Warehouse management solutions (WMS) are systems designed to control, optimize, and provide visibility into all activities inside a warehouse or distribution center. Their purpose is to ensure products move efficiently through receiving, storage, picking, packing, and shipping—while keeping costs down and service levels high.
Key objectives of an enterprise-level integrated business planning program are:
- Align all business functions around a single, executable plan.
- Optimize financial performance while meeting service and operational targets.
- Increase agility and resilience by modeling multiple scenarios.
- Support strategic decision-making, including investments, capacity expansion, and portfolio management.
- Provide end-to-end visibility across demand, supply, and financial performance.
SCT Advisory supports these critical elements of warehouse management software selections and implementations:
- Program Planning – Ensuring critical tasks and deliverables are designed to support repeatable processes specific to the customer environment – including multi-site rollouts, new client setup, new product introduction, etc.
- Business & Strategy Alignment – Ensuring critical objectives of the implementation cost savings, scalability, customer service, compliance) are socialized and embedded in design sessions.
- Inventory & Product Handling – Ensuring inventory tracking meets compliance requirements and supports product rotation requirements, while developing efficient warehouse layout configurations to support efficient process design, slotting and movement path strategies.
- Process Design – Ensuring business requirements are addressed and efficient processes for each order profile and channel are developed through all warehousing processes from receiving and putaway, inventory control, picking, packing, and shipping.
- Fulfillment Prioritization and Task Management – Ensuring assignment batching and release balance operational efficiency while meeting shipment dispatch times.
- Automation integration – Ensuring effective communication between automation solutions and the WMS for effective work orchestration and exception handling.
- Visibility, Reporting & Analytics – Developing day in the life reporting and processes during the critical post-implementation phase into the steady state.
With SCT Advisory’s guidance, Warehouse Management System (WMS) can deliver strong ROI because it directly impacts the biggest cost drivers in warehouse operations: labor, inventory, space, and accuracy. The actual ROI depends on warehouse size, complexity, automation, and baseline performance, but most companies see payback within 12–24 months. SCT observes the following ROI opportunities from supply planning initiatives:
- Labor Cost Savings (20–40%) – often 50–70% of total warehouse operating costs, so this is the biggest ROI driver.
- Optimized picking paths, batch/cluster picking, and task interleaving cut travel time.
- Better workload balancing reduces overtime and idle time.
- Worker productivity improvements of 10–30% are common.
- Inventory Reduction (5–15%)
- Real-time visibility prevents overstocking and reduces safety stock needs.
- Fewer lost or misplaced items → lower write-offs.
- More accurate cycle counting → less buffer inventory required.
- Space Utilization Improvements (10–20%)
- Slotting optimization maximizes cubic capacity.
- Dynamic putaway ensures fast movers are positioned optimally..
- Order Accuracy & Customer Service (25–50% fewer errors)
- Barcode/RFID scanning ensures near-perfect accuracy (99%+).
- Reduces returns, reships, and penalties from retailers/customers.
- Improves on-time, in-full (OTIF) performance and customer satisfaction.
- Transportation & Shipping Savings (5–10%)
- Cartonization and load-building optimize packaging.
- Integration with carriers reduces freight costs through rate shopping.
- Faster dock scheduling and yard management reduce detention fees.
- Compliance & Risk Reduction (difficult to quantify, but valuable)
- Traceability for recalls (pharma, food, aerospace).
- Reduced fines, chargebacks, and lost contracts.
- Supports sustainability by reducing waste.
