NetSuite Warehouse Management: How to Simplify Fulfillment Across Locations

What We’ll Unpack in This Article (TL;DR)

If your business is juggling SKUs across multiple warehouse locations, you know just how complex things can become. Netsuite Warehouse Management is a Warehouse Management System (WMS) that can bring much-needed structure and organization to your operations. 

It can help simplify fulfillment across locations by:

1. Providing centralized, real-time inventory visibility.
2. Streamlining key processes.
3. Optimizing picking & packing.
4. Standardizing processes (even as they scale)

This article explores how Netsuite Warehouse Management supports multi-location operation, its gaps, and how additional inventory planning tools can help. 

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If your business is juggling SKUs across multiple warehouses, you know just how complicated your operations can be. Netsuite Warehouse Management is a Warehouse Management System (WMS) that can bring much-needed structure and organization to your operations through improved better picking, clearer bin visibility, and a smoother flow for day-to-day work.  

It offers a number of inventory and warehouse management solutions, including:

• Mobile RF barcode scanning.
• Defined strategies for picking and put away.
• Task management solutions.
• Return authorization receipts.
• Cycle count plans.

In this article, we’ll break down how Netsuite Warehouse Management supports multi-location operations. We’ll also help you understand its gaps, and how additional inventory planning tools can transform fulfillment from chaos into a predictable, efficient process.

What Challenges Do Teams Face When Fulfilling Across Multiple Locations?

Multiple warehouses enable faster fulfillment, expanded reach, and set the stage for growth. However, each new location adds another potential layer of variability, unexpected cost, and operational friction.

Here are the most common hurdles teams encounter, that Netsuite Warehouse Management can help with:

1. Inventory imbalance across locations: Here’s a common scenario: one warehouse is swimming in excess stock while another is scrambling to fill orders. This problem can damage a business’ reputation, customer trust, and even revenue – industry studies show retailers miss out on about $1 trillion in sales annually due to stockouts.
2. Visibility gaps: In multi-location environments, teams often struggle to answer basic questions: Where is this item? How many do we actually have? Which warehouse should fulfill the order? 
3. Inefficient picking and packing processes: As order volume grows, manual or inconsistent pick/pack methods create bottlenecks and errors.
4. Increased operational variability between warehouses: When warehouses are siloed, they can each develop their own way of doing things, making training difficult and performance uneven.
5. Difficulty maintaining strong service levels across channels or locations: When regional demand spikes or lead times shift, service levels can slip quickly without a coordinated warehouse process.

Without a comprehensive WMS, multi-warehouse businesses can struggle. But with a solution like Netsuite Warehouse Management, you can streamline execution across locations by improving visibility, standardizing processes, and automating the most critical fulfillment steps.

How Does NetSuite WMS Simplify Multi-Warehouse Fulfillment?

When teams are juggling multiple facilities, varying SKU mixes, and rising customer expectations, NetSuite provides the structure needed to keep operations synchronized across every site.

Here’s how NetSuite WMS strengthens multi-warehouse fulfillment:

1. Centralized, real-time inventory visibility

Multi-location fulfillment begins with the ability to see what you have and where it is. NetSuite WMS gives teams a unified, real-time view of inventory across warehouses, sublocations, and bins – so demand planners and warehouse staff aren’t guessing or relying on outdated spreadsheets.

This visibility helps teams:

• Instantly check availability across all locations.
• Reduce unnecessary transfers.
• Route orders to the best-suited fulfillment center.

2. Streamlined receiving, putaway, and internal transfers

The more warehouses you operate, the more opportunities there are for receiving errors or misplaced stock. NetSuite WMS automates and guides these processes to keep inventory organized and traceable. Key capabilities include mobile scanning for error-free receiving, directed putaway to ensure items land in the right bins, and automated transfer workflows for moving goods between warehouses.

3. Efficient picking & packing across locations

Inefficiencies inside the warehouse ripple across the entire fulfillment network. NetSuite WMS improves execution with guided workflows that make picking and packing consistent and efficient at every location. 

