Managing a warehouse is a daunting task. To ensure proper management of storage and the movement of inventory control requires a well-thought plan. This is where a system is put in place. It is for keeping track of receiving, picking, packing, and shipping every warehouse item. But we see that when it comes to choosing a system for management, businesses are confused between a warehouse management system or an ERP. Both have their respective sets of advantages and disadvantages, which we are going to elaborate on in today’s blog post.
So what is a warehouse management system?
It is a system that controls and manages the storage and movement of the inventory. It makes use of different technologies like Radiofrequency identification, wireless LAN, and barcode scanning. The system keeps a tab on the receiving, picking, packing, and shipping of stock items. It is a standalone system that accurately measures and tracks the movement of storage products. Moreover, on the basis of historical trends and data, it can also generate reports on the optimal location of the stock items for visibility.
But as mentioned above, since it’s a standalone application, your business might require another system. Thus, to keep a tab on other aspects of the operation like finance, human resources, accounting it requires other applications.
Moving on to ERP, it is a collective system that keeps track of all the departments in an organization with the integrated applications. It collects, stores, manages and interprets data from production, manufacturing, cost, marketing, sales, inventory, shipping, and payment. Furthermore, being a system that facilitates integration in its solution, it has all the capabilities of the warehouse management system. This is what differentiates a WMS from ERP. While a WMS is a standalone system managing and storing inventory data, ERP is an integrated solution. ERP covers all the aspects of a business. This is why a significant number of organizations, big and small, opt for ERP system as it brings agility, efficiency, and productivity to the business.
While many modern warehouse management system is adding supply chain management and other capabilities, ERP is a still a preferred choice, owing to its plethora of benefits like:
- Standardizing businesses processes
- Cutting down on the operational cost
- Improving supply chain management
- Seamlessly integrating with other applications
- Improving reporting and planning
- Ensuring data security
- Improving the quality of business processing and the products
- Proffering scalability and total visibility
- Giving you complete control over your business to make better decisions
- Enhancing customer service
- Facilitating regulatory compliance
- Improving the overall efficiency
While there is no doubt in the fact that the initial cost of ERP implementation is relatively higher than that of warehouse management, the subsequent advantages trump it. Thus it makes it worthy of investment, for every business, big or small.
And if you are planning to invest in an ERP, we would suggest you to go for a cloud-based ERP like Acumatica. Furthermore, it adds more value compared to the legacy systems, making your business efficient and garnering a higher return on investment.
If you are planning for a cloud-based ERP implementation, look no further than Tayana Solutions. Our ERP experts will guide you to quick and easy implementation, ensuring that you get the output you desire. Thus with judicious resource allocation, your profit will be maximized for the long term.
Vijay comes with a vast experience in ERP and enterprise solutions space with about 20 years of experience in various packaged application like Acumatica, SAP, Orion, Salesforce.com, SugarCRM and, SalesLogix.