DC Velocity - February 2016

28 DC VELOCITY FEBRUARY 2016 www.dcvelocity.com newsworthy

JDA upgrades WMS for omnichannel performance

JDA Software Group Inc. said it has enhanced its warehouse management system (WMS) platform to help users cope with the challenges of omnichannel fulfillment.

The changes include a fully mobile-enabled framework; customizable dashboards to accommodate users in different roles; and enhancements to promote ease of use, whether the client is a manufacturer, retailer, distributor, or third-party logistics service provider (3PL), JDA said.

The latest version of “JDA Warehouse Management” extends the strategy by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based JDA to leverage its WMS software to support its “Intelligent Fulfillment” initiative. That process is connected to JDA’s recent partnership with Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp., integrating JDA Warehouse Management with IBM Commerce’s “Order Management” solution.

JDA decided to focus on creating a more streamlined, simplified user interface for its WMS in an effort to respond to the challenges of today’s omnichannel warehouse operations, Fabrizio Brasca, vice president for solution strategy and intelligent fulfillment at JDA, said in an interview.

“A WMS is functionally rich, with lots of customization
and personalization capabilities,” Brasca said. While those
features are powerful, they can demand a lot of setup time
for each user to configure. JDA’s new configuration man-
ager addresses that challenge by cutting configuration time
by 15 to 20 percent, Brasca said.

Another feature of the new release is a renewed focus on the specific challenges of omnichannel operations, where DCs must maintain high rates of throughput while preserving their ability to scale between handling pallets and single products, Brasca said.

“As opposed to a traditional manufacturing environment with pallets, you’re now talking about each-picks and intr-aday turnaround of orders,” he said.

The new release addresses that problem by offering users “persona-based” experiences that extend beyond the traditional managerial and supervisory roles to operational roles. The enhanced WMS allows users to choose from about a dozen “persona-based” roles, such as replenishment, transportation, click-and-collect, returns processing, or single-item parcel enablement, the company said.

Each of these tasks has a unique workflow, so users who pick a specific persona can concentrate only on the business processes relevant to their own function, JDA said.