How WMS helps reduce Retail out-of-stocks?

[Source: www.logismarket.co.uk]

"Could we not largely solve the out-of-stock problem by leveraging these under-utilized devices and adding a type of task management system, maybe morphed from a WMS, to direct workers to get product on the shelves?

What it would take is:

• A perpetual inventory (PI) system at the store level (largely in place);
• A basic inventory location system in the back room (sometimes in place);
• Wireless terminals (largely in place); and
• The task management engine, integrated with the other pieces (or maybe all from one source).

Retailer Target said early on in the RFID saga that it has a light form of this – its system generates a type of “pick list” for shelf replenishment, based on POS. But that is a paper-based system, and not really capable of dealing at a specific task level (or so I think – haven’t really seen it).

Pretty simple – the PI says a location needs replenished (at whatever level is set for that SKU), and a specific task is set for the move. It goes into the queue, and is prioritized based on other variables (just for example, perhaps high-margin items generally go to the top of the queue); if more units of that SKU are sold, meaning it is increasingly in danger of going to zero at the shelf, the task rises in the queue.

Stock personnel don’t have to wonder what to do – their terminal tells them exactly what to do, and they confirm it is done electronically. By the way, they could be asked to do a cycle count when they do the shelf replenishment. If they see an empty shelf or peg, they could also do a cycle count, and/or check to see if a replenishment is on the way."

Warehouse Control Systems

"A Warehouse Control System (WCS) is a piece of software that that sits between the Warehouse Management System (WMS) and the lower level equipment controls of a distribution center materials handling automation system, such as a high-speed sortation system.

For example, the WCS likely will monitor at a detailed level all the sensory inputs, and directs the conveyors to start, stop, merge and all the myriad other activities needed to make the conveyors operate. (See graphic below.)

That’s easy to say at a high level, but the scope of the WCS can range from performing very basic “middleware” functionality, in which it primarily serves as an information bridge between the WMS to the conveyor controls, to being a sophisticated software solution that, as a category, is increasingly encroaching on traditional WMS territory."