Locanis is a warehouse technology supplier headquartered in Germany with clients located in Europe, North America, and Asia. It is likely that many of you are not familiar with how Locanis optimizes warehouse operations. This is because Locanis’ solution, Site Optimizer 3600, doesn’t fit neatly into the category of a WMS. It is reasonable to call it a WMS. But this term does not clearly describe how the solution delivers its results. It is equally reasonable to call it a warehouse control system (WCS). But that term conjures up images of lengthy conveyor belts with complex sorters and lines of chutes. In reality, Locanis offers a solution that doesn’t fit neatly into a defined category. So, I am going to describe how I view Locanis’ solutions and the ways in which it can deliver benefits to its users.
Location, Mobile Assets, Inventory, and Tasks
Site Optimizer 3600 (SO360) is a software solution that incorporates a real-time location system (RTLS). The system maintains real-time visibility into resources, capabilities, status, location, and order requirements. It then leverages this information to orchestrate and optimize warehouse activities to meet the priorities and objectives of the facility on an ongoing basis.
When and how does real-time warehouse data deliver productivity? In general, real-time location data on mobile assets in a warehouse is most valuable when the assets are valuable and highly mobile. Greater mobility means greater variability of location, leading to greater value associated with location accuracy and visibility, all else equal. Real-time data is most important when time value is high. For example, missing a train by five minutes can incur an hour delay. Those five minutes can result in an hour’s worth of sunk costs. In a warehouse, drawn out lead-times can result in manufacturing down-time or missed carrier cut-offs – both of which can be very costly. More directly, warehouse time is related to productivity per hour, with time as a cost driver (hourly wages, asset costs).
Warehouse Orchestration and Optimization
Site Optimizer 3600 maintains visibility into mobile resources, inventory, status, and locations. The system receives tasks (transportation orders) and assigns the tasks based on the operation’s criteria of importance and the real-time status of the resources. For example, the system drops an order to move a load with weight of x pounds, in location y, on a Euro-pallet in a tight area. The system will match a warehouse transporter (manual forklift, AGV, etc.) with the assignment based on the transporter’s location, availability, and suitability of load capacity, load handing device, and even operator’s skill level or other interdependencies of the task. A forklift operator or AGV will then update the status to unavailable and its location will be tracked as it navigates the warehouse and even outside to the yard, if the system is set up to do so. Intelligent, real-time visibility into tasks, resource status, and prioritization can deliver substantial productivity improvements to complex warehouse environments. These improvements can increase when the operation utilizes a heterogeneous set of transporters from multiple vendors, that move along variable paths, conducting different functions. Imagine the potential for utilization and overall productivity improvements when flexible material handling equipment can be efficiently assigned to various tasks according to an operation’s priorities.
Final Word
I expect the warehouses that can achieve the greatest benefits from this solution are those with a diverse fleet of high-cost material handing equipment that can move dynamically through the facility, executing a variety of tasks that vary across time periods. The more critical and time-sensitive the operations, the more value in executing them effectively. I believe these generic criteria describe the operational characteristics of many facilities where Locanis is currently deployed.
Distribution is no longer a backwater of the economy, due in large part to the upheavals brought on by ecommerce. Today’s DCs and fulfillment centers are a major driver of employment growth and a highly visible proving ground for autonomous robots and other next-generation technologies. But there is a technology gap between gleaming new automated facilities and tens of thousands of existing warehouses and distribution centers that pre-date the warehouse building boom of the past 5-10 years. For companies across industries, transforming existing DCs and narrowing this technology gap is key to competitive advantage in a changing economy. Many companies are achieving this transformation by adopting modular, elastic DC technologies – including AI and robotics – that provide continuous warehouse optimization without replacing their current monolithic and static 
Justin Ritter, Vice President of Operations and Customer Success, Lucas Systems. Justin leads the solution design, project engineering, delivery and support teams at Lucas Systems. He has overall responsibility for the successful implementation of Lucas warehouse optimization solutions at warehouses and distribution centers worldwide. Earlier in his career he managed large-scale supply chain projects for manufacturing and distribution organizations in food and beverage, retail, consumer goods, and automotive industries. Justin is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and he holds an MBA from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh.
Dan Keller, Senior Consultant, Lucas Systems. Dan has more than 30 years of experience designing and delivering innovative software solutions for warehouses and distribution centers. He was a leading evangelist for voice technology in the late 1990s, and he has been involved in dozens of industry-first implementations of voice and other technologies in industries spanning food and beverage, retail, healthcare, industrial supply, and manufacturing. During his 20-plus years at Lucas he has held roles in sales, marketing, solutions design and delivery. He is also a frequent speaker at supply chain and logistics conferences, including the Warehousing Education and Research Council, the Wine and Spirits Wholesaler’s Association, the Foodservice Distribution Conference, the Healthcare Distributors Management Association, and others.