Manufacturing Journalist Thomas R. Cutler profiled Warehouse Control Systems in DM Review. The article can be read in it’s entirety at http://www.dmreview.com/article_sub.cfm?articleID=1065289.
There is a significant shift between warehouse management systems (WMS) and warehouse control systems (WCS) in the area of merging local data warehouses into an enterprise data warehouse. There are suites of software products that provide the tools necessary to efficiently and economically operate a warehouse or distribution center.
Traditionally, a WCS executes instructions provided by an upper-level host system, such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system or a WMS system. True tier-one WCS software provides advanced management capabilities including inventory control, resource scheduling and order management. The best-of-breed WCS systems are modular in nature, easily configurable and platform independent, with a scalable architecture to satisfy the needs of any size warehouse.
Unlike a typical WMS software solution, WCS directs real-time data management and interface responsibilities of the material handling system as well as provides common user interface screens for monitoring, control and diagnostics.
The focal point for managing the operational aspects of the material handling system, WCS provides the critical link between the batch-time data host and the real-time programmable logic controller (PLC) material-handling system.
The PLC coordinates the various real-time control devices to accomplish the daily workload. At each decision point in the distribution process, the WCS “determines” the most efficient routing of the product and transmits directives to the equipment controllers to achieve the desired result. The decision-making process is often controlled by two separate utilities, the sort manager and the route director.
QC Software is the leading provider of Tier 1 warehouse control systems to the warehousing and distribution industries. Since 1996, QC Software, utilizing state of the art technology combined with extensive research, development, and rigorous testing, has developed the QC Enterprise suite of products. Designed to be modular in nature, easily configurable, and platform independent, this highly scalable solution satisfies the needs of any size warehouse.
The solutions provided by QC Software (www.qcsoftware.com) enables companies to streamline their warehouse operations with the lowest total cost of ownership in the industry ensuring increased corporate profitability. With a commitment to total customer satisfaction QC Software is the obvious choice for warehouse control, order management, and inventory management needs.
