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WMS: In Demand And In Flux I f you’ve recently purchased a Warehouse Management System (WMS), you are in good company, as WMS purchases are on the rise. The worldwide market for WMS solutions is expected to grow at a com- pounded annual rate of 4.8 percent over the next five years, according to a new study, Warehouse Management Systems Worldwide Outlook , from Dedham, Mass.-based ARC Advisory Group. The WMS market reached $1.07 bil- lion in 2006 and is expected to top $1.4 billion in 2011, predicts the report. Though the WMS market is mature, it will experience faster growth in the next few years than it has in the recent
past, says Steve Banker, service director for supply chain management at ARC. “The average WMS solution has a lifespan of 11 years. As the years
between 1995 (11 years prior to the base year of this study) and 2000 were high-growth years for the WMS market, the market going forward will mirror, on a smaller scale, the previous era’s growth,” he explains. In addition, WMS solutions are mor- phing to incorporate new technologies, shows ARC’s research. The increasing use of voice recognition and radio fre- quency solutions in warehouses, for example, has impacted the develop- ment of WMS solutions. WMS providers have devoted a con- siderable effort to understanding the warehouse workflows and processes that result from these new multi- modal terminals, says Banker. WMS solutions must now be configured to support these data collection methods, as well as multimodal applications. In the future, WMS architecture may
WMS Market: Fast Growth Ahead
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