Warehouse management system selection

Shortlist a warehouse management system (WMS) by having vendors run identical receiving, putaway, picking and packing cases in the configuration they propose for your warehouse. Record what each system displays, what staff must do, and what happens when work goes wrong.

Define the warehouse job first

List the sites, storage areas, product identifiers, units of measure and order patterns the WMS must handle. Identify which systems supply purchase and sales orders, and which receive stock and completion updates. Leave decisions about routing orders across sites or choosing carriers with their respective owners.

Choose cases from anonymised records: an ordinary delivery and order, a quantity discrepancy, an unavailable pick location, and a packing correction. Add batch or serial cases if the operation handles them. For each, define the expected physical outcome, the record required afterwards, and who may resolve an exception.

Key WMS Functional Requirements in Australia

Compare complete workflows

Microsoft's mobile-work documentation describes a menu option where receiving a purchase order creates putaway work for another worker. Determine which option would be enabled for your warehouse.

Test barcode behaviour with quantities and units of measure, not just whether a scan is accepted. Microsoft's piece-picking functionality can read quantity information from a barcode, add it to the confirmed total and convert between the barcode unit and the work unit. Without quantity information, the worker is prompted to enter it manually.

For piece picking, have vendors demonstrate the proposed confirmation limit and explain how it is calculated: Microsoft bases the maximum number of pieces requiring confirmation on the current work unit. Check the limit against the operation's work units and exception cases, rather than accepting a generic claim that scanning is supported.

WMS Workflow Comparison: Receiving, Putaway, Picking and Packing

Separate capability from configuration

Request the item record, location rule, mobile menu, user permissions and integration route behind each successful case. If a workflow needs further configuration or development, record the work, owner and dependency. Mark an unshown case as unverified.

Examine shortcuts as carefully as confirmations. Microsoft's piece-picking documentation allows scanning or manual entry and a configurable limit on pieces requiring individual confirmation; the feature does not apply to serial-controlled items.

Neither a confirmation screen nor a packing action proves that every physical unit was checked. Determine what happens after a wrong entry, an empty bin or a damaged item, and who may override the result.

Have the vendor demonstrate how workers reach each task on the mobile device. In Microsoft's Warehouse Management mobile app, menu items can be configured for activities or inquiries, to create warehouse work, or to process existing work; compare the proposed menu and work paths for each case.

Check the product setup needed for scanning. Microsoft's documentation says scanning must be enabled for each relevant product, so include that configuration in the demonstration and record which products or cases would still require manual entry.

Pre-Shortlist WMS Vendor Evaluation Checklist

Compare the records left behind

Follow the same identifiers from source order to warehouse work and outbound confirmation. Check whether the original expected quantity, actual quantity, exception and correction remain distinguishable. A final balance alone may conceal a disputed receipt or short pick.

For packing, require vendors to demonstrate the effect of the policy choices, not only the final container. Microsoft's mobile packing policies can start by scanning a shipment ID, allowing items from multiple licence plates to be packed, or by scanning a licence plate ID, which requires the items packed to be found on that licence plate.

Include tracking-dimension capture in the packing case. Microsoft's policy offers skipping capture or requiring the worker to specify dimensions, and serial numbers may still be requested when the tracking-dimension group is set to capture them at packing. Record which choice the proposed setup uses and what the resulting record retains.

Make the shortlist decision

Use one comparison record per vendor and case: demonstrated outcome, staff actions, required configuration, integration work, exception owner, unresolved gap and commercial dependency. Obtain current terms for the proposed account and implementation separately; a public feature page does not establish Australian availability, price or delivery effort.

Choose the setup that demonstrates the priority workflows and recoveries with acceptable staff work. Keep unverified items as conditions for further evaluation.

When receiving depends on inbound loads, have the vendor explain how the load record is created and what information it carries. Microsoft documents load creation either automatically from order data or an advance shipment notice, or manually; a load can represent one or more order-line quantities and track progress through warehouse operations.