Six shipping features to look for in your next WMS

Shipping is only one of the core functions every warehouse management system must support, but it’s often the biggest place you can save money or burn it.

In many cases, unique requirements or potential savings opportunities hide within your data, requiring a system intelligent enough to uncover them.

Here are six critical elements to consider when evaluating how WMS can enhance your shipping operations:

1. Managing customer needs and requirements

A smart WMS simplifies customer interactions and ensures compliance with specific requirements such as routing guides and audit documentation.

Look for a WMS that can generate customer-specific shipping instructions and documents tailored to enhance compliance, particularly useful for retailers imposing penalties for non-compliance.

This type of feature set is perhaps most important if you have customers, like retailers, who charge you based on non-compliance. Seek out a robust reporting shipping tool that allows you to meet their tracking and audit needs while also allowing you to record and take corrective actions when an issue occurs.

2. Load consolidation

WMS software that supports load consolidation helps cut shipping costs by combining orders bound for the same destination within defined timeframes. An integrated system allows you to combine open orders for single ship-to within specific timeframes and locations so that you’re renting out a full truckload of space and securing a lower cost per package from your carriers.

Map out and prioritize your shipping requirements with this WMS requirements template

You might also be able to secure systems that support load consolidation with break-bulk processing so that you can move substantial portions of inventory to different warehouses or satellite locations. You can move what you need and process it where it makes the most sense for your business.

Some advanced systems also provide 3D trailer loading support for maximizing space in your rigs.

3. Continuous cost tracking

A chief best practice for today’s WMS is a function that makes it easy to select the best carrier for your load based on a variety of factors that cause differences in cost and delivery speed. We recommend you look for a WMS that not only lets you sort and adjust based on factors like weight, volume (or DIM weight), and zone destinations but also one that updates cost estimates regularly and continuously tracks costs.

That unceasing review may help you identify new opportunities or cost savings based on carrier preferences and volumes.

4. Cross-docking

Cross-docking allows you to place goods as ready to be used in orders immediately, so you don’t have to move any to storage shelves or warehouse inventory locations. The ability to turn incoming goods into outgoing goods can save you time and reduce costs when you’re running low on stock or have orders coinciding with resupplies.

Ship your goods to their final destination faster and more reliably when you automate this process in your WMS.

5. Smart labels and creation

How much information do you need about the goods you receive from manufacturers? Is this the same data that your customers need?

In many cases, there are differences in the data that you want to keep and what you want to pass on to your customers. Smart labels and barcodes will help you increase your shipping accuracy by pairing goods back to manufacturer information.

A WMS that can create new barcodes will enable you to break down loads and distribute them into smaller sections or give customers a smaller piece of information that’s separate in your system. So, you can call up the customer data separate if you need to meet operational, regulatory, or other compliance requirements.

6. Centralized dashboards

The best way for leadership to take advantage of a WMS and your shipping operations is to have it presented in a way that’s easy to understand. Centralized dashboards can show you a complete picture of shipping and management.

Business intelligence is only useful when it is intelligible. Look for a WMS that presents your data in clear, concise ways. To ensure success, involve leadership early in the WMS selection process to align technology investments with strategic goals.

By optimizing your WMS for shipping efficiency, you not only save costs but also improve service reliability and customer satisfaction.