DC Velocity - May 2009

acrossthedock

history lesson

Re: “giving credit where it’s due,” Outbound, February 2009

When growing up in Vacaville, Calif., I worked at the Nut Tree restaurant (no longer there, I am sad to say). I remember that on the property was a sign designating the path of the Lincoln Highway. I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but now I do. Thanks for the history lesson.

Bruce H. Anderson, McLane Co. Inc., Temple, Texas

making something good from
the bad

Re: “a glass half full,” BigPicture,

February 2009

I came across your informative, upbeat article online.

Thanks for posting it. I particularly like [Fortna Executive Vice President] John White’s perspective: “Companies should do more than cope, but shift thinking in ways that made something good out

of the bad times.”

This is what it will take for our nation, our systems, and our communities to get through the tough times ahead. Thanks for putting out the word.

Carey Rowland, Boone, N.C., author of Glass half-Full

letters to the editor

Letters should be written exclusively to DC VELOCITY and may contain thoughts, comments, suggestions and criticisms of both DC VELOCITY and developments in the supply chain field. They should not exceed 200 words and may be edited for clarity. The decision to publish or not to publish is solely at the discretion of the editor.

All letters must include the author’s daytime phone number. Send submissions to: “To the Editor,” DC VELOCITY, 500 East Washington St., Suite 4, N. Attleboro, MA 02760 or to peter@dcvelocity.com with “To the Editor” in the subject line.

some integration required

Re: “on-demand WMS could rock distribution,” Tech Watch, April 2009

While most of your article on the advantages of on-demand or SaaS-based warehouse management systems (WMS) was correct, there was one item that was simply not correct. You state there is no need for integration. However, without integrating to an enterprise resource planning (ERP) or other order management system, how is the WMS supposed to get information on the orders it is to fulfill? And if any type of automation equipment is in use—RF, sortation, conveyors, pick-to-light, AS/RS, etc.—how are these systems to interact with the WMS without integration? Perhaps very small warehouses can get away without integration, but most cannot.

We now have a number of customers using our hosted WMS, and each required some integration at the outset. We agree with you that use of hosted warehousing systems will increase in the future, especially in the lower end of the market, but let’s not paint too rosy a picture—there are still things like integration that have to be addressed.