strategicinsight
A big head start
The appeal of a WMS that’s tailored
to the customer’s specific industry
isn’t hard to see. Terminology, business rules, and practices vary widely
from one industry to the next, but
within a given sector, there’s usually
a great deal of commonality. Buying
software that’s preset to reflect standard industry practices can give a
company a big head start when it
comes to implementation.
For example, consider the difference between buying a WMS package that’s preconfigured to the needs
of a pharmaceutical warehouse vs. a
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Murata Machinery USA, Inc.
Logistics & Automation Division
2120 Queen City Drive 120 N Redwood Rd, Suite 3
Charlotte, NC 28208 North Salt Lake, UT 84054
www.muratec-usa.com
800.428.8469
Nobody moves you like Murata.
generic package. With a generic solution,
someone has to program the software to
recognize the difference between, say, an
apparel industry stock-keeping unit
(SKU) number, whose digits might indicate a garment’s style, size, and color, and
a pharma industry SKU, whose digits
might indicate a drug’s lot number, batch
number, and expiration date. A preconfigured program eliminates that task. On top
of that, the preconfigured program doesn’t have to be “taught” to use, say, lot expiration dates as a criterion for product
selection. Instead, the software will arrive
pre-programmed to generate pick lists
that ensure that workers fill orders from
older batches of medications before drawing on new ones.
But preconfiguration work isn’t always
about tailoring a WMS to the requirements of a particular industry. It can also
include tasks like the creation of programming templates that streamline the
process of assigning items to storage locations, says Bill Bastian, president of
Indianapolis-based systems integrator
Bastian Material Handling. Instead of
having to input data for each storage location in the warehouse, he says, integrators
can use these templates or “masters” that
incorporate common data such as the
length, width, and height for all bays. The
integrator can then create a unique identifier for each storage location and simply
copy and paste the template data. “I want
to replicate [common information] using
this master as opposed to going one by
one and putting in the information,” says
Bastian.
As for how much time is saved, estimates vary. Sidell of TranSystems ESync
says preconfigured modules can cut 20 to
30 percent from the programming time.
On top of that, he says, presets can reduce
the post-installation testing period by 25
percent. “The less you have to configure,
the less you have to test,” says Sidell. All
told, he says, preset modules can cut the
typical implementation period from
seven months to five.
Matt Wilkerson, a principal at
Tompkins Associates, a Raleigh, N.C.-based consultancy with a systems integration practice, has a more conservative
estimate. He says preconfiguration work
