WMS Proof of Concept

Prove Traceable Material Flow in One Warehouse Area

One zone, selected SKUs and lots, real scanners and labels. Every movement confirmed, every location known, FIFO or FEFO enforced rather than hoped for — and the line fed from stock the system can actually account for.

Scope my WMS pilot Talk to a manufacturing engineer

Typical duration6–10 weeks

Pilot scopeOne warehouse zone or one end-to-end material flow

Primary buyerWarehouse Manager

Decision at the endZone-by-zone rollout plan and master-data work list

Is this the problem you need to solve?

Physical stock and system stock disagree, and the count that settles it takes a weekend.
Material is found by asking someone who remembers where it was put.
FIFO and FEFO are policy on paper and improvisation in the aisle.
A customer traceability question takes days of paperwork to answer.

Primary buyer: Warehouse Manager · Logistics Manager · Supply Chain Manager · Production Manager · ERP Manager

What this PoC will prove

Can inventory accuracy in one zone be brought to a level your finance and production people both accept?

Will the operators actually scan — every move, every shift — with the devices and labels proposed?

Does picking and line feeding get faster, or only more documented?

Can FIFO or FEFO be enforced by the system rather than by discipline?

How fast can a lot be traced end to end when a customer asks?

Recommended pilot scope

One warehouse zone, or one end-to-end flow from receiving to line feeding.
Selected SKUs and lots that represent your real handling units and packaging.
One production-feeding scenario with the line that consumes them.
Agreed scanner, label and printer hardware — existing devices reused where they meet the requirement.
Optionally ERP stock transactions, against a test environment.

What will be live during the PoC

Location-controlled stock with confirmed put-away, picking and transfer movements.

Barcode or RFID confirmation at each step, with wrong-item and wrong-location prevention.

FIFO or FEFO enforcement on the scoped lots.

Lot and serial traceability from receipt to line consumption.

How this PoC runs

Week 1–2

Discovery and decision definitionWalk the zone, map the real movement types including the informal ones, agree the SKU and lot scope, the hardware and the success measures.Exit gate: Zone, movement types, hardware and measures agreed.

Week 2–3

Site, process and data readinessReview layout, locations, item and lot master data, units of measure and label formats; establish the current inventory accuracy as a baseline through a controlled count.Exit gate: Baseline inventory accuracy measured and accepted.

Week 3–5

ConfigurationConfigure locations, movement types, FIFO or FEFO rules, users and label and scanner setup; run operator training on the actual devices.Exit gate: Operators complete the flows unaided in a dry run.

Week 5–9

Controlled live operationThe zone runs on the system. Scan compliance, picking times, incidents and stock accuracy are tracked continuously, with a reconciliation count at the end of the period.Exit gate: Closing reconciliation count completed and explained.

Week 9–10

Rollout decision and business casePresent the KPI comparison, the master-data gap report, the label and hardware design, and the zone-by-zone rollout plan.Exit gate: Go, adjust or stop.

Durations are typical, not guaranteed. What extends a schedule: missing or incomplete data, security and network approvals, hardware lead times, sample collection, installation access, the production schedule, ERP test access, and the time your team needs to review results.

No unplanned shutdown is expected. Any installation window or controlled interruption is agreed with you in advance and scheduled around production.

How success will be measured

How success will be measured
Metric	How it is defined	Where the number comes from	Type
Inventory accuracy	Agreement between system and physical stock for the scoped SKUs, from a controlled count at the start and end.	Agreed baseline measurement	Operational
Scan compliance	Share of movements confirmed by scan rather than entered manually or not recorded at all.	MSF platform data	Adoption
Picking cycle time	Time from pick list release to confirmed completion, measured on comparable order profiles.	MSF platform data	Operational
Wrong-pick and wrong-location incidents	Count of incidents caught by the system, and of incidents that still escaped it, over the live period.	MSF platform data	Operational
FIFO or FEFO compliance	Share of picks that took the correct lot under the agreed rule.	MSF platform data	Operational
Trace retrieval time	Time to produce a full forward and backward trace for one lot, compared with the paper process.	Agreed baseline measurement	Operational
Line feeding response	Time from a line material request to confirmed delivery at the workstation.	MSF platform data	Operational

Before implementation, MSF and your team agree how each metric is calculated, where the baseline comes from, what data is excluded, and what result supports a rollout decision. This page lists what gets measured; the actual targets belong in the written PoC scope, not in a marketing claim.

