Logistics Insights Podcast

“Brothers from different mothers” as they describe it, Softeon CEO Jim Hoefflin and CTO Mark Fralick have worked together over the last 35 years. The duo, known at Softeon as “WMS Pioneers” developed one of the first Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) in 1993 after realizing there was a market shaping.   Lookout for new episodes on the last Tuesday of every month. Watch them all at https://www.softeon.com/wms-pioneers.

Getting WMS team members on the same page in terms of terminology is a key part of a successful Warehouse Management System project. The WMS Glossary of Terms can help, defining more than 90 terms and acronyms, as an on-line resource or downloadable pdf. Great handout for term members at start of a project. 

Less well-known than the WMS Magic Quadrant, the Gartner Critical Capabilities report ranks WMS vendors purely on functionality across nine attributes, weighted by different levels of warehouse complexity. It is an important companion piece to the MQ to understand the WMS market, as we explain in this podcast.

In the second of our two podcasts featuring highlights of Mark Fralick's interview with Bob Trebilcock of Modern Materials Handling magazine, Fralick suggests a new way to think about how Warehouse Execution Systems might orchestrate order fulfillment to balance work across the distribution center.

Highlights from a recent Modern Materials Handling magazine podcast featuring editor Bob Trebilcock and Mark Fralick, Chief Technology Officer at Softeon. “Interfacing is easy. Integration is hard,” when it comes to warehouse automation, Fralick says. Trebilcock wants to know why.

We conclude our look at this important but little understood type of supply chain software.

Distributed Order Management or DOM is a powerful and unique tool to optimize order sourcing across an extended network. It is most well known in Omnichannel retail applications, but there are a number of use cases in B2B as well. Learn more in this informative podcast. 

After a somewhat slow start, some lessons learned from dozens of Cloud WMS deployments.

Annual study finds US Logistics Costs as Percent of GDP soared to record level last year.  

Washington latest to pass legislation, targeting Amazon but impacting many other companies.

Softeon's WMS Glossary of Terms provides a great resource for vendor selection and implementation team members.

Gartner recently released its annual Magic Quadrant report on Warehouse Management Systems. In addition to the vendor rankings, we're always interested in the WMS market analysis Garter provides in the report.

Real estate firm CBRE is out with its latest report, packed with interesting data points.

Task Management is one of the most essential capabilities of an advanced Warehouse Management System, but not well Understood

Various data points indicate a real slow down in e-commerce growth. Will there be a pullback in investments for hardware and software in support of e-fulfillment automation?

Many companies are considering or deploying mobile robots in distribution. A key question: should you rely on the robot company's software to manage the robots' activities? Or would a platform that supports multiple robot types and vendors be the better choice? We explore this issue in this week's episode.

In this week's episode, we have part 2 of our review of the State of Distribution Technologies Report. Based on a survey of 187 logistics managers, this study provides interesting and valuable insight to readers. The report by Softeon is available here: https://www.softeon.com/new-report-state-technologies-distribution-2022  

In this week's episode, we review the highlights of a new research report from Softeon on how users view various distribution center technologies. The report by Softeon is available here: https://www.softeon.com/new-report-state-technologies-distribution-2022    

In this week's episode of Logistics Insights, we review highlights of the 27th annual "3PL Study" from Dr. John Langley and team, released at the recent CSCMP Edge conference in Nashville.

In this week's episode, we advise on not losing critical time early in a WMS project. An often unrecognized key to Warehouse Management System implementation success is ensuring valuable days aren't lost early in a project.

In this week's episode, we take a look Gartner's seven categories of mobile robots for distribution and manufacturing, or what Gartner calls "Smart Intralogistics Robots."

In this week's Logistics Insights podcast: Cross-Docking in Distribution Cross-docking in distribution is often talked about, but there are several types, and it generally takes a robust WMS to well handle the complexity and timing issues. In this episode, we dive deeper into cross-docking.

