Although logistics and supply chain management have many similarities, they are subtly different. Logistics is primarily concerned with the movement of goods, while supply chain management is more complex.
Supply chain management encompasses a broader range of processes, all the way back to the sourcing and purchasing of the raw materials needed to create a particular product. Although the terms, “logistics” and “supply chain management” are sometimes used interchangeably, in reality, logistics is just one function acting as part of supply chain management.
Warehouse management
Within the logistics process, businesses will invariably need somewhere to store their products. Given the scale of e-commerce deliveries today, this storage facility may need to be of a substantial size. But simply sourcing a large enough warehouse to store all of a company’s products is not enough to ensure a smooth logistics process.
Businesses also need to oversee the effective use of space, organize inventories, and integrate processes – all while keeping costs down. This is when warehouse management becomes important. Warehouse management involves the effective running of day-to-day warehouse operations.
Optimizing a company’s warehouse (or multiple warehouses) means overseeing the inbound and outbound transportation of goods. Successful warehouse management is data-driven so decisions are underpinned by analytic insights, not best guesses.
Warehouse management should also be flexible so e-commerce firms can adapt to consumer or market shifts. It must be capable of constant evolution – incorporating the latest digital tools. One such tool is a warehouse management system (WMS), which is currently used by around 83% of all warehousing and logistics providers in the US.
A WMS leverages real-time insights so logistics providers can gain better visibility into their inventory. Productivity can be monitored so bottlenecks are identified and sales forecasts can be used to help businesses gauge revenue, profitability, and growth. Plus, the fact that most WMS software is cloud-based means that it is easily scalable so, should a logistics firm start to expand, its WMS can grow alongside it.