TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: Warehouse Control Systems
the go-between
David Maloney, DC Velocity, October 2008
In Simon & Schuster's fast-paced distribution operations, the warehouse management system may call the shots. But it's the warehouse control system that makes sure things get done.
Fame can be fleeting in the book publishing industry. A book that's a best-seller one week may be relegated to the half-price rack the next. That means that for book distributors, the pressure's on to whisk hot titles out to stores before they become paper weights.
To keep books flowing smoothly through its DCs, Simon & Schuster, one of the nation's largest book publishing houses, relies on a relatively unknown but powerful technology: a warehouse control system (WCS). Several years back, the publisher installed warehouse control systems from AL Systems at its two U.S. distribution centers to coordinate order fulfillment activities. The warehouse control systems are layered as "middleware" between the facilities' warehouse management systems and their material handling subsystems—conveyors, sorters, and the like. Essentially, the WCS serves as a "go between" or interface between the two, collecting information from the host system and then allocating work and providing specific instructions to the various pieces of material handling equipment.
