The Material Handling Blog

Historically, intralogistics software providers have been known for providing very customized solutions to meet the unique needs of their various manufacturing and distribution center clients. Being in the industry for over 70 years, Bastian Solutions has identified various universal industry processes and created a standardized product suite with offerings in addition to providing customized solutions all under our proprietary software brand, Exacta®.

It’s easy to think of a WES (warehouse execution system) as a “plug-and-play” software solution for islands of automation within a larger overall warehouse system. Just take orders in from the WMS (warehouse management system) or host system, run some logic to sequence those orders in an optimal way and ensure those orders are picked at the right time and place to be shipped on-time. While, at a high level, this essential functionality is at the core of a WES, operations in all other areas of the warehouse must be understood to guarantee a successful implementation and optimize all interconnected processes at a specific site.

Growth. Striving for a $2 billion annual revenue goal, SMC Corporation needed a facility and automation technology solution that could meet them where they were and easily support their vision for growth. As a global leader and manufacturer of automatic control equipment, SMC had grown to over 80 subsidiaries and joint ventures around the world. They serve customers in a variety of industries and had grown to 30% of global market share in the pneumatics industry.

If your company is publicly traded, there's a good chance you’ve heard the term “SOX” before. The SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) yearly financial reporting audit touches every function of a public corporation – from human resources to supply chain management. SOX compliance is a massive operation both in terms of cost and labor force. The right software solution, however, can not only help you achieve the most out of your warehouse system design but can also help support you through SOX compliance.

Robotic order picking and sorting are becoming key technologies in warehouse automation and often provide huge advantages to distribution centers over more conventional order fulfillment methods. However, without a versatile WCS (warehouse control system) or WES (warehouse execution system), it can be difficult to integrate such technologies into a complex operation.

While automation equipment is certainly a large factor in optimizing warehouse operations, it’s important to remember that the software managing the system is just as vital. For automation, the WES can help expand on WMS functionality, helping to improve total warehouse communication, simplify integration, enhance visibility and more.

The term ‘Warehouse Management System’ (WMS) is synonymous with the management of operations within a distribution center. But there can be gaps within the WMS’s broad scope that require another layer of integration to truly allow the system to operate as designed, especially when it comes to automation. Warehouse Execution Systems (WES) have been created to operate under the WMS to help fulfill business needs not easily managed by the WMS. In fact, it is a crucial element to enabling more automation in warehouse operations.