WMS vendors lessen configuration woes

One of the criticisms leveled at ERP in the late 1990s was that the systems—while useful once deployed—were inflexible. Now vendors of warehouse management system (WMS) software are working to avoid this same charge.

Noah Dixon, a product strategist with Waukesha, Wis.-based WMS vendor RedPrairie Corp., says the fact that many WMS implementations have been scaled back in scope in recent years makes it easier to streamline deployments and upgrades, but so have changes in the software. "We've added more paths within the system for users to do upgrades," Dixon says. "They can improve functionality without changing the core system."

These changes allow RedPrairie to get fairly sophisticated sites up and running in eight weeks and finish standard upgrades in one week, Dixon says. The company also concentrates on making frequently changed functions easy to alter, such as picking and put-away rules.

Much WMS customization occurs in outbound value-added services and inbound sourcing, says Steve Banker, a service director with Dedham, Mass.-based analyst firm ARC Advisory Group. Although most warehouse systems still use classic parameter-driven configuration, software that is component-based uses pre-built templates for simpler implementations, says Banker. But component assembly requires object-orientation programming, he adds.

HighJump Software, Eden Prairie, Minn., is one supplier with component-based WMS. "It's impossible to add configurability as a software feature," says Chris Heim, HighJump's CEO. "It must be built from the ground up, and it uses a different approach to writing software."

Grand Rapids, Mich.-based WMS vendor Provia Software attributes its training methodology to its success in reducing customizations, and using a program that teaches users the functions of the core product. "Instead of users telling us what they want the system to do, we show them what the basic system can do," says John Clark of Provia. "In most cases, users are surprised by all the system can do."