In this week's Logistics Insights podcast: Understanding the Gartner WMS Critical Capabilities Report. Different from the WMS Magic Quadrant analysis, the Critical Capabilities report focuses solely on functionality across nine different attributes. Those attributes include core and extended WMS capabilities, adaptability, usability, the ability to support automated material handling systems, and several others.

Labor is a hot topic distribution right now, with rising wages and labor shortages in most markets. In fact, a recent survey by Gartner found that for the first time, addressing labor issues was cited as the top reason for investing in DC automation, surpassing reducing operating costs, the traditional driver of material handling systems adoption. Labor management software can provide a variety of capabilities and benefits to address labor issues in distribution.

Software demonstrations are a critical step in selecting a Warehouse Management System or any other logistics software package. How else are you going to determine the fit of various packages to your operational requirements? Despite its criticality, it is surprising how often companies don't really think through the many elements needed to get the demo process right – which in the end means selecting the solution that is right for you both short and long term. Here are a couple of points...

Warehouse Management Systems were a little late to the Cloud party but now are the great majority of implementations. Softeon, a tier 1 WMS provider, has successfully deployed Warehouse Management Systems in the Cloud dozens of times. Here are some lessons learned from those successes...

At the recent Gartner supply chain symposium in Orlando, it was revealed that the number 1 topic for client inquiries is around robots for distribution. A recent Gartner survey found that for about two-thirds of companies interested in robotics, the driver for doing so now is to combat labor shortages, not to drive cost reduction, which is very different than just a few years ago. Gartner has categorized these robots into seven types.

With what appears to be growing interest in automation in distribution, driven by severe labor issues for many shippers and more, Softeon commissioned a survey and report on a variety of topics relevant to materials handling systems and warehouse software. The report is based on survey data from a wide variety of business sectors, led by retailers and consumer goods companies of all sorts, but many other industry sectors as well. The full report will be available soon, but here's a little preview.

In our last episode, we discussed some of the ways efficiency can be improved with the right software tools. Here are some more ways you can optimize Cart Picking in ways you may not know about...

How warehouse software can optimize cart picking in ways you probably don't currently know about.

In our last episode, we discussed how Softeon and Thru-Put Partners produced a webinar on the “7 Uncommon Keys to End-End WMS Success.” We covered the first 4 of those tips, which included: Understanding WMS Value Upfront Creating a clear decision-making framework Getting the demo right, and… Not wasting time early in the project This week, the final three uncommon tips...

Recently, Softeon and Thru-Put Partners – a leading supply chain consulting firm – produced a webinar with Modern Materials Handling Magazine on the “7 Uncommon Keys to End-End WMS Success.” On this podcast we'll cover the first 4 of those, and we promise these will be a little different than tips you might have heard from others.

In this week's Logistics Insights podcast, we sort out the WMS, WCS and WES flavors of warehouse software.

Gartner recently held its virtual Supply Chain Symposium for 2021. That included a session on Warehouse Management Systems, or WMS, led by well-known Gartner analyst, Dwight Klappich. During the session, Klappich detailed what he sees as key trends in WMS technology moving forward. As an intro to those trends, Klappich first noted that Warehouse Management Systems are getting smarter.

In this week's Logistics Insights podcast, a look at three key trends in warehouse management systems, including the move to the Cloud, the rise of Warehouse Execution Systems and the increasing support for automation, such as for mobile robots and putwall systems.

Labor challenges in US distribution are as high as we have ever seen. Almost everyone is scrambling for labor, and few are able to hire and retain all the DC labor they need. Facing similar challenges, tool maker Hilti launched a program earlier this year to revolutionize the way it treats DC workers, across more than a dozen facilities in the US.

Here's a fact: if a company is deploying a new WMS solution, unless they are already using Voice or other picking technologies such as pick-to-light or “put walls,” these types of technologies are almost never designed in from the start, even if there is great interest in them for down the road. But is that really the right approach?

