TMS and WMS collaboration delivers top benefits

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 10/1/2005

The efficiency of transportation management systems (TMS) has been found to be greatly enhanced when coupled tightly with a warehouse management system (WMS) through upstream communication. This according to Beth Enslow, of the Aberdeen Group and author of a recent study on the subject.

Traditionally, information from a company's WMS has been "waterfalled" to the TMS and then processed, Enslow explains. "Now, increased interaction between the two systems is allowing for more agile product flow."

Enslow asserts that a TMS operates more effectively when the system recognizes flow patterns of the warehouse. She describes a company that used a TMS to forecast throughput volumes based on predictive data provided by the WMS and report back to the warehouse system the most efficient mode of shipping. The WMS then instructed picks based on TMS shipping requirements. As a result, one fully loaded truck, rather than two half loads that were traditionally shipped, was dispatched at considerable cost savings to the company.

Building on recent reports that tout supply chain visibility as a must in efficient distribution practices now and going forward, Enslow argues that information sharing allows both systems to be cognizant of the other's real-time demands.

Enslow states that information collaboration among the two systems has never been more vital to a company's bottom line as shipping costs have escalated at an alarming pace. "This method establishes a single fulfillment process as opposed to an execution oriented last step."