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Over the past decade, material handling solutions designed to meet the needs of warehouses, distribution centers (DCs), and parcel handling operations have grown more complex. Automated machinery that previously operated with little connection to other hardware and equipment is increasingly integrated. Therefore, it’s become critical to construct comprehensive system integration solutions whose performance is synchronized and orchestrated by overarching warehouse execution system (WES). Doing so delivers optimized order fulfillment while enhancing throughput, accuracy, and productivity.
As the linchpin of these integrated automation solutions, selecting the ideal warehouse execution system is crucial to ensuring maximum flexibility and adaptability in the face of supply chain volatility. The majority of WES solutions essentially do the same things:
When DCS began creating our warehouse execution system, DATUM, it was essential that the software be able to integrate with any equipment from any original equipment manufacturers (OEM). Our goal was not to sell DATUM as a standalone product. Instead, DATUM is a solution that helps us deliver even greater value for customers who partner with us for integrated system deployments. Implementing DATUM is often the first step in helping our customers advance on their roadmap toward higher levels of automation.
Because the optimal automated warehouse solution is frequently built with multiple brands, DATUM had to be scalable, flexible, and adaptable to synthesize these different technologies into a unified solution. For that reason, we chose an open platform for DATUM’s architecture. Here, I’ll explain the significant advantages of open WES over proprietary WES and detail why it’s ideal to choose an open platform WES like DATUM, which is built with the goal of being open and with a foundation in customer-centered design and use cases.
The Differences Between Open and Locked Down Warehouse Execution System (WES) Software
Open platforms like DATUM are neither locked down, nor do they require any special permissions to be able to view the data they collect. To ensure that DATUM is both open and standards based, we incorporated widely used technologies developed by major software and service providers. Companies including Google, Netflix, LinkedIn, and Meta all use this modern and mature technology. (You could say we built DATUM on the shoulders of giants!) Ultimately, that means DATUM’s base platform is robust, innovative, and extensively deployed worldwide.
Further, there are literally millions — if not billions — of people actively improving and refining these products around the clock. Likewise, these technologies are being continuously enhanced and updated to address the latest security vulnerabilities. This keeps DATUM inherently stable, secure, and impervious to malicious attacks. For all of these reasons, DATUM’s architecture is extremely dynamic, easily updated and scaled, and highly resilient for maximum reliability.
Conversely, WES software based on proprietary frameworks is locked down — that is, solely the property of their creators. The primary goal of vendors who sell these kinds of WES is to monetize their WES solutions (unlike DCS, which considers DATUM to be an enabler of higher levels of automation and intelligent systems).
A locked down framework significantly impacts the WES’s ability to easily integrate with automated systems and equipment. Likewise, they are more difficult to patch and to keep secure. This also makes it much harder for users to get access to their own data (more on this in the next section). Some WES vendors have built proprietary platforms with layers of unnecessary code, making it more difficult and costly to deploy and maintain their products. This shows up in rising support costs, as vendors struggle to maintain and secure aging platforms.
Likewise, only the programmers involved in the development of locked down WES software products can easily modify, troubleshoot, and enhance the code; outsiders cannot do so without substantial effort and ramp up time. While this represents job security for a proprietary WES’ development team, it can make it considerably more difficult for users to get the support they need if those staffers move on to other companies.
Finally, when locked down WES software requires an update or worse an emergency fix, an operation can experience significant downtime while the support team tries to understand the code. Conversely, with open platforms finding a resolution can be as simple as a Google search. Because such a large community of developers exists across the many industries using and refining these technologies, should an underlying issue surface there is almost always a fix or workaround available.
Open Platform WES Enables Easier Data Accessibility, Analytics
At DCS, we believe your data is your data. In fact, we’ve practically trademarked the saying, “It’s your data, we just collect it for you.” That commitment is another reason we chose to build DATUM on widely used platform architectures. Not only does DATUM collect performance and operational data from customers’ systems and equipment (all the way down to sensors and programmable logic controller messaging), but it also makes that information easily accessible.
Through data pipelines and application programming interfaces (APIs), DATUM communicates with other software to streamline transfer of collected data into customers’ data lakes or warehouses. In most cases no coding is required to implement these integrations. To route the information it utilizes standard, easy-to-read formats like JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), a data interchange format that is intuitive for users.
This openness makes DATUM compatible with a variety of commercial, off-the-shelf business intelligence (BI) tools. With these analytics packages — such as Microsoft’s Power BI or Tableau — DATUM users can easily sort and filter any or all their raw data into dashboard visualizations and key performance indicators (KPIs). That said, because some users want to be able to assess KPIs via dashboards within DATUM, DCS created that capability. For convenience, DATUM integrates dozens of critical KPIs for easy access via a tablet or large screen dashboard.
In contrast, proprietary WES solutions make it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to extract data from the system. In fact, some vendors claim that the collected information is their intellectual property. Others have concerns that allowing access to the data might slow the system down too much should a user run a query at an inopportune moment. The resulting lag in processing speed might disrupt operations. Still others have developed their own BI tools offered for purchase as an additional module or functionality. However, these tools rarely deliver the comprehensive range of analytical capabilities offered by the commercially available standalone BI solutions noted above.
Update, Modify Algorithms in Open Platform WES
Just as DATUM provides an open platform when it comes to accessing your data or integration with commercial BI, communications, or monitoring tools, so too is DCS’ approach when it comes to the algorithms behind DATUM.
Just as DCS delivers the best in breed when it comes to automated material handling solutions, so does DATUM when it comes to selecting the right algorithms to achieve the optimal performance from these systems. The DATUM team takes a scientific approach in selecting the best algorithm. Because there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, we start by researching available solutions in the fields of data science and mathematics optimization. Then we assess a variety of algorithms to address the question at hand — whether that’s a mathematical optimization or a machine learning (ML) solution — through testing.
An open platform WES allows developers to easily integrate with simulation tools to most efficiently evaluate and determine the optimal algorithm. Simulation yields results that can be easily quantified and understood in terms of order lines and units.
A locked down WES platform’s inability to reliably access data and use simulations makes analysis, interpretation, or modification of operational processes impossible. Indeed, it prohibits the operation from being part of their own solution. Often, users who discover that a proprietary WES’s algorithms don’t deliver reliable predictability or accurately forecast the ultimate outcome simply stop using them. This prevents an operation from gaining the maximum value from its software.
At DCS we truly believe in partnering with our clients, listening to suggestions from years of experience running their operation, using this as input to the solutions. This enables an operation to immediately realize the benefit of their investment.
Learn More About the Value Delivered by DATUM WES
Want to discover more about the value a WES architected with an open approach to data and integration can bring to your operation? Download DCS’ FREE white paper, “Warehouse Execution Systems: Why an Open Approach to Data and Integration Matters.” Or, connect with us; our software team is happy to discuss your unique needs, as well as share a virtual demo of DATUM illustrating the advantages of open WES over proprietary WES and further illustrate why to choose an open platform WES.
AUTHOR:
Brian Curran
Vice President of Software
briancu@designedconveyor.com
