What is the 2 level WMS approach?

I was explaining to a multi-national prospect the other day exactly what a 2 level WMS approach is, as they have hundreds of sites around the world it seemed highly appropriate to them, so I am taking the time during my weekly blog to explain it here too.

At Snapfulfil we call it a Tier 2 strategy, but as a simple description it is having a rigid massive WMS to manage your main site/sites while going for an equally capable but more flexible and better value system in at your spokes (or hub/DC sites).

As all systems nowadays have pretty open architecture for integration it’s possible to do this very simply, or alternatively as a WMS should only really be master of the four walls of the warehouse the ERP would feed the separate WMS systems independently – as they update back to the ERP in real-time the main ERP shouldn’t care about where those warehouse orders are being processed.

I did a cost study with one of my prospects who has 200 sites around the world and use Manhattan as their main WMS alongside SAP R3 as their ERP. Going through the figures the purchase price to put in at 150 of the hub sites would save them well in to the millions, not just in the initial implementation but also the ongoing annual costs and as we don’t require ongoing development for workflow, reporting etc. (as configuration can be done within the HTML5 software by the users of the system and reporting via easy to use analytics backend).

Often the reason for people choosing the 2 Level approach is because Manhattan/ Red Prairie might be being used for their WCS abilities (to manage automation), however providers like Snapfulfil can also work with automation as well as the third party WCS providers.

It’s sometimes understandable for a business to choose an expensive less flexible system at their main site through a dictate by head office etc. Where they do I would still ask them to look at the option of having a more flexible, better cost option to use at their smaller distribution centres, having been involved with R3 and massive systems before it only makes sense from my perspective – particularly as we consider our system is more capable than the others, but also than the systems used by the biggest ecomm businesses in the world.

For a chat about this or any advice message me on here or email me on [email protected]

acronyms used: WCS = Warehouse Control Systems, ERP= Enterprise Resource Planning system, DC= Distribution Centre, WMS= Warehouse Management System.