This allows for:

• Wave, batch, and zone picking.
• Optimized pick paths to reduce travel time
  

4. Standardized processes that scale with your network 

As companies add new locations or repurpose existing ones, maintaining consistency becomes a major challenge. NetSuite WMS provides a standardized operational template that makes it easy to replicate best practices across sites.

Benefits include:

• Faster onboarding of new warehouses.
• Reduced training time for staff.
• Consistent KPIs and performance expectations.

5. Continuous visibility into warehouse performance 

NetSuite WMS provides dashboards and reporting that give leaders clarity into what’s happening across all fulfillment centers in real-time.

Common insights include:

• Pick/pack productivity.
• Order cycle times.
• Inventory accuracy.
• Transfer order volume.

This visibility allows teams to better spot bottlenecks, adjust labor, shift deliveries, and improve fulfillment workflows.

Together, these capabilities make NetSuite WMS a strong foundation for multi-warehouse operations. 

What Happens When You Combine NetSuite WMS With StockIQ?

NetSuite Warehouse Management System brings powerful structure to warehouse execution. However, like all WMS solutions, it is not a complete inventory planning system, and it doesn’t address the challenges that teams encounter before inventory reaches the warehouse. 

Here’s what happens when you use Netsuite WMS in combination with a solution like StockIQ, which is designed to eliminate the root cause of inventory issues:

1. Inventory flows into warehouses correctly (not just efficiently)

NetSuite WMS ensures warehouse staff pick, pack, and move items accurately. StockIQ ensures those items were planned correctly in the first place. Together, these tools create a predictable inbound flow across all locations.

Benefits include:

• Fewer emergency transfers and expedites.
• Smoother receiving schedules.
• Less stockouts and similar inventory problems.

2. Each warehouse gets the right inventory mix

StockIQ uses sophisticated demand forecasting, ABC/XYZ analysis, service-level targets, and supplier performance monitoring tools to determine optimal stocking levels for every item-location combination. The result? High-demand items are always stocked when they’re needed, and slow movers don’t clog valuable warehouse space.

3. Forecast accuracy directly improves warehouse efficiency

StockIQ’s AI-driven forecasting and event detection reduce variability and improve demand planning accuracy. NetSuite WMS benefits downstream through perks such as more predictable picking volumes and stronger labor planning/scheduling. 

While NetSuite WMS makes your warehouse run better, StockIQ ensures the warehouse receives the right inventory to begin with. Together, they create multi-location fulfillment that is faster, leaner, and significantly more reliable.

StockIQ: Supporting Your Multi-Location Operation

Running a multi-location fulfillment network comes with specific complications which can be solved with the structure and visibility of NetSuite Warehouse Management System. However, long-term inventory success really depends on what happens before goods even reach the dock. That’s where StockIQ comes into play.

StockIQ is advanced, user-friendly supply chain management software that allows you to control inventory, simplify ordering, and improve forecasting. We use advanced AI, sophisticated algorithms, and clear dashboards to address the root-cause of inventory issues that lead to stockouts, imbalanced warehouses, excess inventory, and reactive transfers.

Find out how StockIQ can support your multi-location warehouse operation by contacting us today or requesting a StockIQ demo.

Frequently Asked Questions About Netsuite Warehouse Management 

1. What is NetSuite Warehouse Management System (WMS)?

NetSuite WMS is a warehouse execution solution that helps organizations manage receiving, putaway, picking, packing, and the internal movement of inventory. It provides mobile scanning, bin-level accuracy, and structured workflows to keep warehouse operations efficient and consistent across locations.

2. Does NetSuite WMS support multiple warehouses?

Yes. NetSuite WMS provides real-time visibility across all warehouse locations, enabling teams to track inventory, route orders, and manage transfers across the entire network.

3. Is NetSuite WMS enough on its own for multi-location optimization?

Not entirely. It’s an excellent warehouse execution system, but multi-location success depends on upstream planning – forecasting, safety stock, supplier management, SKU stratification, and service-level alignment. That’s why NetSuite WMS works well with an inventory management solution like StockIQ, to create a complete fulfillment ecosystem: strategic planning plus efficient execution.