at any given time. Warehouse workers can also perform their work better by referencing inventory data on their systems.
Manage Your Warehouse Management Efficiently With TranZact
Warehouse management software enables warehouse and store managers to monitor inventory movement in real-time, with complete visibility of item location and stock levels.
Of the various warehouse management tools in India, TranZact is one of the best warehouse solutions designed for Indian SMEs and manufacturers. Its multi-store inventory tracking and warehouse management features enable businesses to manage their entire complete stock operations across regions under one platform.
Along with its warehouse management capabilities, it also hosts additional features such as seamless integration between procurement, production, and MRP functions. It also connects with software like Tally and Excel easily.
TranZact provides lifetime free, dedicated customer support to help businesses onboard the software without hassle. As an SME looking for affordable supply chain warehouse management software, TranZact can become one of the best choices for your business.
FAQs on Best Warehouse Management Software
1. What is warehouse management system software?
Warehouse management system (WMS) software is a digital solution that facilitates the efficient management and control of all the key warehouse operations. It automates tasks such as inventory tracking, order fulfillment, and shipping, improving overall productivity and accuracy in warehouse management.
2. Which is the best warehouse management system?
TranZact is known as the best warehouse management system as it facilitates multi-store inventory tracking and warehouse management allowing businesses to efficiently manage their stock operations across different regions from a single platform. It is a highly effective and easy-to-use warehouse solution specifically designed for Indian SMEs and manufacturers. TranZact also easily connects with popular software like Tally, BUSY, and Excel, enhancing workflow efficiency.
3. Is WMS a type of ERP?
No, a Warehouse Management System (WMS) is not a type of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. While they both handle aspects of business operations, WMS specifically focuses on managing and optimizing warehouse operations, while ERP software covers a broader range of business processes across various departments.
4. Who uses warehouse management software?
Several small and large manufacturers, e-commerce providers, and third-party logistics companies use warehouse management software. Generally, companies operating multiple warehouses across geographical locations can benefit from using a WMS.
5. What are the alternatives to a warehouse management system?
An inventory management or control system or an ERP solution with effective warehouse management abilities are alternatives to a warehouse management system. While some ERP solutions with a WMS module may provide the full functionalities of a warehouse management system, others may not.
6. Which software is used for warehouse management?
Warehouse management software providers that offer features such as inventory management, order supervision, real-time goods valuation, tracking, cycle counting, and barcode scanning are generally preferred for managing a warehouse. However, integrated business automation software with all these features and expert warehousing abilities is also a great alternative.
