The Satellite Review Magazine The Satellite Review Magazine Vol 1 | Page 7

WAREHOUSE EXECUTION
SYSTEMS
operation of material handling equipment in real-time throughout
the entire warehouse, managing the movement of all products into
and out of the facility.
Westfalia is seeing an increased need for this type of integrated
application. One of the reasons for this is the amount of time
necessary to integrate separate WMS and WCS applications,
which generally introduces complexities into the solution that are
not required with a WES. Another driver for using a WES is that
in some cases separate WMS or WCS applications have to
periodically shut down so the other application can operate, which
causes a slack in product movement. With an integrated WES
solution, this does not occur.
Westfalia’s WES, Savanna.NET®, provides users with the
functionality necessary to receive and track product, while
also having the ability to optimally marry inventory to customer
orders using its integrated order fulfillment processing capabilities.
Having been born from automation, Savanna.NET® communicates
with various automation more effectively than many other WMS,
WCS and WES applications might.

“

Like a conductor of an orchestra, the WES
provides the overall coordination of all
WMS and WCS functionality in one
application.

Savanna.NET® allows customers to either electronically (via data
import) or manually (via an integrated user interface) create
orders to be fulfilled. Savanna.NET® processes the orders into units
of work and then utilizes integrated WCS functionality to direct
either automated material handling equipment or manual labor to
execute the work. Inventory tracking (regardless of the state of
that inventory (e.g. on hold, picked, staged, etc.)) also happens
seamlessly within the Savanna.NET® WMS components of the
application.
Ultimately, a sophisticated WES should provide more efficient use
of automation and warehouse personnel, deliver better building
utilization, increase inventory accuracy, improve product
traceability, and allow for customizations to accommodate
specific customer warehousing needs. When customization
becomes necessary within a WES, the effort should be focused
on implementation of customer-specific business rules and
modifications to the interface necessary to accommodate nuances
with a customer’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, not
on how the WMS and WCS functionalities are to be integrated.

www. WestfaliaUSA.com

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