The complex task of managing a supply chain requires the successful coordination of many moving parts, including sourcing materials, forecasting demand, and keeping logistics in sync.
Without a robust and seamless infrastructure, it’s easy to struggle with these core responsibilities. For example, without a platform that accurately forecasts demand and gives real-time updates on stock levels, you might find it difficult to keep balanced stock levels — too much inventory equates to wasted money, while too little can lead to shortages, delays, and missed opportunities.
Manhattan Associates, a leading global technology provider of supply chain and omnichannel commerce solutions, helps businesses overcome these and other challenges.
Learn more about the essential elements of an efficient, simplified supply chain, brought to you by Manhattan Associates.
A powerful Transportation Management System solution
A robust transportation management system (TMS) is a vital tool in the modern logistics provider’s toolkit. After all, when businesses rely on outdated or underperforming methods of managing transportation and logistics, it becomes much harder to keep costs under control.
To alleviate these problems, Manhattan Active Transportation Management gives users real-time shipping visibility, smarter route planning, and automated compliance. Its powerful engine can handle complex transportation optimizations up to ten times faster than legacy systems. And thanks to baked-in machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities, it can optimize shipping methods and manage up-to-the-minute distribution planning on the fly — all without needing constant input. Furthermore, its cloud-native, microservices-based architecture means enterprises can easily scale the platform as needed.
The result is lower shipping costs, improved visibility, and increased efficiency, making it a top-rated solution for companies grappling with transportation-related supply chain challenges.
A Warehouse Management Solution for control and visibility
Warehouse management is just as crucial as transportation, if not more so. Older warehouse management solutions (WMS) have a hard time keeping up with even the most basic needs of the modern enterprise, leaving businesses struggling with inventory, employee management, and other day-to-day tasks.
One common reason for these inefficiencies is that warehouse management solutions often don’t integrate well with other platforms like warehouse execution systems (WES) or TMS solutions. When the WMS doesn’t sync with the TMS, for example, shipping schedules may not align with the date on which orders are ready for pickup, delaying deliveries. And without proper integration, workers may have to manually enter data from one system into another, increasing the risk of errors like incorrect quantities or shipping details.
Manhattan Active Warehouse Management provides complete control and visibility of warehouse operations. Its slotting optimization feature helps businesses find the best locations to store inventory, making it easier to quickly pick and pack products. It also ensures that items are grouped together based on trends and demands so that the right products are ready at the right time. WMS data is presented in easy-to-understand visual reports, helping teams keep tabs on everything from big-picture logistics down to the smallest details. And because Manhattan’s WMS has a first-of-its-kind built-in WES, it’s simple for businesses to coordinate both workers and automation.
Finally, unlike legacy systems that struggle with seamless integration, Manhattan’s WMS connects easily with other supply chain management solutions, letting users add new tools, switch vendors, or scale their operations without any hassle.
A Point of Sale system for overcoming retail challenges
Managing inventory across multiple locations, online platforms, and in-store systems is complex and error-prone. Without an efficient point of sale (POS) system, product visibility can suffer, and things can go out of stock when customers need them most.
Manhattan Active Point of Sale helps retailers overcome these challenges. It lets businesses track every item in their inventory, no matter the location, so that staff can confidently serve customers whether an item is on the shelf or needs to be shipped. It also makes shopping and returns seamless across digital and physical channels.
The system is powerful yet easy to use, with an intuitive interface that makes customer data more accessible than ever before. All of this is powered by a constantly updated, cloud-based platform so retailers can focus on helping customers without any issue.
Supply Chain Planning for seamless operations
The element that ties all this together is a detailed strategy. To this end, businesses use modern supply chain planning practices and tools to facilitate the moving of goods, resources, and information through the supply chain.
However, even a solid plan can be marred by inefficiency. For example, different teams may store information separately, resulting in data silos that make it difficult to see the whole picture. This can lead to procurement teams ordering supplies based on outdated inventory data, or production teams relying on numbers that don’t reflect current sales. Without accurate, updated information smoothly flowing between departments, business leaders often make poor decisions that lead to wasted time and money.
Manhattan Active Supply Chain Planning addresses these challenges by combining planning and execution into a single system, unifying data from different parts of the supply chain — like warehouse inventories, transportation schedules, and customer orders — into one shared platform. With all supply chain data in one place, business leaders can more easily predict demand, restock inventory, and ship products on time. This allows for faster, data-driven decisions.
End-to-end solutions and cloud-based updates
Even the most powerful supply chain software can fall behind if not regularly updated with security patches, feature additions, and optimizations that keep it running smoothly.
Manhattan Associates handles these updates seamlessly, including regular software updates every 90 days, eliminating the need for a vendor to keep your supply chain running at its best.
“Our customers always get the latest features,” a Manhattan representative says. “Being cloud-native allows all of our systems to be unified and integrated in real-time, empowering our customers to make more intelligent business decisions.”
Manhattan also partners with Google Cloud to offer the highest-quality data storage capabilities while keeping businesses up to date with the latest tools and technologies.
Manhattan: A Gartner Magic Quadrant and Forrester Wave leader
Manhattan is recognized as a Gartner Magic Quadrant leader for TMS and WMS for its ability to execute a clear company vision, noted not just for delivering strong results but for being well-prepared to meet future supply chain demands. This makes Manhattan a go-to for businesses that need scalable, flexible, and unified supply chain management solutions.
Manhattan was also named the only recognized leader in the Forrester Wave: Order Management Systems (OMS) report for Q2 2023, a respected industry review that helps businesses compare OMS providers. Manhattan earned the highest score possible in 16 out of 24 areas and was referred to as the “most comprehensive solution in the market” by Forrester Wave.
A case study in efficiency: New balance
Global athletic brand New Balance was facing increasing challenges with customer compliance and shipping accuracy as major retailers ramped up their chargeback programs — systems where retailers penalize suppliers for late or incorrect shipments. And because the brand relied heavily on manual processes and outdated warehouse management systems that made it difficult to ship the right products on time, costly penalties and delays were beginning to add up.
To solve these issues, New Balance partnered with Manhattan. By implementing Manhattan’s Warehouse Management, Slotting Optimization, and Supply Chain Intelligence tools, New Balance automated much of its manual data tasks, saving time and improving accuracy. For instance, RFID technology now handles inbound inventory scanning, using radio waves to identify and track items automatically — eliminating the need to open every box for manual inventory.
“It’s easier to manage with Manhattan,” said New Balance’s Distribution Services Manager, Irene Mahoney. “We know the order types and have our wave planning selection criteria rules built to prioritize them. We’re also able to take in orders hourly, which we could never do before.”
The result was improved efficiency, reduced chargebacks, and increased customer satisfaction, giving New Balance a competitive edge in the market.
Manhattan Associates: Setting a new standard for supply chain management software
Supply chain management is notoriously tricky, and with so few service providers offering truly integrated solutions, it’s easy for manual tasks to pile up, leading to delays, wasted resources, and unhappy customers.
Manhattan Associates simplifies supply chain management by offering a suite of cloud-based solutions that are unified, transparent, and user-friendly. Reach out to Manhattan today to discover how you can take full control of your entire supply chain with one seamless solution.
