Knobby
“Orders are flying out the door quicker and more accurately. Plus our team love it.”
[Result metric, baseline and period to confirm]
.wms warehouse management
One WMS for every client in the building, each on its own rules.
Licence-plate control, 17 stock-rotation rules, native carrier shipping, 3PL billing and warehouse control, configured per client and per site instead of coded.
01Fit
Where .wms fits, and where it does not.
Built for
- Several clients, brands or business units in one building
- High SKU counts with B2B and B2C orders from the same stock
- Batch, serial, expiry or custom traceability
- Several sites or countries on one instance
- Automation now, or on the roadmap
Probably not for
An operation that will stay simple pick-pack with no client rules, no traceability and no plans to automate. A lighter tool will serve you well and cost less.
02Capabilities
Ten capabilities, shown as the screens that run them.
Illustrative mock-up with synthetic data: inbound pre-alert listing advance shipment notices with client, contents, ETA and status. 01
Receiving
ASNs arrive by schema-validated API, Excel upload or ERP connector. Staff see an inbound pre-alert before the truck arrives, with container and SSCC receiving.
Inventory and traceabilityIllustrative mock-up with synthetic data: licence-plated pallet record with location, client, item, quantity, batch, best-before date, custom trackers and transaction history. 02
Inventory and traceability
Every pallet, carton or tote is its own licence-plated record. 17 traceability fields per stock line: batch, serial, five dates and ten nameable trackers.
Inventory and traceabilityIllustrative mock-up with synthetic data: directed putaway recommending a bin by cube fit and distance factor for a fast-moving item. 03
Putaway and replenishment
Directed putaway by fixed bin, dimension fit or cube fit. Fast movers land near dispatch, scored on three months of weighted sales.
Inventory and traceabilityIllustrative mock-up with synthetic data: Wave Builder listing five waves with methods such as Pick To Tote and Bulk Then Array Sort, units, cube, carrier cut-off and status. 04
Waves and picking
Six wave methods and eight pick methods, chosen per order. Auto-Wave builds on a schedule, capped by jobs, units, weight and cube.
Fulfilment executionIllustrative mock-up with synthetic data: 3D cartonisation choosing a 400 by 300 by 200 carton at 87 percent fill before picking starts. 05
Packing and cartonisation
3D cartonisation chooses the carton before picking starts. Ten pack methods on one job engine, so every activity is tracked and billable.
Fulfilment executionIllustrative mock-up with synthetic data: freight estimate across four eligible carrier services with the cheapest selected for the job. 06
Carrier shipping
Connote, label, manifest, DG data and SSCC from one carrier engine. Freight is estimated across eligible services and the cheapest is chosen per job.
Fulfilment executionIllustrative mock-up with synthetic data: charge review for one client for one week: storage, inbound, outbound and manual charges generated from warehouse transactions, with sell, buy and margin. 07
3PL billing
Charges generated from warehouse transactions in 27 billing units. Rate cards per client; storage by pallet, outer, inner or unit; buy against sell per charge.
3PL billing and client portalIllustrative mock-up with synthetic data: client portal order approval where an order over the team dollar cap is sent for email approval. 08
Client portal
Clients place orders, see stock by licence plate and run their own reports. Teams, dollar and quantity caps, email approval, cost centres and two-factor sign-in.
3PL billing and client portalIllustrative mock-up with synthetic data: handheld pick screen. Go to bin A-12-03-B, pick 3 of item HPC-KIB-12, batch B2409-17, best before 14 March 2027, FEFO rotation. 09
Mobility
Native Android and iOS apps for receiving, putaway, picking, packing and counts. 16 scanner services, from Zebra RFID to ProGlove wearables.
Fulfilment executionIllustrative mock-up with synthetic data: integration log showing recent order imports, ASN receipt, carrier manifest, stock sync and a report refresh. 10
Integrations and reporting
A versioned API with published XSD schemas; about 60 business events drive 87 export formats. Power BI connectors over 24 transactional tables.
Integrations
03Automation and control
The WMS decides. Our WCS moves it. One team owns both.
- Control software for shuttles and lifts, conveyors, inbound and outbound sorters, put-to-light and right-size packaging machines, delivered on live sites.
- Release work to AMR and goods-to-person systems through dedicated APIs; picks, receipts, adjustments and order status report back.
- White-box by design: the rules that connect a wave to a conveyor are readable, and the engineers who wrote them take the call.
04Configured, not coded
Change the rules without a change request.
Scoped settings
Resolve by instance, warehouse and client.
Generic Page Engine
Database-defined screens on web and handheld; no app release needed.
Triggers and report rules
Run against documents or on a schedule; replace built-in putaway logic.
05Boundaries
What .wms does not do.
| Not in .wms | What happens instead |
|---|---|
| Returns authorisation and refunds | Returns are received as a receipt type and held. There is no RMA workflow. |
| Periodic re-slotting | Placement is optimised at putaway using velocity. Bins are not re-slotted on a schedule. |
| Labour standards and incentive pay | Timed activities are recorded per user. Engineered standards and incentive pay are not in .wms. |
| Yard and dock appointments | Not in .wms today. Inbound pre-alerts and container receiving are. |
06Customers and security
Running on .wms today.
3PL and contract logistics
Northline, Storefast, Evercold, HDS
Retail and ecommerce brands
Booktopia, Gazman, Camilla, Munro Footwear, Kitchen Warehouse, Status Anxiety
Enterprise and services
Serco, Signify
United Kingdom
Miniclipper Logistics
Miniclipper Logistics
A UK 3PL chose Thomax to drive warehouse efficiency and future growth.
[Result metric, baseline and period to confirm]
Kitchen Warehouse
Case study published on thomax.com; headline to be rewritten with the customer.
[Result metric, baseline and period to confirm]
Controls you can check.
- Single sign-on through Director, with SAML per identity provider.
- Two-factor authentication across WMS, billing, client portal and Director.
- Content Security Policy with violation reporting, HSTS, frame denial and session controls.
- Access granted per warehouse and per client.