One of the core concepts relative to Warehouse Management Systems is that of “directed putaway.” While many logistics professionals are very familiar with this topic, it is clear from conversations with many companies that others don't really have all the details – and that quite a few lack directed putaway capabilities with the system they are currently using to run their distribution center. As the name suggests, directed putaway is all about the WMS communicating to DC associates through a mobile wireless terminal where in the DC a product should be stored, at the specific location level. But to understand directed putaway, you also need to add the related concept of zoning or zone management. A good WMS should allow you to define, practically without limit, different putaway zones for which rules will be applied relative to putaway. A zone is simply a grouping of locations.

In our previous broadcast, we discussed 5 of our top 10 catalysts for adopting a new WMS. As a quick review, those 5 WMS project drivers were: You are Experiencing Rapid Growth You are Opening a New DC You are Making Significant Logistics Strategy Changes You have or are Consolidating Facilities You Want to Significantly Increase DC Automation Now, let's add 5 more...

In may be a mature market space, but by all counts, the market for new Warehouse Management Systems remains strong. There are in fact a wide number of potential factors that drive companies to look for a new WMS solution, which we have handily grouped into 10 different logistics scenarios, and in Part 1, we lay out the first five. You might need a new WMS if...

Dynamic Slotting is a technique available in some Warehouse Management Systems in which a forward pick location is created dynamically, rather than being dedicated to a single SKU. This capability is needed in two primary situations: The first is when there aren't enough pick locations to handle all SKUs a DC carries. The second scenario is when demand for SKU in a wave or general order pool far exceeds the storage capacity of the forward pick location for that SKU.

Autonomous mobile robots are coming to a DC near you - likely your facility - and probably soon. A.M.R.’s have taken the distribution world by storm, driven by both operational efficiencies and the challenges with finding enough labor in most US markets. This podcast dives into the benefits that can be achieved, the challenges, and the keys to making your investments future-proof.

Warehouse Management Systems are well-known, yet we still continue to find many companies that are new to WMS.  Even for managers with some WMS experience, we’ve found it useful to review the core benefits that a WMS delivers. Here they are...

Direct-to-Consumer (or DTC) strategies are very popular right now in retail and consumer goods companies and it’s easy to understand why - no company should be missing out on this megatrend with the numbers skyrocketing over the past year and COVID-19 pandemic.

Warehouse Management Systems – from some vendors at least – were a little late to move to the Cloud. Softeon has been doing Cloud WMS deployments for many years, but has really seen adoption take off in the past two year.  This is due to the major advantages from Cloud deployments in such areas as time and cost of the implementations and ease of system management post-go live, requiring little internal IT resources. After a significant number of Cloud WMS deployments, Softeon has gained insights that are potentially of interest to prospective WMS adopters, which we’ll summarize in this broadcast.

Most WMS systems in the past did not concern themselves with utilization of materials handling equipment.The result: big peaks and valleys in volume, resulting in lots of wait time and reducing total system throughput.WES was developed to address that challenge, using algorithms to level-load cartons on to the equipment, and using techniques such as waveless order picking to meet that goal.That capability can deliver real value and either increase throughput from an existing system, or reduce the size, floor space and cost of new equipment being planned.But there has been little focus on WES for manual or only modestly automated facilities. Softeon is working to change that.

Why are put walls becoming so popular?Order picking efficiencies are gained through use of batch picking, where picks are grouped so that all items needed for orders to be processed in a given wall module or modules are picked in one stop in the picking area. This is generally much more efficient than discrete order picking

An introduction to the increasingly popular use of Put Walls for order fulfillment.

Before the virus pandemic, labor challenges in distribution centers were almost at crisis levels.The reality is there are many tools available to take on the DC labor challenge, whether your issue is labor costs, labor availability, DC throughput or like many all three.

In our previous episode, we discussed Distributed Order Management or DOM software solutions. In great summary, traditional order management systems are order processing oriented, while DOM is more focused on order fulfillment.

A DOM system serves as a powerful hub that enables omnichannel commerce; integrates the extended supply chain; optimizes inbound and outbound order routing; provides real-time network inventory visibility, allocation, and management; automates complex channel and customer requirements; and maximizes profitability while meeting customer service commitments.