BY JAMES COOKE, EDITOR AT LARGE
techwatch
Software that helps you get the
most from your SCE apps
AS ANY LOGISTICS PROFESSIONAL CAN TELL YOU, THE OLD
saw about making sure the left hand knows what the right is doing could
well have been written about distribution operations. By coordinating
their transportation and warehousing activities, shippers can realize the
kinds of efficiencies that lead to big savings—like consolidating shipments into full truckloads or building pallets to optimize unloading.
But in the past, companies often missed out on these opportunities.
The reasons had largely to do with a failure to communicate on the
part of their software apps. Shippers have traditionally used separate
systems to manage their warehouse and transportation operations—
Klappich.
An emerging class of software addresses the need
for closer cooperation between the two functions.
These specialized apps, which could be termed
logistics optimization packages, sit between the
WMS, the TMS, and the company’s enterprise
resource planning (ERP) system and coordinate
their activities for optimal performance.
The advantage for users is that they don’t have to
jettison their existing WMS or TMS—the new apps
are designed to complement and enhance the existing systems, not replace them. As Klappich notes,
most companies can’t afford to “rip and replace” all
of their applications, but they can afford to incorporate the new convergent applications into their operations.
One company that markets optimization software is
Transportation|Warehouse Optimization (TWO), located in
Franklin, Tenn. Company president Thomas Moore says TWO’s solution uses a three-step approach to optimization. First, it calculates
exactly how much palletized freight can be loaded onto a given truck
or trailer so it can group orders into the most efficient loads. Next, it
uses inventory data drawn from the WMS to generate step-by-step
picking and pallet-building instructions as well as a detailed loading
plan that maximizes trailer cube and minimizes product damage. “If
you think about a WMS, it does not understand you can’t put bricks
on top of a case of eggs,” says Moore.
Then, once the TMS has selected a carrier, the optimization soft-
ware runs a final check to make sure the desig-
nated pallets will indeed fit on the truck and that
the load falls within legal weight limits.
