As e-commerce volumes explode amid labor shortages, warehouse automation has become a critical strategy for improving operational efficiency and reducing costs. However, simply stacking hardware equipment cannot solve the fundamental challenges. The key lies in software, which is increasingly becoming the central force driving warehouse automation.
From Hardware-Centric to Software-Defined Automation
Traditional views suggest warehouse automation's growth stems primarily from labor shortages to handle rising e-commerce orders. Companies have turned to solutions like autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), goods-to-person (GTP) systems, and traditional automation equipment. While valid, this perspective overlooks a critical challenge: ensuring multiple automation systems work cohesively while optimally allocating tasks for both high utilization and on-time order fulfillment.
This coordination capability—known as "orchestration"—is where software plays a pivotal role. It explains why material handling automation is becoming increasingly software-centric.
For suppliers, hardware commoditization creates the need to differentiate solutions and build lasting customer relationships. While maintenance and services have traditionally served this purpose, software is now emerging as the key differentiator that helps operations achieve better goods flow through highly automated distribution centers.
The Evolution from WCS to WES
Just as smartphones or robotic vacuums require powerful software to maximize their hardware's potential, warehouse automation has long relied on warehouse control systems (WCS) software to configure and monitor automated equipment. However, industry observers note software is now evolving beyond managing speed and feed rates in specific automation zones to orchestrating entire distribution centers as integrated systems.
Over years of enhancement, WCS providers developed warehouse execution systems (WES) software with advanced capabilities like order release logic and load balancing. Howard Turner, Director of Supply Chain Systems at St. Onge consulting firm, explains that WES software—offered by various providers including automation suppliers—has become crucial for coordinating multiple automation systems.
WES providers include major warehouse automation OEMs, system integrators, and some warehouse management system (WMS) providers. Some also offer predictive analytics tools, while robotics solution providers emphasize their systems' software capabilities for monitoring performance and order fulfillment progress. This makes software evaluation increasingly critical for effective warehouse automation deployment.
Core WES Capabilities
The primary objective of WES is coordinating multiple automation systems. Mary Elliott, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Fortna, explains: "With e-commerce and omnichannel fulfillment challenges driving adoption of diverse technologies, software's role is effectively tying all these technologies together through intelligent, optimized coordination."
WES achieves this through smart order release—moving away from large "waves" of work to smaller batches that consider current status and capacity across automation zones. This order release functionality represents orchestration's starting point, with WES connecting to lower-level control systems to flag exceptions or potential bottlenecks. Some software includes "load balancing" features to adapt to real-time floor conditions.
Beyond coordination, WES helps maximize throughput from automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) and GTP systems through logic and rules. Continuous work allocation and visibility features help managers decide when to scale performance by adding pick stations, robots, or vehicles, explains Markus Schmidt, President of Swisslog Logistics Automation Americas.
Operational Visibility and Predictive Analytics
With many WES solutions evolving from WCS, they maintain close connections with shop floor automation control systems. Adding analytics transforms WES into comprehensive dashboards for distribution center management.
Michael Conrath, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Kuecker Pulse Integration (KPI), notes that solution providers combining WES with predictive maintenance software are ideally positioned to deliver unified dashboards that spare managers from juggling multiple interfaces.
Beyond dashboards, Conrath highlights warehouse process modeling, material flow simulation, and predictive maintenance software as critical components for designing and operating effective warehouse automation systems.
The Future of Warehouse Automation
The future of warehouse automation clearly lies in software. Companies must shift perspectives to view software as the core of automation solutions rather than mere hardware accessories. By deploying advanced systems like WES, businesses can achieve intelligent orchestration of entire warehouse operations—boosting efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing customer satisfaction.
As artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies continue advancing, warehouse automation software capabilities will grow exponentially, delivering even greater value. Software-defined automation is poised to become the dominant theme in smart warehousing development, and companies embracing this trend will gain competitive advantages in increasingly demanding markets.