A warehouse management system (WMS) is a software that supports operations of a warehouse. A WMS includes capabilities such as receiving, put-away, inventory control, cycle counting, wave planning, order allocation, order picking, replenishment, packing, shipping, automated materials-handling equipment interfaces. It generates efficiency of work activity and accurate information in real time.
Warehouse operations in Moldova have been evolving for the last decade. Growth of the distribution market is driven by a set of factors. We have observed evolution of small, segment oriented companies into large retailers and distributors. Few examples of these actors are Supraten, Nanu, Volta. They mainly operate in the construction and housing segment. Another important factor is driven by the economy growth and government strategy for developing transport and logistics sector (see figure). In spite of a rather flat evolution of the market, we can still observe a positive trend.
Most of the warehouses in Moldova lack IT capacity to implement a WMS, still some businesses that employ warehouses start to acknowledge the importance and benefits that a software application brings to the efficiency of their operations in the intralogistics field.
Locally established companies base their operation on 1C – a popular platform in CIS countries. 1C comes with a flexible (lego style) platform and with a programming language to customize functionality. 1C is often compared to SAP from Western Europe. The advantages of using 1C is the low price for the standard software package and what is also important, 1C is by far the most used accounting system in Moldova. Companies that choose to use 1C in warehouse operations easily integrate it with accountancy, this way starting solving another business automation challenge.
On the other hand, businesses that are part of international groups of companies usually implement a software solution common for the entire group. Examples of such companies are Metro Cash&Carry that uses SAP – largest IT provider in Europe, Orbico comes with Mantis – one of the leading warehouse management systems. These are proven solutions in home markets that successfully apply for operations in Moldova.
The above solution (1C, SAP, Mantis) work well and could fit a wide range of businesses. However, when it comes to highly customized processes and automation, where a standard approach is not efficient enough, these solutions become extremely expensive. Customization normally employs skilled specialists that have to travel to Moldova, this leads to hundreds of hours of additional work, few companies can afford this.
This is where ‘agile’ players enter the scene. Inther provides warehouse automation and management in a flexible setup. Empowered by a team of 30 engineers located in Moldova, Inther is able to provide highly customizable solutions covering the most unusual processes in a timely and flexible manner. Inther delivers complete logistic systems that provide high performance at an affordable price. This is a perfect solution for a large warehouse to fine-tune supply chain processes.
What about small and medium businesses? Often, this segment does not need a warehouse management system. Many of them manage the stock in EXCEL files, however the challenge they face is lack of knowledge on how to efficiently organise the processes in a warehouse. Cloud and SaaS concepts are quite often heard lately in the intralogistics domain worldwide. Following these market trends, Inther comes to fulfill the demands of small and medium enterprises with a lightweight solution – StockControl. With just a couple of mouse clicks a full-fledged warehouse management system is available to businesses that want to graduate from EXCEL sheets. Empowered by StockControl, users gain high transparency of their warehouse operations at a very affordable rates.
The best solution for your warehouse is often a tradeoff of multiple factors. Will a standard solution cover your needs or do you require lots of customized functionality. Once you have the challenge to decide what solution fits you best, get in touch with us and we can help you analysing pros and cons of each approach!