Your Warehouse Management System (WMS) is producing a flood of data every second. The most common mistake we see? Companies assume that data automatically leads to insight. It doesn’t.
Sure, your WMS can tell you an order was picked slowly, but it won’t tell you the reason. Maybe the picking route isn’t set up well, maybe a new employee needs more training, or maybe a product is just in the wrong spot. This is where technology alone falls short—and where the value of experience really shines. Without a team that’s spent years on the warehouse floor, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the data and end up with fixes that don’t actually solve the problem.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the kinds of insights your WMS data can offer—things like operational efficiency, inventory health, cost analysis, and customer satisfaction. More importantly, we’ll show you how to turn those numbers into real, practical strategies that actually work in the real world.
Understanding How Your Operations Run: Efficiency & Productivity
This section helps you see just how smoothly your warehouse is running and how productive your team is.
Optimizing How Your Team Works (Labor Performance Optimization)
- What You Learn:
You can pinpoint your best workers, see where people might need more training, and discover any slowdowns in specific tasks like picking items or packing boxes. You'll also understand the real cost of labor for each step.
- What Data Helps:
How long each task takes, how many units a person picks or packs per hour (U/PH), how often mistakes happen per employee, time spent waiting or traveling in the warehouse, and how many orders are completed by each shift or team.
- What You Can Do:
Assign tasks more effectively, provide targeted training, make picking routes more efficient, offer bonuses for good performance, and plan shifts to match how busy you expect to be.
- Why Experience Matters:
Data might show Picker A is slower than Picker B. But a seasoned supervisor knows that Picker A is handling the most fragile, complex items or is currently training a new team member. Without that context, you risk penalizing your best trainer or most careful handler.
Finding Bottlenecks in Your Processes (Process Bottleneck Identification)
- What You Learn:
You can find exact points in your warehouse process where things get held up or become inefficient, whether it's when new items arrive, during quality checks, or at the packing or shipping areas.
- What Data Helps:
How much time is spent in different areas or steps, how long things wait in line for a specific process, how much work piles up (backlog), and if tasks are taking longer than planned.
- What You Can Do:
Redesign your warehouse layout, move resources around, automate certain repetitive steps, update your standard operating procedures (SOPs), or invest in new equipment to move materials faster.
- Why Experience Matters:
Your WMS can flag a recurring bottleneck at the packing station every afternoon. Only an experienced manager, however, will recognize that it's caused by a major supplier's delivery arriving at 1 PM every day, creating a massive workload surge. The solution isn't more packers; it's a rescheduled delivery.
Making the Most of Your Space (Space Utilization Optimization)
- What You Learn:
This shows you how well you're using every inch of your warehouse space, highlights empty areas, and helps you figure out the best places to store products.
- What Data Helps:
The percentage of your warehouse space being used versus what's available, how densely products are stored per item type (SKU), how often products are moved, historical patterns of where things are put away, and data on crowded aisles.
- What You Can Do:
Move fast-selling items closer to the shipping area, combine slow-moving inventory to save space, reconfigure shelves or racks, and plan for whether your storage needs will grow or shrink.
- Why Experience Matters:
The data might show an entire aisle is underutilized. But a warehouse veteran knows that aisle is directly in the path of a cold-storage exhaust fan, making it unsuitable for temperature-sensitive products. Experience tells you how to balance a data-perfect layout with the physical realities of the building.
Using Your Equipment Wisely (Equipment Utilization & Maintenance)
- What You Learn:
You can track how much your forklifts, conveyor belts, and other equipment are being used. This helps you deploy them better and schedule maintenance before they break down.
- What Data Helps:
How long equipment runs, how far it travels, how many lifting or cycling operations it performs, its maintenance history, and how often it breaks down.
- What You Can Do:
Prevent expensive breakdowns, ensure equipment is used where it's needed most, justify buying new equipment, and even cut down on energy costs.
- Why Experience Matters:
The WMS can track that Forklift #3 has low usage hours, suggesting it's underutilized. But an experienced operator knows it has a slight hydraulic drift not yet severe enough to trigger a maintenance alert, making it unsafe for high-value pallets. They prevent a major accident by flagging it early, something raw data alone would miss.
Keeping Your Inventory Healthy: Smart Stock Management
This section goes beyond just knowing what you have. It helps you understand the true cost and performance of your inventory.
Calculating the Real Cost of Holding Inventory (True Carrying Cost Analysis)
- What You Learn:
You can accurately figure out how much it truly costs to keep items in your warehouse (including storage, insurance, risk of becoming outdated, and the money tied up in them). You can even break this down by specific product type (SKU), category, or customer.
- What Data Helps:
How long each item has been stored, the amount of warehouse space it takes up, insurance costs, how much money you lose on items that become obsolete, and the capital (money) that's tied up in your stock.
