3PL WMS System

3PL WMS explained

See how a 3PL WMS system actually works

Inbound, putaway, inventory, picking, packing, shipping and billing, explained in the order a pallet moves through your building.

On this site

  • The modules a 3PL system is made of
  • Typical workflows, step by step
  • What implementation involves for a team
  • Where the moving parts connect

Start at the loading dock

A WMS makes more sense once you follow one pallet through a building. It arrives, gets checked, gets a location, waits, gets picked into an order, gets packed, leaves, and a charge lands on someone's invoice. Each of those steps is a module in the software.

The pages here explain the modules one at a time and show how they connect. If you are shopping, you will know which questions to ask. If you are rolling out, you will know what your team should expect.

The building behind the module names

The pages here describe a system by its steps, so this is a look at the places those steps happen. The screens come from the Microsive demo platform and use demo data: a whole building, a rack row, and the equipment list.

3D warehouse management system building view of a demo warehouse with racking, labelled zones and dock trucks (demo data)
Building view in the Microsive demo platform. Demo data, not a real warehouse.
3D warehouse management system rack view of shelving rows with cartons, an open aisle and a forklift carrying a put-away task tag (demo data)
Rack view in the Microsive demo platform. Demo data, not a real warehouse.
3D warehouse management system equipment tracking list of forklifts and their current tasks beside a demo warehouse scene (demo data)
Equipment tracking in the Microsive demo platform. Battery values are simulated. Demo data, not a real warehouse.

See Cargohold

Explained

Modules

What each part of a 3PL system does and what it hands to the next part.

01Modules

3PL WMS Modules and What Each Hands Over

Ten modules from client accounts to client access, set out as a relay, with the one question that exposes a weak version of each.

Updated 12 Oct 20265 min read

Workflows

Receiving to shipping, drawn as the steps your team really takes.

02Workflows

3PL Inbound Receiving Workflow in a WMS

Seven stages from expected receipt to release to stock, what the system should capture at the dock and what a person has to decide.

Updated 12 Oct 20265 min read

03Workflows

3PL WMS Putaway and Location Logic

How a 3PL WMS picks a location for received stock, which simple rules it can use, and why the scan at the shelf is what finishes putaway.

Updated 12 Oct 20265 min read

04Workflows

How a 3PL WMS System Works Step by Step

One pallet through a 3PL warehouse system, from arrival to billing, with what gets recorded at each step and where people still decide.

Updated 12 Oct 20265 min read

Pages still being written: Implementation.