Spring 2007

If you're looking for something genuinely innovative in supply chain management, it could be that a new release of the warehouse management system from Infor fits the bill.

The company says that its 're-architected' Infor SCM WM 9.0 'breaks down the boundaries of traditional warehouse management.' How? Well, the company says traditional market approaches to warehouse management are focused within the four walls of the warehouse and have limited ability to share information with other systems such as transport and logistics, supply chain visibility and control, as well as event and performance management solutions.

It claims that WM 9.0 breaks down these barriers, providing visibility both upstream to the customer and downstream to the supplier. 'Enterprises are now able to change their processes more easily,' it maintains.

WM 9.0 includes support for RF, voice, wave planning, cross-docking and labour reporting. Outside the warehouse, its extended capabilities include yard management, event management, performance management, transport and logistics and RFID.

The suite pays particular attention to what it calls 'the extended warehouse'. The company cites a recent report by the Aberdeen Group, The Extended Warehouse Benchmark Report, which suggests that to reduce warehousing costs and cut order fulfilment times, companies must take account of concepts such as satellite warehouses and provide visibility across the enterprise.