Warehouse execution system
WES
Software sits between the system that holds the orders and the stock and the machines that move the goods, and decides what each machine and station should do next so that the work flows. It looks at the orders waiting, the capacity of each station and the state of the equipment, then releases work in the order that keeps everything busy and meets the cut-off times. It plans the work as it happens, not only once at the start of the day; this software is called a warehouse execution system (WES).
A WES overlaps with two neighbours. A warehouse management system (WMS) knows the stock, the orders and the rules, while a warehouse control system (WCS) runs conveyors and sorters in fractions of a second. A WES sits between them and balances the work in minutes.
Some suppliers include this function in their WMS, some sell it as a separate layer, and some call it by another name. The name matters less than whether something is making the live decisions about which order or wave goes where.
When it pays off
A WES pays off in busy, automated sites where several machines and many stations have to be kept evenly loaded, such as a goods-to-person system with many stations, a sorter with many chutes, or a site with tight cut-off times. It pays off less in manual or lightly automated sites, where a WMS can release work well enough, and in small sites with a few stations. If the problem is that some stations stand idle while others queue, a WES addresses it; if the problem is wrong stock records, it does not.
What the warehouse system does with it
The WES usually takes orders, priorities and cut-off times from the WMS, or runs inside it, and sends work to the machines and stations, or to the control layer beneath it. Back come confirmations and status: this order is picked, this station is full, this conveyor is blocked. The WMS keeps the stock and order records, and the WES decides the sequence and the timing. In some products the two are one, so ask where the boundary lies.
Who makes it
Dematic, Knapp, Mecalux, Softeon, SSI Schäfer, Swisslog
In alphabetical order. Not a ranking or a recommendation.
In practice
An online electronics retailer runs a goods-to-person system with twelve stations and a sorter with forty chutes. Orders arrive all day, with a cut-off at 6 pm for next-day delivery. The execution software releases orders in the mix that keeps all twelve stations busy, holds back orders that would block a chute, and gives priority to the orders that are closest to the cut-off. At 6 pm the last parcels leave on time.
Further reading
Related terms
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