Retailers today face many challenges in managing their supply chains, such as increasing customer expectations, omnichannel fulfillment, inventory visibility, labor efficiency, and cost reduction. To overcome these challenges, retailers need a warehouse management system that can optimize and manage essential supply chain processes, from receiving to shipping, and provide complete control and visibility of orders and inventory across all channels.

Oracle Retail Warehouse Management (Oracle RWMS) is a cloud-based solution that offers such capabilities for retailers of all sizes and segments. Oracle RWMS is part of the Oracle Retail Enterprise suite, which integrates with other Oracle products to provide a comprehensive solution for retail operations.

In this article, we will explore the features and benefits of Oracle RWMS, and how it can help retailers transform their warehouse operations to meet the demands of today's marketplace.

Features of Oracle RWMS

Oracle RWMS is a flexible, scalable, and proven solution that covers all the processes involved in physically distributing and handling goods. Some of the key features of Oracle RWMS are:

• User-friendly workflows: Oracle RWMS supports process-driven workflows that are easy to set up and use, with enhanced screen navigation for setup and transaction processing. Users can perform various tasks using radio-frequency (RF) devices or web browsers, such as receiving, put-away, picking, replenishment, loading, shipping, returns processing, cycle counting, and inventory adjustments.
• Appointment scheduling: Oracle RWMS enables users to schedule appointments for inbound and outbound shipments, based on known purchase order quantities, advance shipping notices (ASNs), or blind receipts. Users can also track vendor non-conformance and assign penalties for late or inaccurate deliveries.
• Task management: Oracle RWMS has a built-in task management module that optimizes labor based on user and equipment permissions, task priority, user proximity, and expected labor standards. Users can monitor worker performance and productivity using activity dashboards that provide real-time and historical views of warehouse activity.
• Omnichannel fulfillment: Oracle RWMS supports channel-agnostic fulfillment, allowing users to fulfill customer orders from any source (store, online, catalog) using any method (in-store pickup, direct ship, ship from store). Users can also leverage end-to-end inventory visibility across warehouses and stores to reduce stockouts and improve customer satisfaction.
• Shipping functionality: Oracle RWMS ensures accurate loading and shipping of orders using RF device processing or automated conveyor messaging. Users can also integrate with third-party carriers to generate shipping labels, track shipments, and calculate freight costs.

Benefits of Oracle RWMS

Oracle RWMS can help retailers achieve the following benefits:

• Improved efficiency and accuracy: By automating and optimizing warehouse processes, Oracle RWMS can reduce errors, increase throughput, and improve service levels. Users can also leverage catch-weight and best-before-date processing to handle perishable or variable-weight products.
• Reduced inventory costs: By managing inventory across all distribution centers and yard locations, Oracle RWMS can reduce material write-offs, shrinkage, obsolescence, and carrying costs. Users can also implement inventory strategies such as cross-docking, wave picking, zone picking, batch picking, or pick-to-light to optimize space utilization and order fulfillment.
• Enhanced customer experience: By supporting omnichannel fulfillment and providing complete inventory visibility across channels, Oracle RWMS can enable customers to buy, fulfill, and return anywhere. Users can also create store-friendly outbound shipments with advanced wave management that uses complex algorithms to optimize picking efficiency.
• Faster business growth: By enabling new sales channels and supporting global operations, Oracle RWMS can help retailers expand their market reach and customer base. Users can also leverage the cloud-based architecture of Oracle RWMS to scale up or down as needed without compromising performance or security.

Conclusion

Oracle RWMS is a powerful solution that can transform warehouse operations for retailers. By providing complete visibility and control of orders and inventory across all channels, Oracle RWMS can help retailers improve efficiency, reduce costs, enhance customer experience, and drive faster business growth.