- What You Can Do:
Make better decisions about how much extra stock (safety stock) to keep, how much to order at one time, how quickly you want to sell through your inventory, and how to get rid of slow-moving items to free up cash.
- Why Experience Matters:
A WMS can calculate that holding a specific spare part is expensive. But an experienced manager knows that this part is critical for a major client's operations, and the cost of a stockout (which could shut down a factory line) is a thousand times greater than the cost of holding the inventory. Experience prevents a purely data-driven, but wrong, decision.
How Accurate Are Your Sales Predictions? (Demand Forecasting Accuracy & Impact)
- What You Learn:
You can check if your predictions about customer demand (forecasts) were correct by comparing them to actual sales. You'll also understand how errors in your predictions lead to either running out of stock or having too much inventory.
- What Data Helps:
Historical sales information, the difference between your predicted sales and actual sales, how many times you ran out of stock, how many days items were overstocked, and your "perfect order rate" related to whether you had enough inventory.
- What You Can Do:
Improve your forecasting methods (e.g., consider seasonal changes, special promotions, or outside factors), adjust when you reorder products, and improve communication between your sales and marketing teams.
- Why Experience Matters:
The data will clearly show your sales forecast for Product X was wrong in July. But only a seasoned planner will remember that a major competitor ran an unannounced liquidation sale that month, temporarily distorting the market. They know not to over-correct future forecasts based on this one-time anomaly.
Finding Old or Unwanted Stock (Stagnant & Obsolete (Dead) Stock Identification)
- What You Learn:
The WMS can automatically flag items that haven't been moved or sold in a certain amount of time, or those nearing their expiration dates.
- What Data Helps:
The last date an item was moved, how old the inventory is, expiration dates, how fast an item has historically sold, and the cost of holding each specific item (SKU).
- What You Can Do:
Plan sales or discounts for these items, offer them in bundles, return them to the supplier, or liquidate them to free up cash and space.
- Why Experience Matters:
Your WMS might flag a high-end designer handbag as "dead stock" because it hasn't sold in a year. An experienced merchandiser, however, knows it's a timeless, non-seasonal piece that holds its value, and that a fire sale would damage the brand's premium reputation far more than the cost of holding the stock.
Storing Items in the Best Spots (Optimal Slotting & Putaway Strategies)
- What You Learn:
This helps you find the most efficient storage locations for new incoming inventory based on how often it's picked, its size, and if it needs to be near other specific items.
- What Data Helps:
How fast a product sells (fast/slow movers), its length, width, and height, historical picking routes, product groups (families), and different picking zones in the warehouse.
- What You Can Do:
Reduce the distance pickers have to walk, make the process of putting new items away more efficient, and pack more inventory into your existing warehouse space.
- Why Experience Matters:
The WMS might suggest the 'perfect' slot for a fast-moving product is on a low shelf near packing. But an experienced team lead knows that location creates a major traffic jam for forklifts during peak hours. They'll choose a second-best location that improves the overall flow of the entire warehouse, not just one metric.
Understanding Your Money: Cost Analysis & Profitability
WMS data can dig deep into your costs, showing you the true profit for every operation.
The Real Cost to Serve Each Order, Customer, or Sales Channel (Cost-to-Serve per Order/Customer/Channel)
- What You Learn:
You can understand the exact cost involved in fulfilling a specific order, from when it's received and stored, to picking, packing, and shipping. You can even break this down by different types of customers, sales platforms (like Shopify or Amazon), or geographical areas.
- What Data Helps:
All your operational expenses (like labor, warehouse space, packaging, shipping) linked to individual orders, customer IDs, and sales channels.
- What You Can Do:
Adjust your product pricing, identify customer groups that are costing you too much, optimize shipping methods for certain regions, and focus on the most profitable sales channels.
- Why Experience Matters:
The data may show that 'Customer C' is your least profitable account due to high shipping costs. An experienced account manager, however, knows this customer is your most influential brand ambassador and a key strategic partner. The solution isn't to drop them, but to work with them to consolidate orders or adjust shipping schedules.
Finding Hidden Expenses (Hidden Cost Exposures)
- What You Learn:
You can uncover costs that aren't immediately obvious, such as the high cost of processing returns, the money lost from damaged goods, or the expense of picking the wrong items and having to re-ship them.
- What Data Helps:
Codes explaining why items were returned, the cost to re-process those returns, the cost to re-ship incorrect orders, and the value of any damaged goods.
- What You Can Do:
Improve your quality checks, refine packaging to prevent damage, train staff to avoid common errors, and adjust your return policies to be more efficient.
- Why Experience Matters:
The data might show a rising cost in the "returns processing" category. But it takes an experienced eye to trace that cost back to a single supplier who consistently mislabels their inbound shipments, forcing your team to spend hours correcting errors at receiving. The problem isn't the return; it's the supplier.
