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CUSTOM SOFTWARE · WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT (WMS)

Warehouse Management (WMS): Knowing Where the Goods Are

We give every rack and bin in your warehouse an address and record every movement by barcode. From goods receipt to put-away, from pick routing to dispatch checks, the flow runs on handheld terminals; underneath the quantity figure in your ERP we add the physical location of the goods and who moved them, and when.

The most repeated sentence in a warehouse is this: the goods are here, but we do not know where. The ERP screen shows enough of the item; when it needs to be brought down for dispatch it is hunted for in two different aisles, part of it has been allocated to another order, and part of it was lifted onto a top rack last month to make space. If the person who knows the warehouse is on leave, the search takes twice as long. Meanwhile the lorry waits at the gate, loading is delayed and the delivery date promised to the customer slips. When stock-count day arrives a discrepancy appears; nobody can explain where it came from, system stock is corrected by hand and the same cycle starts again. The problem is usually not carelessness on the part of the staff: the warehouse's knowledge is not in the records, it is in people's memories.

The gap here is not a shortcoming of the ERP but the boundary of its scope. An ERP stock module holds quantity and value: how much of an item there is, what it costs, which warehouse it belongs to. It does not hold which rack, which bin or which pallet the goods are sitting on, who took them and when, which order they were allocated to, or which batch they came from. A warehouse management system (WMS) begins exactly there. A WMS does not replace the ERP and does not touch the accounting side; it adds a layer of physical location, movement and accountability underneath the quantity figure. Setting out this distinction clearly at the start matters, because in most companies a WMS is mistaken for a second ERP and is therefore either seen as unnecessary or imagined as a project so large that it never starts.

Implementation starts with physical order. Aisles, racks, levels and bins are set out in an address plan; every address is labelled and made readable. From then on every movement is recorded by barcode: at goods receipt the item is scanned and the system says which address to put it away in; during picking the handheld terminal guides the operator from address to address in a sequence that avoids unnecessary walking; before dispatch the loaded carton is scanned and compared with the order. When the wrong item is scanned, the warning appears before loading takes place. Stock counting also stops being an annual event that halts the line; the system queues up which addresses are to be counted and when, and counting proceeds piece by piece without stopping production.

The honest side of this work is as follows: a WMS does not make a disorderly warehouse orderly; it makes order measurable and sustainable. If there is no address plan, if labels have worn out and cannot be read, or if the operator picks goods up and walks off without scanning, the system will accumulate wrong data faster than before. That is why the first phase is field work, not software, and we do not recommend shortening the time set aside for it. A WMS also does not remove stock counting; it only makes it smaller and spreads it out. Handheld terminals, label printers and label consumables are a real cost item, and we put that in writing at the discovery stage rather than as a surprise at the end of the project. In return, once the warehouse is addressed and movements are on record, simply being able to find the goods you are looking for and to see dispatch errors produces a gain on its own, before any optimisation has been done at all.

Who is it for?

Who is Warehouse Management (WMS) a good fit for?

Manufacturers holding products with many variants

Carpet, textile and packaging manufacturers with dozens of variants of the same product by colour, size, pattern and batch. In these warehouses the confusion is not about quantity but about variant; shipping the wrong variant produces returns and rework. Two similar-looking variants sitting in the same rack bin is the most common source of error. Addressing and scanning make mixing them up physically harder.

Businesses that must trace batches and serial numbers

Businesses working in fields such as food, chemicals and food-contact packaging, which have to prove which batch went to which customer. In a complaint or a recall, the affected batch has to be located in minutes rather than hours. First-expired, first-out (FEFO) sequencing can also only be applied reliably in an addressed warehouse.

Factories with work-in-progress moving through the warehouse

Factories that take the semi-finished goods produced at intermediate stages into the warehouse and feed them back to the line, sending some out to subcontractors and receiving them back. This stock is usually invisible in every system; nobody knows how much work-in-progress is waiting where. Address-level tracking closes this blind spot between production and the warehouse, and goods held at subcontractors stay visible too.

Multi-warehouse and multi-channel businesses

Companies transferring between several warehouses, branches or shops and shipping both wholesale and e-commerce orders from the same stock. In this set-up, if the moment an inter-warehouse transfer leaves and the moment it is received are not recorded, stock appears in two places at once, leading to double selling and cancellations.

What we build

What we deliver within Warehouse Management (WMS)

Rack, bin and location addressing

An address plan is built at aisle, rack, level and bin granularity; every address is labelled and becomes barcode-readable. Volume, weight and product-type constraints can be defined per address. Rack-free zones such as block stacking, pallet areas and the outside yard can be addressed as well, so the warehouse layout is not tied to a racking system.

Barcoded goods receipt and put-away

Incoming goods are scanned and compared with the delivery note or purchase order; quantity, batch, serial number and expiry date are recorded at receipt. The system suggests which address to put the item away in and the operator confirms by scanning the address. Short, over or unexpected deliveries are caught at goods receipt, so the error becomes visible before it enters the warehouse.

Pick lists and pick routing

Orders turn into pick lists, and the handheld terminal guides the operator from address to address in a sequence that avoids unnecessary walking. Single-order, batch and zone picking modes can all be set up. If the scanned item does not match the order, the terminal warns. Picked quantities are deducted immediately, so the problem of allocating the same goods to two different orders disappears.

Dispatch checks and load verification

Before loading, cartons or pallets are scanned and compared with the order contents, so missing or wrong items are caught before the vehicle moves. Dispatch paperwork, packing lists and labels are produced from the system. Which order was loaded onto which vehicle, at what time and by whom is recorded, giving you evidence to look back on if a customer disputes a delivery.

