The Material Handling Blog

For years, logistics consultants, material handling engineers , and supply chain execution providers have been slicing-and-dicing warehouse statistics in a quest to enhance employee performance for the ultimate purpose of bringing profitable dollars to the bottom line. While having tangible statistics and historical records of warehouse operation is important, I suggest that these benchmarks alone will not drive peak employee or warehouse performance.

When selling software, market transparency is a key. Ideally you want the best solution when it comes to functionality, flexibility, and return on investment without over spending. Avoid any company that tries to oversell on modules that do not directly affect your bottom line. Read: The Truth About Warehouse Management Systems

With all the buzz about supply chains recently, it’s no surprise that career opportunities in the supply chain world are also on the rise. In fact, logistician / supply chain manager was identified as one of the top growth jobs for 2013, but more than 250,000 supply-chain jobs will go unfilled each year through 2018 for lack of qualified talent... Read: The Supply Chain as a Hot Career Choice

Vendors of Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) get it: What you want these days is a fast and cheap installation. In response, they're pushing the concept of software that comes preconfigured to the needs of specific industries—like retail or automotive or pharmaceuticals. Buy one of these packages, vendors say, and you can skip right over some of the programming work during the installation phase. But is it always the best fit for every company? Click here to read more about preconfigured WMS in this article by James A. Cooke from the June 2009 edition of DC Velocity, and Bill Bastian II's thoughts on the matter.