By Pauline Poissonnier, Head of Solutions, Hardis Supply Chain

For decades, manufacturers and distributors have relied on established quality management tools like Lean methods, Six Sigma, and continuous improvement frameworks to improve efficiency, consistency, and customer satisfaction. These tools have helped organizations control variability, identify root causes, and embed discipline into operations.

Yet, the warehouse is one critical area that has often lagged behind.

As supply chains grow more complex and customer expectations continue to rise, many organizations are discovering that traditional quality tools alone are no longer enough. Instead, a Warehouse Management System (WMS) is a foundational capability that supports quality, resilience, and scalability across the supply chain.

Quality is the Baseline

Quality in supply chain operations isn’t optional. It underpins regulatory compliance, cost control, service reliability, and brand reputation. Errors in inventory accuracy, order fulfillment, or traceability create inefficiencies, but they also create a substantial amount of risk.

Most organization approach quality across three core dimensions:

• Processes: how work is performed
• Organization: how teams are structured and managed
• Product and services: what is delivered to customers

And within each dimension, maturity typically evolves from basic inspection, to control, to continuous improvement, and ultimately to innovation. The challenge for many companies is sustaining progress across all three dimensions, especially as volumes increase, labor becomes harder to secure, and supply chain difficulties become the norm.

This is where a WMS plays a crucial role.

The WMS as a Daily Operational Quality Engine

Traditionally, quality tools are applied periodically with audits, workshops, and improvement projects. A wMS, by contrast, operates continuously. It embeds quality directly into daily execution.

At a process level, a WMS captures operational data in real-time and enforces standard workflows. Receiving, putaway, picking, replenishment, and shipping are all guided by system logic rather than tribal knowledge. This reduces reliance on manual decision-making and limits variability between shifts, sites, and operators.

Because activities are digitized, performance can be measured objectively. Bottlenecks, errors, and deviations become visible, and not weeks later in a report, but immediately. This creates a feedback loop that supports ongoing improvement rather than reactive correction.

Just as importantly, a WMS enables processes that are difficult (or impossible) to manage manually, such as dynamic slotting, rule-based replenishment, and end-to-end traceability.

Strengthening Organizational Discipline and Visibility

The organizational impact of a WMS is often underestimated.

Before implementation, processes must be clearly defined and standardized. This alone can uncover inefficiencies and inconsistencies that have accumulated over time. Once live, the system provides a shared, real-time view of operations across teams and management levels.

Work is assigned based on priorities and constraints rather than informal practices. Performance becomes transparent. Supervisors can move from firefighting to proactive management, using data to balance workloads and anticipate future needs.

As labor challenges persist across the industry, these capabilities are increasingly critical. When knowledge is embedded in systems rather than individuals, organizations become more resilient to turnover and growth.

Improving Product and Service Outcomes

While a WMS primarily governs warehouse execution, its downstream impact on product and service quality is significant.

Accurate inventory, controlled handling, and system-driven validation reduce errors before they reach customers. Traceability supports compliance requirements in regulated industries and simplifies recalls or investigations when issues arise.

Over time, the data generated by a WMS can inform broader supply chain design decisions such as network configuration, sustainability initiatives, and service-level differentiation, allowing companies to rethink how they serve customers rather than simply how they ship orders.

From Support Function to Strategic Capability

Warehousing has long been viewed as a cost center, but at present it can be seen as a competitive strategy.

A modern WMS does more than optimize picking paths or inventory counts. It creates the operational foundation required to scale, standardize, and innovate safely. Unlike traditional quality tools that are applied intermittently, a WMS is used every day, by every operator, across every transaction.

As supply chains move toward greater automation, connectivity, and responsiveness, the question is no longer whether organizations need a WMS, but whether they can afford to operate without one.

Pauline Poissonnier is Head of Solutions & Alliances at Hardis Supply Chain, where she leads go-to-market strategy, partnerships, and sales enablement for the company’s advanced supply chain software. With more than a decade at Hardis—including serving as Commercial Director for France—she has helped strengthen the company’s position as a leading WMS provider in Europe. She focuses on accelerating supply chain innovation through automation and digitalization to help businesses scale efficiently and sustainably. Earlier in her career, she managed major logistics transformation initiatives and WMS deployments across sectors such as e-commerce, retail, luxury, and pharmaceuticals. This hands-on experience gives her a deep understanding of operational challenges and the technology required to solve them.