Completed WMS projects
Dortmunder Energie- und Wasserversorgung GmbH
Selecting a Warehouse Management System
Branch
- Energy supply industry
- Sanitary industry
- Public sector, museums, archives
The Team warehouse logistics was asked by the Dortmund Energy and Water Supply Company (DEW) to select a Warehouse Management System (WMS) for their new Central Warehouse. DEW is a regional electric power company. It supplies its customers with natural gas, electricity, heat and water and offers services surrounding these products for business and private customers.
Aims and Objectives
The DEW warehouse was redesigned as part of a restructuring and building scheme. Several questions arose during this period: are the current strategies (such as chaotic storage and fixed-location storage, differentiation of stock) still functional? Can the current WMS fulfil the new requirements? Which other WMS offer the necessary functional support? The aim was to identify a suitable WMS that offered complete support regarding the requirements of the central warehouse on information technology.
Defining the Requirements
At the beginning the demands made on the new WMS were determined based on the business processes defined for the central warehouse. The current IT landscape and future requirements (such as multi-location warehousing and multi-client warehousing, and billing of services rendered in the warehouse) were also taken into consideration. The target concept was included in the performance specification.
Internationale Marktstudie WMS
The requirement specifications formed the basis for the software requirement profile, which was then discussed and weighted together with DEW staff. Suitable WMS suppliers were identified with the help of the International Market Study Warehouse Management Systems. This study is carried out by the Fraunhofer IML and offers a comprehensive overview of the WMS market. It includes the performance profiles of more than 70 WMS suppliers and covers over 4,000 individual aspects. The evaluation of the data identified five potential WMS suppliers that fulfilled all requirements.
Request for Proposals
The Team warehouse logistics then drew up the bidding documents for the most suitable WMS suppliers and coordinated the incoming bids. Particular attention was paid to the completeness and comparability of the bids.As the structure of bids had been clearly defined beforehand, the bids could be compared quickly and efficiently. During the evaluation of the bids hard criteria such as the range of functions as well as soft criteria such as the market position of the supplier and an assessment of the implementation risk were taken into consideration. Based on the comparison of bids, the Team warehouse logistics recommended three suppliers for a more detailed presentation of their offers.
Presentation of Offers
To finalise the selection process the Team warehouse logistics organised a meeting for the presentation of offers. The three WMS suppliers presented their offer, product and possible solutions to staff members of DEW.
Result
The selection process resulted in the selection of a WMS that is state-of-the-art
- is state-of-the-art,
- can be integrated in the current IT infrastructure
