More than ever, warehouse management systems are capable of saving costs and they require lower investments. This is the conclusion of Dutch consulting firm Jeroen van den Berg Consulting in a survey among 22 WMS vendors. The firm advises that companies should continue their software investments in the forthcoming years. “Now that the economy is in trouble due to the banking crisis, cost saving becomes an increasingly important theme”, says researcher Godelieve Meeuwissen.

In the period 2004-2006 many WMS initiatives were kept on hold. The market caught up in 2007 when many of these projects could not wait any longer. The study report shows that packages nowadays are capable of delivering a chaos tolerant warehouse control. Furthermore, techniques such as voice-picking have proven that they cut costs. Also WMS vendors deploy new initiatives to improve the speed and reliability of their projects. “The business case is clear. The thing for logistics managers is to convince their board”, states consultant Jeroen van den Berg.