Click Commerce Inc. this week added an updated Web-based warehouse management application to its supply chain suite, the latest move to fill the "white space" that remains between ERP and outside trading partners.
The warehouse management system, called Click Commerce WMX, was just one of many products that debuted at ProMat 2007, the supply chain show that took place this week in Chicago. The event also provided the platform for LXE Inc. to demonstrate its next-generation suite of mobile supply chain technology products. In addition, FKI Logistex and Rockwell Automation showed off new material-handling and logistics management offerings.
In addition to WMX, Click Commerce used ProMat to disclose a changing of the guard. The company, which was acquired last fall by Illinois Tool Works (ITW), named Nancy Koenig president. Koenig, who as executive vice president ran the company's operations in North America and Europe, is assuming responsibilities previously handled by CEO Michael Ferro, who is working as a consultant to ITW. During Ferro's tenure the position of president was vacant, said a company spokesperson, who noted that Koenig played a key leadership role during the ITW acquisition. Koenig joined Click Commerce in 1999 after spending time in sales and marketing at Motorola.
Click Commerce's WMX, meanwhile, was among ProMat's highlights. The product adds visibility and control outside the four walls of the warehouse, tapping into RFID and voice-enabled applications to help a manufacturer adapt to changing conditions in the supply chain, the company said. Its arrival fills a gap in Click Commerce's supply chain execution portfolio, which includes service parts execution, returns and repair, as well as logistics and trading partner management software.
The vendor's Service Parts Execution software is used primarily by aerospace & defense companies looking to optimize the location of high-value parts to minimize inventory issues that could, for example, ground an airplane. A Returns and Repair product focuses on reverse logistics processes, helping to ensure that a part returned for service gets to the right location and is repaired and made available again as quickly as possible. Click Commerce's WebShip, meanwhile, can accommodate high-volume, multi-carrier shipping practices and provides compliance with customer requirements while offering rate comparisons between carriers. And Network Logistics is a trading-partner-agnostic application that coordinates activities including event management and risk management, according to the company.
As manufacturers' dependence on third parties grows, many companies often overlook the role warehouse and distribution center optimization can play in improving operational agility. A recent Aberdeen Group report noted that to reduce cost and cut order fulfillment times, companies need to focus on how they manage inventory in the "extended warehouse"; that is, warehouses owned by third parties such as contract manufacturers and logistics companies. The study points out that companies that find ways to manage docks, yards, and multiple warehouses collectively are more than five times as likely to reduce warehousing costs than those that still treat each area as a separate functional silo.
WMX is a redesigned, service-oriented-architecture version of a WMS application Click Commerce acquired with the purchase of Optum Inc. two years ago.
"We built it from the ground up, leveraging the latest generation of technology," said Keith Forshew, general manager of Click Commerce's supply chain group, in an interview with Managing Automation. "Web services are easier to integrate into an existing supply chain environment and with external third-party systems."
WMX incorporates a rules-based business process which gives companies the ability to adapt the warehouse to changing needs, like starting up operations at a different warehouse and tapping into RFID and voice-enabled applications to automate processes. Perhaps more importantly, WMX is a multi-warehouse application that works with one installation, versus installing a new management system for each facility or each client. This is important to distributors that handle the warehouse needs of multiple clients. WMX also allows manufacturers to tailor the supply chain processes to handle multiple clients and contracts.
WMX will be rolled out in at least eight different deployments this year, Forshew said. He did not specify client names, but some of Click Commerce's customers include Dell, Grainger, Interstate Batteries, Ryder, and Tyco.
Click Commerce will continue to support the existing installed base of Optum WMS users under their maintenance contracts until they are ready to migrate to WMX. Customers have the option to buy the license or utilize an on-demand service. Forshew said the application is flexible enough to support a wide range of business from small to large enterprises. Pricing was not disclosed.
Other ProMat announcements this week:
- LXE demonstrated its next-generation supply chain and logistics technology called Adaptive Recognition & Information Assurance (ARIA). Described as a development platform, ARIA consists of a set of mobile computing and Auto-ID technologies designed to mimic human behavior. The goal of ARIA is to automatically recognize process changes and inventory anomalies to support mid-task adjustments and to do so in ways that are virtually transparent to operators, allowing them to maintain workflow momentum, according to the company. The ARIA platform is available now.
- FKI Logistex announced its new automated replenishment system for "less-than-full" case picking. The system uses mini-load cranes to reduce manual replenishment, which is expensive since replenishment downtime frequently occurs as a result of manual processes and it is time-consuming. The FKI Logistex automated replenishment system sorts products into plastic totes that are routed on a conveyor to a rack system where the mini-load crane loads them for storage or general inventory. The FKI Logistex control system assigns picks based on immediate demand to support customer orders or replenish store inventory. The total system integrates a variety of FKI Logistex technologies. Now available, the entire replenishment system can be implemented in under a year, according to the company.
- Rockwell Automation showed off its integrated control and information systems for use by material-handling OEMs. While Rockwell has been a player in the material-handling industry for many years, the company said its new Integrated Architecture control platform offers enhanced flexibility and scalability, as well as reduced TCO. Using RSLogix 5000 programming software to define motor and drive parameters as part of the motion axis configuration, and CompactLogix programmable automation controllers (PACs), Rockwell demonstrated its Smart Belt technology, which keeps products evenly spaced out so they can be properly fed into a machine like a flow wrapper or cartoner. The company also demonstrated CIP Safety on DeviceNet, a safety extension that uses the Common Industrial Protocol to provide control, configuration, and data collection capabilities for industrial devices. This allows safety devices to co-exist with standard control devices on a DeviceNet network.