DC Velocity - February 2016

BY IAN HOBKIRK

WAREHOUSE SYSTEMS

technologyreview

IT USED TO BE THAT YOU COULD NAVIGATE THE warehouse software market without the aid of a map. There were three principal types of software, each handling a clearly defined set of functions that were distinct from those handled by the others. But in recent years, that has changed. The lines between the three types of warehouse systems—warehouse management systems (WMS), warehouse control systems (WCS), and warehouse execution systems (WES)—have blurred, making the warehouse software waters decidedly muddied and difficult to chart.

As the software application that controls the movement
and storage of materials within the warehouse, the WMS
has been around for about 40 years and is the most mature
of the three options. By managing the mechanical material
handling equipment within the warehouse, the WCS pro-
vides a valuable function and basically picks up where the
WMS leaves off in an automated environment. The WES
plays in a gray area, acting in some respects like a “WCS
on steroids” and managing some functionality that is tradi-
tionally handled by a WMS.

With software vendors continually expanding their offerings and their products’ capabilities—WCS providers, in particular—we’ve seen significant confusion over exactly what each of the three software platforms can or should handle. WMS vendors are pushing their systems into areas traditionally handled by WCS, WCS providers are marketing their products as an alternative to WMS, and WES systems have surfaced as a hybrid. (For a look at which type of software does what and the overlap in functionality, see Exhibit 1.)

A SOFTWARE EVOLUTION

To understand how the market has evolved, it helps to know a little bit about its history. In the past, companies used WMS as the overarching solution to run their warehouses, and WCS to interface with the machines in that warehouse. These were two distinct systems. Over the last 10 years, however, both WCS and WES providers have