How Supplier Performance Affects Your Costs (Supplier Performance & Cost Impact)
- What You Learn:
You can evaluate how reliable your suppliers are (e.g., if they deliver on time, if their shipments are accurate) and how this impacts your internal logistics costs. For example, inaccurate shipments might mean higher costs for your receiving team, or late deliveries could lead to lost sales.
- What Data Helps:
Supplier delivery times, how accurate incoming orders are, results from quality control checks, and the time it takes to process deliveries from each supplier.
- What You Can Do:
Negotiate better deals with reliable suppliers, consider other suppliers if current ones are unreliable, and use supplier scorecards to track their performance.
- Why Experience Matters:
The data on a supplier scorecard might show that 'Supplier Z' is late 15% of the time. But an experienced supply chain manager knows that this supplier is the only one who can handle complex custom orders, and their quality is 100% perfect. Experience tells you to work with them to fix their delivery times, not just drop them for a 'faster' but less capable supplier.
Keeping Customers Happy: Satisfaction & Service
Ultimately, the data from your WMS directly influences how satisfied your customers are.
Analyzing Your "Perfect Order" Rate (Perfect Order Rate Analysis)
- What You Learn:
This measures the percentage of orders that are delivered on time, are complete (nothing missing), are undamaged, and come with all the correct paperwork.
- What Data Helps:
Records of on-time deliveries, order accuracy rates, reports of damaged items, and customer feedback.
- What You Can Do:
Identify exactly where in your fulfillment process things go wrong that impact customer satisfaction, allowing you to make targeted improvements.
- Why Experience Matters:
The data will tell you your perfect order rate dropped by 5% last month. An experienced operations lead, after walking the floor, discovers the root cause: the new, cheaper packing tape you sourced isn't holding up during transit, leading to damaged boxes. The WMS sees the effect; experience finds the cause. Achieving a high perfect order rate isn't about the system; it's about this level of operational quality.
How Well Are You Delivering to Customers? (Customer Delivery Performance)
- What You Learn:
You can analyze how long deliveries take and how often they are successful, broken down by the shipping method used, geographical area, and specific shipping company.
- What Data Helps:
Performance data from different shipping carriers, how often delivery attempts are successful, the time products spend in transit, and direct customer feedback on deliveries.
- What You Can Do:
Choose the best shipping company for specific routes, adjust your delivery promises to be more realistic, and give customers more accurate tracking information.
- Why Experience Matters:
The data might show that deliveries to a specific city are consistently delayed. An experienced logistics coordinator can investigate and discover the issue isn't the final-mile carrier, but that the packages are missing the regional sorting hub's cut-off time by just 15 minutes each day. The fix is a small change to your internal schedule, not a costly change of carrier.
Understanding Why Products Are Returned (Returns Trend Analysis)
- What You Learn:
You can figure out why products are being returned. Is it due to a mistake in your warehouse, a problem with the product itself, or simply a change of mind by the customer?
- What Data Helps:
Codes explaining the reason for returns, the total number of returns, and the cost of returns for specific products or customers.
- What You Can Do:
Improve product quality, enhance picking accuracy to reduce errors, refine product descriptions to set more realistic expectations, and make your returns process smoother for a better customer experience.
- Why Experience Matters:
Return codes tell part of the story, but experienced professionals can spot patterns, identify root causes, and implement changes that actually reduce returns and improve customer satisfaction.
Leveraging Your WMS Data: The Path to Strategic Advantage
The true strength of a WMS isn't just in helping you manage daily warehouse tasks. It's in its role as a central hub for incredible amounts of data. With the right team to analyze this information – a team that blends advanced WMS capabilities with deep operational understanding – you can turn simple numbers into powerful business strategies that:
- Uncover hidden inefficiencies and unexpected costs.
- Accurately predict what customers will buy and optimize how much inventory you keep.
- Make your team more productive and allocate your resources smarter.
- Act early to reduce risks in your supply chain.
- Significantly boost how happy and loyal your customers are.
Your warehouse shouldn't just be a cost center—it should be a competitive advantage. But turning data into real-world results takes more than just software; it takes decades of hands-on experience.
That's the difference at Nippon Express. As the 3PL partner for the world's leading brands, we know a WMS is just a tool. Our expertise is in using that tool to find practical strategies that improve your bottom line. We bring a deep understanding of high-quality, on-the-ground execution to translate your data into real growth.
If you're ready to unlock the true value in your warehouse, let's talk. Contact us today to learn how our blend of data intelligence and operational excellence can work for you.
*Images are for illustrative purposes only. The availability of specific features and data analytics may vary by system and region. Please contact us for a personalized consultation.
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