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Thought Leadership
The Evolving Distribution
Centre Technology Stack
By Roberto Michel
With the growth of e-commerce, the technology stack for distribution centres is
expanding. Why is WES/WCS software gaining prominence and how are operations
expanding their use of data science?
THE FAMILIAR technology stack of warehouse analytics, in addition to WCS solutions’ more
management systems (WMS) to manage traditional role of coordinating automation and
transactions and inventory at the distribution material fl ow.
centre level and then hand order requirements
down to the automation layer is not as simple as it The role of WES
used to be. With the complexities of e-commerce WES solutions provide visibility and management
fulfi llment, the need to orchestrate and optimize capabilities around order requirements, inventory
operations is driving the need for advanced information, and equipment and labour resources,
execution software in the middle of the stack and observes Mike Dunn, group vice president with
for more optimization tools. Fortna, a distribution consulting and engineering
In short, the DC tech stack has changed. It’s no fi rm. “The interesting technology questions inside
longer just WMS on top, warehouse control system the DC are: ‘What systems should I own to have
(WCS) software in the middle, and automated visibility into those three components,’ and then,
materials handling systems at the fl oor level. ‘What software can I use to really optimise my
The stack has expanded, and while not every processes?’” Dunn says.
DC needs the same foundation, failure to grasp “When we think about how to really optimize
evolving areas could end up stacking the deck inside of a warehouse, it’s about creating
against omni-channel success. What’s more, while chunks of work that are large enough to drive
automation hardware—including robotic goods-to- productivity, but small enough to react to and
person systems, pick-to-light systems and high- satisfy customer demands,” says Dunn. “And the
end sortation—play a role in the tech stack for optimal size for work may change every hour.
e-commerce, even automation providers say the In the morning, you may be able to process a
stack is software driven. larger chunk of work effi ciently while still meeting
E-commerce means that DCs have a greater demand, but later in the day, you may need to
volume of small orders that make it more complex use much smaller chunks of work, which are
to orchestrate systems, not only within the four suboptimal from a productivity standpoint, but
walls of the DC, but with order fulfi llment and are necessary to meet demand.”
transportation management decisions. “Everyone While WES has gained in importance, it
is being pushed to ship smaller and faster,” says can’t do everything, says Dunn. Omni-channel
Joe Vernon, senior manager of North America companies have often turned to DOM to manage
supply chain technologies for the consulting fi rm where orders should be fulfi lled from, and at many
Capgemini. “The demand/fulfi ll cycle has been companies, a WMS handles overall inventory, says
cut from days to hours, and freight costs are more Dunn. Down at the automation level, he adds, DCs
often absorbed now, rather than passed along to a often have strong interest in technology such as
customer.” goods-to-person systems or pick-to-light systems
Vernon sees distributed order management that minimize or simplify the labour requirements
(DOM) solutions, as well as new types of for order picking. But Dunn sees WES as the
optimization software that can synchronize pick best solution for the order releasing and resource
sequencing, staging and loading, as gaining in management decisions that need to be made
importance. around order priorities.
Perhaps the biggest shift in the DC tech stack “We believe the best solve for many of these
for e-commerce has been the emergence of business problems is going to be a combination of
warehouse execution system (WES) software, WCS and WMS capabilities,” Dunn says. “Finding a
an evolution of WCS. WES brings in richer way to have those two types of systems work well
functionality around order releasing and wave together to release and process work is going to
management, resource optimization and be the optimal solution.”
10 June 2017 | Logistics News