Smart Integration of Automation: Using a WES to Incorporate New Technologies in Fulfillment Centers

The warehouse management system (WMS) was born out of the need to automate inventory tracking, offering retailers a software application that provided visibility into inventory levels and locations. Since this revolution, the supply chain is still dramatically changing and tight labor markets and increasing fulfillment speed requirements are pushing warehouse operators to explore new automation technologies. However, retailers can’t just handpick automation solutions and drop them into the distribution center. Read on to learn how to implement automation technologies that are redefining the warehouse and helping retailers overcome labor challenges. First, a little background on warehouse operations and distribution system software. The warehouse control system (WCS), the software systems that integrate the control of multiple machine control systems, is critical to the timing of conveyors, sorters and other items collectively called material handling equipment (MHE), which requires real-time direction to operate. To incorporate these operational requirements, the architecture had to evolve to enable the WCS to receive WMS-created plans and then execute them. Enter the warehouse execution system (WES), which evolved to interpret any plan created by the WMS and issue the execution of the tasks needed to complete the plan to the necessary people or resources. The WES directs both people and machinery in real-time to execute the plan. And increasingly, distribution centers need both people and machines to keep up with burgeoning e-commerce demands amid a tight labor landscape. National U.S. unemployment across all industries dipped to 3.6% (prior to the coronavirus pandemic), which was the lowest level in 50 years and half of warehouse operations managers identified the inability to attract and retain a qualified hourly workforce as their biggest challenge, according to a Statistica survey. Today, as social distancing is at the front of minds of managers, turning to automation to solve employment challenges may see an uptick soon. Rather than automation displacing warehouse workers, UC Berkeley Labor Center found “aggregate employment levels in the warehousing industry will likely continue to rise over the next five to 10 years.” However, “many workers may see the nature of their working conditions shift as technologies are adopted for particular tasks over the next five to 10 years.” The technology boom hitting fulfillment centers includes new automated technologies, which can help with labor challenges, but these still rely on the fundamentals of distribution. The WES can automate the fundamentals of receiving, storing, replenishment, picking and packing. Gap Inc. for example, implemented a robotics solution for its fulfillment centers in Phoenix, AZ, and Rugby, England. In both facilities Gap added the use of a WES to manage, direct and control workflows for direct-to-consumer order fulfillment, which included two primary continuous order release workflows. Multi-item orders are marshalled to a consolidation area that later feeds orders for final order matching. A similar process exists for single-item orders, however they flow directly to a packer or an auto-bagger packing machine. This lean-based system uses some proprietary picking techniques and enables the retailer to meet its goals for fast order cycle times. Retrofitting the Phoenix facility took just four months and the facility in England was fully operational within nine months of its changeover. To uncover what retailers need to know about next-gen warehouse management, RIS talks with Bart Cera, president and COO, VARGO about the latest fulfillment technologies. RIS: How are labor issues hammering the fulfillment center and how can integrating automation help offset this challenge? Bart Cera: In distribution, the three biggest concerns we hear are labor, labor, labor. The availability, quality and cost of labor is driving companies to consider investing in automation. By integrating automation and technologies, companies are able to reduce their labor needs while increasing processing capacity with their existing labor force. Labor-saving technologies such as cranes and shuttles in an ASRS (automated storage and retrieval system), AMRs (autonomous mobile robots) or articulated robots used for picking can provide significant productivity gains for retailers. However, implementing these technologies without the expertise of someone who can integrate it into your workflow could have an inverse effect on production. Systems integrators take a holistic view at optimizing the entire system, not just the technology, and help determine if the technology will help achieve production goals. RIS: Are retailers being pressured into buying new automated technologies without knowing how to incorporate them into hourly order releases? How can retailers be sure new automated technologies will help them to achieve production goals? Cera: Retailers must know their business and understand that any new automation must complement what’s already in their fulfillment center. Operating silos of technologies in concert with human labor is a complex operation and can lead to systems that are too difficult to operate. The most important thing to consider when adding automated technologies is that it must fit within the current processes and procedures. The technology a company adds must be able to scale and flex as business needs change or grow. If it can’t, the long-term viability of the fulfillment center will be jeopardized. RIS: What advantages do autonomous mobile robots (AMR), automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), automated put walls, and high-speed loop sortation provide retailers’ distribution centers? Cera: Automation does what could otherwise have been done manually with labor, and it performs those functions without considering the number of people available to work, inconsistent working rates, employee breaks or call-offs. In short, AMRs, ASRS, automated put walls, sorters, etc., provide companies the benefit of consistent and continuous production rates both for production planning purposes. When integrated correctly, they solve for efficiency at times and expediency when necessary. This is a critical element for e-commerce fulfillment operations and where an intelligent warehouse execution system (WES) shines. RIS: How can a WES automatically deliver volume that matches the resource available and what is the competitive advantage to this? Cera: A WES organizes, sequences and synchronizes a DC’s resources — all people, equipment and space — and enables those resources to adjust to real-time demand conditions. Think of the WES as the conductor and the fulfillment center as the orchestra. Individually, all instruments (technologies) play fine, but when brought together (inside a fulfillment center), it takes a conductor to make beautiful music (consistent product flow). The WES can be proactive (applying AI-like, next-best, decision-making capabilities) and reactive (adjusting decisions it makes) based on feedback from the entire system about potential bottlenecks or other potential production limiters. The WES allows orders to be processed in a highly efficient and priority-based, continuous flow. The waveless, continuous, pull-based functions in a WES enable a retailer to prioritize the day’s volume. The WES manages the resources, and the distribution center manager focuses on managing the people.