WMS and TMS : what about their return on investment ?

The Transport Management System (TMS) and Warehouse Management System (WMS) are computer software whose main objective is the management and optimization of warehouse stocks and the supply chain in general. These IT solutions are constantly evolving and are becoming essential for companies wishing to guarantee the quality of their logistics processes.

Returns on investments from TMS and WMS are generally rapid. WMS and TMS are easy to install and can be deployed in just a few weeks.

TMS and WMS reduce business costs :

TMS digitizes documents and information exchanges between the various actors in the supply chain, so as to eliminate unnecessary exchanges and communication errors. In addition, because TMS guarantees better organization in the company and on the road to reduce transport costs. The TMS therefore improves its operational productivity in the same way. Tasks that are generally tedious are automated, which saves time. The company can therefore take into account other tasks in parallel and thus strengthen its productivity and the quality of its services.

The TMS also helps broaden its visibility into execution to enable the business to be responsive and prevent conflicts and their impacts. It then becomes easier to qualify the customer experience. Finally, the TMS reduces the financial costs of the company through its search for optimization of the transport service, by a better analysis and measurement of their competitiveness (to seize the best pricing opportunities), and by a better carrier management (reduce empty kilometers and increase the filling rate).

The WMS allows the optimization of storage spaces in the company. The products are better arranged in the warehouse and the company can think of an intelligent allocation of different types of handling units, the entry of stocks and their management inside the warehouse is faster. This optimization of space allows for a clearer and more established view of what is available, thus avoiding unnecessary trips and preparation errors.

The installation of a WMS also allows the optimization of the processes chosen by the company. Regardless of the preferred picking method (zone, waves, batch picking, etc.), orders will be prepared faster. The reduction in errors is also highly appreciable, both on returns and on replenishment of merchandise, which further improves storage and delivery costs.

It is important to note that the installation of such software also allows the company to go over its processes and each of its work phases in detail so as to make them an analysis and changes according to the objectives. It is therefore an additional gain, to return to the fundamentals of its operation before the implementation of a TMS or a WMS in the working methods.

We must not neglect the choice of its software before installation, opt for a WMS or TMS which favors the functionalities and interfaces that we need. Beyond the purchase price, it is important to analyze and compare :

• Getting started with the software,
• The cost of hosting the applications,
• The integration of the software into the logistics environment,
• The flow processing capacity,
• Etc. 

This therefore requires extensive support and qualified expertise to put everything in place.