What you need to provide

Warehouse layout, location naming and the zone boundaries you want piloted.
Item, lot and unit-of-measure master data, plus current label formats.
A stock baseline for the zone and the movement types actually used.
Users, printers and scanners available, and the production demand that feeds the line.

Who does what

Meta Smart Factory provides

Discovery workshop and scope facilitation
Solution configuration for the agreed scope
Integration and connection work inside that scope
MSF hardware listed in the proposal
Training for the pilot users
The KPI definitions and validation method
Issue tracking and support during the pilot
The final result report and rollout design
Label and scanning design validated on your real packaging and handling units, not on samples.
A master-data gap report that names exactly which records block a wider rollout.

You provide

A named business owner and a named technical owner
Timely access to users, the line, machines and approved systems
An accurate explanation of the process and the master data
Network, power, mounting and safety access
ERP, PLC and vendor documentation, plus the experts who know them
Representative samples or historical data
Validation that the baseline is fair
Feedback and the acceptance decision
A controlled count at the start and end of the pilot so accuracy is measured, not estimated.
Warehouse operators released for training and for the live period.

Defined in the written proposal

Panel PCs, tablets, servers and GPU servers
Cameras, lenses, lighting and enclosures
Scanners, printers, RFID readers, meters and sensors
Travel, installation, freight, import duty and local electrical work
Whether hardware is rented or purchased
Whether any PoC fee is credited against a rollout

Commercial terms, hardware ownership, travel, integration scope and any rollout credit are defined in the written PoC proposal. They are not the same for every product, and this page does not promise them.

What you receive at the end

A working pilot zone with your operators running it.
Process map of the movement types as they really happen.
Master-data gap report, ranked by rollout impact.
Label, scanner and printer design validated on your packaging.
Stock reconciliation and the KPI comparison against baseline.
Zone-by-zone rollout plan with the hardware quantities behind it.

Dependencies, exclusions and limits

This PoC depends on

Location naming and item master data being good enough to configure — the readiness step says whether it is.
Operators being available for training before the live period starts.

Not included in this PoC

Automated storage and retrieval equipment, conveyors and AGV integration.
Warehouse layout redesign and racking changes.

What this PoC does not claim

Inventory accuracy is measured on the scoped SKUs in the pilot zone. It does not transfer automatically to zones that were not piloted, and it depends on scanning discipline being sustained — which is why scan compliance and adoption are on the scorecard next to it.

Go, adjust or stop — the decision gate

GoGo: accuracy and scan compliance hold — roll out zone by zone on the delivered plan.

AdjustAdjust: the flow works but master data, labels or a device choice needs revision before the next zone.

StopStop: the zone cannot be controlled without a layout or process change that belongs to a different project.

Frequently asked questions

Can we use our existing scanners?

Usually yes, and it is checked in the readiness step rather than assumed. Where a device cannot read your label quality or survive the environment, that becomes a documented finding with a proposed alternative, not a surprise during the live period.

Do we need ERP integration to prove a WMS?

No. The pilot can run with stock managed inside MSF and reconciled against ERP at the end. Live ERP transactions can be added to the scope against a test environment if that is the question you actually need answered.

How do you measure inventory accuracy honestly?

With a controlled count at the start and another at the end of the live period, on the same scoped SKUs, with the counting method agreed beforehand. A number produced by the system counting itself is not evidence.

What about RFID instead of barcodes?

Both are supported. Which one fits depends on your handling units, read distances and environment — the readiness step tests it on your actual material rather than quoting a general read rate.

Request this Proof of Concept

Tell us the scope you have in mind and we will come back with a written PoC plan: what gets connected, what you provide, how success is measured and what the decision at the end looks like.