WMS and ERP – Functional Demarcation

With the whitepaper »WMS and ERP – Functional Demarcation«, the »warehouse logistics team« at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML addresses a frequently debated question: Is this a WMS or an ERP functionality? Building upon a functional boundary definition of the two systems, the whitepaper also explores functionalities that must be allocated on a project-specific basis. Many end users and system owners find it difficult to distinctly assign specific features and modules to either the WMS or the ERP system. Furthermore, the increasing blurring of system boundaries exacerbates this lack of clarity and transparency. The whitepaper »WMS and ERP – Functional Demarcation« is designed to support practitioners in delineating the operational scope of WMS and ERP systems. In addition, it aims to raise awareness regarding the integration and operational challenges arising from functional overlaps. Concurrently, it explains and contrasts the different deployment architectures—evaluating a WMS as an integrated module within an enterprise ERP suite versus an independent, specialized best-of-breed (stand-alone) solution.