3D WMS: what seeing the warehouse in 3D is for and when it really adds something
A warehouse management system (WMS) keeps the warehouse in tables: item, bin, quantity. It works, but it forces you to translate “P03-M07-N2” in your head into a place in the building. A 3D WMS does that translation for you: it draws the building and puts the data on top. The sensible question is not whether it looks good, but what it is for. This article goes through the uses that really add something and the cases where it is not needed.
What a 3D WMS is
It is a WMS that includes a model of the building in three dimensions: the racks with their levels and bins, the work areas and the docks, to scale. That model is not a dead floor plan: it is fed by the same data as the rest of the software. If a bin empties, it looks empty; if an item moves, it changes place in the drawing. You can rotate it, zoom in and click a bin to see what it holds.
For it to exist, someone has to have set up the building with its measurements and its numbered bins. If you do not have them yet, start with how to organize and number the locations.
What seeing the warehouse in 3D in a WMS is for
| Use | What it answers | Who it helps |
|---|---|---|
| Locating stock | Where exactly is this item or this batch? | Warehouse manager, new staff, customer service |
| Seeing whose each thing is | How much space does each client take up, and where? | Third-party logistics providers with several clients |
| Turnover heat map | Is what sells most in the best place? | Whoever decides the layout of the building |
| Reviewing a working day | What happened yesterday between eleven and one? | Warehouse manager and management |
Locating stock in 3D
Searching for an item and having the building show you which bins it is in, highlighted, saves more than it seems. A bin code says a lot to someone who has been in the warehouse for years and nothing to someone who joined last week. With the drawing you can see whether the item is spread over five places, whether the reserve is far from the picking bin or whether a particular batch is up high, where the forklift is needed.
At a third-party logistics provider, painting each client in a color shows at a glance how much each one takes up and whether their goods are together or scattered, which is exactly what is later billed as storage.
Turnover heat map (ABC)
The heat map colors each bin according to the number of times it has been picked from in a period. It is the visual version of ABC analysis: the A items are the few that account for most of the picks, the C items the many that hardly move. The warehouse rule is simple: A items near the exit and at hand height; C items at the back and up high.
In a table, that rule is checked line by line. On the map it shows by itself: if there are hot patches at the back of the building or on the top level, there are extra meters walked on every order. Moving those few items is usually the cheapest change you can make in a building. It is worth looking at the map with more than one time window, because what turns over in peak season is not what turns over the rest of the year. The ABC method is explained in cycle counting and its effect on errors, in how to reduce picking errors.
Reviewing a working day
The third use is watching again a day that has already passed: the real actions recorded by the PDAs —picks, put-aways, receipts, packing— replayed on the building, with their time. It helps you understand why a queue formed mid-morning, why an order left late or how replenishment and picking crossed in the same aisle. It is not for watching people, but for seeing the work: what is reviewed is the task and the route.
When a 3D WMS adds something and when it does not
It adds something when the building can no longer be taken in at a glance: several aisles, height, reserve separated from picking, several clients or more than one building. Also when new people join often, or when whoever decides is not in the building every day.
It adds nothing, or little, in these cases:
- →A warehouse with a few racks, where everything can be seen from the door.
- →A warehouse without numbered bins or without scanning: 3D would show data that is not true, looking better.
- →When the drawing is expected to fix the stock. Stock is fixed by scanning and by counts; the drawing only shows it.
That is why the logical order is first stock by bin with a PDA, then turnover and lastly the 3D view. If you are choosing software, look at the basics first in what WMS software must do.
How we do it at Ubika
In Ubika the building is drawn in 3D with its racks, areas and docks. You can rotate it, zoom in and, when you click a bin, it says what it holds; each client is painted in a color and you can see just one client's goods. The box locator searches by SKU, name, barcode or batch, filters by client and by family and highlights the boxes in the building.
The heat map paints turnover by bin on the same building, with an analysis window of 7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days, the list of the hottest aisles and class A marked as the bins that account for 80% of the turnover. The day replay plays back the real working day, action by action, with its timeline.
Not everything is in every plan, and we say it as it is: the 3D warehouse is in the Max plan; the heat map, from the Pro plan up. In the Start plan stock is kept bin by bin with the PDA, which is the first thing to get right.
You can ask for the demo with your data or first see what it does in warehouse management software.
Frequently asked questions
Keep reading
- WMS for B2B: pallets, full boxes and orders to stores and distributors
- The PDA at dispatch: zones by carrier, manifest and driver's signature
- WMS software: what it is, what it must do and how to test it in a demo before you buy
- Warehouse software for small businesses: what it solves, when you need it and how to get started
What Ubika does: warehouse management software · software for 3PLs · WMS for e-commerce