Sometime back I worked in an assignment which involved Decentralised Warehouse Management (DWMS) . That was the first time I worked in decentralised warehouse management scenario and I thought it will be nice to pen down my experience and personal perspective on DWMS.
My first goal was to understand the business cases which made the project team choose Decentralised Warehouse management over Centralised warehouse management concept. On exploration , I came to the conclusion that there are two main reasons which influenced to take the decision for DWMS viz. continuous delivery from the warehouses demand max availability and bare minimum downtime of the warehouse management solution, and quick system response time. The other points which favours DWMS is it’s ability to work with Multiple ERP SAP/Non SAP systems .This makes it feasible to use the same server/application as warehouse management solution across organization irrespective of the Inventory Management/manufacturing execution system implemented in different sites.
The above mentioned flexibility with DWS system comes with some constraint like distributed delivery cannot be deleted directly in ECC system , once the delivery is post goods issued (PGI) from DWS system then it cannot be reversed or cancelled etc. Even if stock inconsistency exists between the IM and WM level due to any reason , as long as stock is available in WM level PGI can be done successfully from DWMS system and the delivery PGI confirmation Idoc to reconcile the stock in IM level will fail with stock deficit error. This further jeopardizes the stock accounting within the supply chain and complicates the entire stock tracebality.
I believe DWMS offers tremendous flexibility and is the right strategy solution for business where high delivery volume demands round the clock availability of WMS system with fast system response time .But I feel it is more appropriate for matured business users who have worked on centralised warehouse management systems before and understand the concept of stock at Inventory and wareshouse management level .
It was the first time I worked in DWMS landscape and the thoughts shared above are purely my personal views based on the understanding developed during the assignment .
I invite all readers to share your views, pros/cons of DWMS and suggest the scenarios where DWMS is most recommended .
Disclaimer : The views mentioned are my own and does not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my employer.
Bluesky