Stock counting: periodic and cycle counts

Alongside the classic period-end count, cycle counting is set up to run without stopping production: the system queues which addresses are counted and when, based on movement frequency and value. Count discrepancies are reported by address and by user, so where a discrepancy came from stops being a matter of debate. Adjustments require authorisation and leave a trail.

Transfers, work-in-progress and line feeding

Movements between warehouses, zones and the production line run on transfer records, and goods that have left but have not yet been received appear in a separate status. Material issues to production and receipts of semi-finished goods coming off the line are recorded in the same structure. Goods sent to and returned from subcontractors are tracked at address level too, so the stock held at the subcontractor stays visible.

ERP integration and stock reconciliation

Two-way integration is built with Logo, Mikro, Netsis (widely used Turkish ERP packages) or whichever other system you run: item and account master records come from there, and stock movements are posted both ways according to defined rules. The accounting side stays where it is. The difference between the two systems is compared automatically every day and deviations are reported, so a reconciliation gap is noticed on the day it arises rather than at month end.

Technologies

The technologies we work with

  • Barcode and QR code
  • Android handheld terminal
  • Label printer (ZPL)
  • RFID
  • Offline operation and synchronisation
  • REST API
  • PostgreSQL
  • React web panel
  • Logo / Mikro / Netsis integration
  • Role-based permissions and audit trail
  • Docker
Process

How we move from discovery to go-live

  1. 01

    1. Warehouse discovery and address plan

    We walk the warehouse on site and map the flow exactly as it is: where goods come in, where they are put, in what order they are picked, at which point things get mixed up. An address plan and a labelling standard are prepared for aisles, racks, levels and bins. No software is written at this stage; the output is a warehouse map we have agreed on.

  2. 02

    2. Labelling and master data preparation

    Address labels are printed and applied on site, and a labelling method is decided for items without a product barcode. Item records, units of measure, units per carton and batch rules are reviewed. If the master data is wrong, no warehouse system will work correctly, so rather than rushing this step we give it the time it needs.

  3. 03

    3. Building the flows and a pilot zone

    Goods receipt, put-away, picking, transfer and dispatch flows are built, and the handheld application is trialled on site. We start with a single zone or a single product group rather than the whole warehouse. Keeping the scope narrow makes it easier for operators to adapt and lets us see errors at a small scale. Every delivery goes through four-eyes review.

  4. 04

    4. Parallel running and go-live

    In the pilot zone the system and the existing method run side by side for a while; differences are compared daily and their causes resolved. Once the results settle, the scope is widened zone by zone. Training is delivered at this stage and the handling of exceptions is written down. The transition is gradual; we do not recommend switching over completely in a single day.

  5. 05

    5. Go-live, measurement and support

    Once the whole warehouse is live, count discrepancies, dispatch errors and picking times start to be measured; without measurement there is no meaningful conversation about improvement. We provide monitoring and fault resolution support under an SLA. As the warehouse layout or the product structure changes, we update the address plan and the flows together with you.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about Warehouse Management (WMS)

Our ERP has a stock module; why would we need a WMS?

An ERP stock module holds quantity and value; it does not hold which rack the goods are on, who took them or which order they were allocated to. If you cannot explain where a count discrepancy came from using ERP records, that is exactly where the gap is. A warehouse management system does not replace the ERP, it adds a layer of physical location and movement underneath it; the accounting side stays where it is. If the warehouse is small and the product range is narrow, the ERP stock module may well be enough — in that case we say so plainly during discovery and do not propose a project.

How many handheld terminals do we need to buy?

We do not recommend a large purchase up front. You start with as many devices as there are operators working simultaneously in the pilot zone, and add more as the scope widens. What decides the choice of device is not the brand but durability, battery life and read range; if there is a cold store or a dusty environment, the specification is written accordingly. We itemise the cost of devices, label printers and label consumables in the discovery report; we leave no surprise line item to appear once the software is finished.

We have no racking; material is stacked on the floor. Can it still be implemented?

It can. Addressing does not depend on a racking system; block-stacking areas, pallet positions and the outside yard can be addressed too. To be honest, though, the vaguer the physical order is, the later the software's return becomes visible. In some warehouses the first job is not software but separating areas and marking floor positions; we say so during discovery and, if necessary, recommend that you hold the project until that field work is finished.

Will we stop doing stock counts altogether?

No, and we do not promise that. A warehouse management system does not remove stock counting; it stops it being a major event and spreads it across the year. With cycle counting, busy and high-value addresses are counted more often and slow-moving ones less often, and the line does not stop. The discrepancy rate falls over time, but we would advise caution towards any proposal that says discrepancies will go to zero. A physical count is the only independent method of auditing the system's accuracy.

Does a WMS replace our production tracking and MES system?

It does not; they work side by side. Production tracking and MES follow the work order on the line, downtime and the quantity produced; a warehouse management system follows where material sits in the warehouse and how it moves. Where the two intersect is material issued to production and semi-finished goods received from the line; these two movements are defined in one place and the two systems feed each other. If you already have a production tracking system, we do not rewrite it, we connect to it.

What do we end up with?

An addressed and labelled warehouse; goods receipt, put-away, picking, transfer and dispatch flows running on handheld terminals; batch and serial number traceability; a cycle counting regime; daily stock reconciliation with the ERP and a deviation report. Everything, including the implementation documentation, the address plan and the source code, belongs to you; if you decide to continue with another team, you are not locked in.

Contact

Let us talk about your Warehouse Management (WMS) project

In a 30-minute discovery call we listen to what you need and tell you honestly whether custom development or an off-the-shelf product is the better answer.

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