Gartner recently published the companion report to its Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Warehouse Management Systems report. The report titled: “Critical Capabilities for Warehouse Management Systems” provides a deeper dive into the key capabilities that companies should pay attention to when evaluating warehouse management systems.
What are Critical Capabilities at Gartner?
Gartner Critical Capabilities for WMS states, “Our assessment is based on 11 key differentiating product capabilities evaluated across five major use cases of warehouse and distribution center operational needs, based on warehouse complexity.”
The critical capabilities considered are “core and extended functionality, usability, analytics/performance management, implementation/integration tools, adaptability, supporting technologies, intralogistics smart robotics support, technical architecture, materials handling integration, and overall simplicity of use and operation.”
Each offering is assessed across the nine critical capabilities. Solutions are then evaluated based on the weighted importance of these capabilities for each use case. As a result, the positioning of each solution may vary depending on how well it fits the specific requirements.
This year’s report notes that, “Although the WMS market is mature, customer demand for specific functionality and capabilities is driving some vendors to enhance their offerings, thus changing the positioning in this research. Notable considerations include:
- Multitenant cloud solutions built on a composable microservices architecture, which provide extensibility and continuous upgrades
- Work planning and optimization
- Enhanced user experience (UX) through a more consumer-grade look and feel
- Employee engagement through enhanced labor management and planning, as well as gamification
- Robotics integration, observation, optimization and orchestration strategy and capabilities
- Leveraging technology in the WMS to reduce the implementation burden resulting from constrained resources
- Improved capabilities and UX for the supervisory workforce
- Enhanced support for material handling automation, integration and work orchestration across various automation classes and vendors
- Embedding advanced analytics and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), including generative AI (GenAI) in the WMS.
Our Key Takeaways from the Gartner Critical Capabilities for Warehouse Management Systems Report
The 2024 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Warehouse Management Systems report synthesizes product information provided by 20 vendors across 23 total WMS products. Made4net’s WarehouseExpert™ WMS has been recognized in the top half of all five warehouse environments and is the only WMS product to maintain a score above 3.0 across all warehouse use cases.
In our opinion, WarehouseExpert is a great fit across multiple warehouse types because it delivers what customers are seeking in terms of specific functionality and capabilities regardless of the particular warehouse environment.
Multitenant Cloud Solutions with Composable Microservices Architecture
Made4net’s architecture stands out with its composable, distributed microservices framework, offering extensibility and continuous upgrades. This flexible and scalable approach supports operations of any size, distinguishing us from other vendors and ensuring consistently high scores across various warehouse use cases.
Work Planning and Optimization
Our TaskExpert services feature a robust optimization engine, driven by extensive business rules and sophisticated algorithms. This system optimally utilizes both human and machine resources to enhance work efficiency at the distribution center. The task execution feedback integrates with our LaborExpert LMS for effective labor planning.
Enhanced User Experience (UX)
We deliver a modern, user-friendly experience that blends business application functionality with a consumer-grade interface. Our system offers strong usability with an improved HTML5-based responsive UI, pull-down menus, shortcuts, mouse-free navigation, and built-in tooltips. It is adaptable and emphasizes simplicity.
Employee Engagement Through Labor Management and Gamification
Our LMS and LaborExpert solutions enhance employee engagement by incorporating advanced labor management, planning features, and gamification elements.
Robotics Integration, Optimization, and Orchestration
Few systems offer seamless integration and multi-agent orchestration for AMRs and automation solutions. Made4net provides an “out-of-the-box” WCS with an integrated Automation Execution layer, capable of assigning and orchestrating tasks across various automation agents.
Reduced Implementation Burden
Our powerful platform and integrated tools are designed to ease the implementation process, even with constrained resources. Key features include:
- Out-of-the-Box Functionality: Our WMS offers comprehensive core and advanced features right from the start, eliminating the need for extensive setup time.
- “No-Code” and “Low-Code” Tools: These configuration tools empower companies—regardless of technical expertise—to customize and enhance the base application. This reduces both the time and resources required to deliver a tailored solution.
Enhanced Capabilities and UX for the Supervisory Workforce
Our platform provides configurable and personalized dashboards, widgets, and reports, enhancing the user experience for supervisory staff. These tools offer comprehensive analytics and insights, tailored to meet specific operational needs.
Support for Material Handling Automation, Integration, and Orchestration
Building on our capabilities for AMR integration and synchronization, we provide robust support for material handling automation across various classes and vendors. Our system ensures seamless orchestration and integration, optimizing workflows throughout the operation.
Choosing the Right WMS
When it comes to a WMS solution, having a good understanding of your warehouse complexity is key as more complex facilities require more WMS functional breadth and depth to support their needs, while less complex operations often require less functional robustness.
We encourage you to use Gartner WMS research as part of your evaluation of WMS products. For the latest Gartner report, click here. If you need support evaluating solutions, we’re here to help. Schedule a call to learn more.
Disclaimer:
Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Warehouse Management Systems, Simon Tunstall, Dwight Klappich, Rishabh Narang, Federica Stufano, 6 August 2024.
Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Warehouse Management Systems, Simon Tunstall, Dwight Klappich, Rishabh Narang, Federica Stufano, 2 May 2024.
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