According to customer requirements

viastore Software is proud of the fact that its warehouse management system can issue voice instructions in the employee's national language - it offers no fewer than 16 languages in the standard version. "In addition, we work with graphics, instructions and icons that users are familiar with from their everyday environment," explains Markus Müllerschön, Vice President Sales at viastore Software: "Picking tasks are supported with photos of the items, large numbers, colors and graphical representations."

Software from Aberle Logistics in use: The program supports employees in the warehouse.

According to IT project manager Anton Pajda, provider SITLog also works with workshops where the customer can run through the processes on a test system before going live. The keywords that come up in conversation with the expert are "intuitive" and "standardized"; "We rely on design concepts that most employees are already familiar with from other products in their everyday work."

Information that is not required is hidden

What you don't need is not displayed - this principle is also applied at PSI Logistics, as Sascha Tepuric, Managing Director and Head of the company's Warehousing division, explains: "Information that is not required can be hidden at any time, making it easier to understand." According to Tepuric, individual dialogs can also be linked with each other in a process-oriented manner at the click of a mouse. This means that the necessary information is available at a glance at the click of a mouse, without the user having to mill through various dialogs and make complicated mask jumps.

Not an election result, but a dream for warehouse managers: SITLog's WMC software displays the aisle distribution management with colored bars.

In addition to intuition, configurability is highly valued by all companies surveyed. Ultimately, well-configurable software makes it possible to adapt to customer requirements in less time than would be the case with new programming. In view of highly volatile markets, it is quite realistic today that the market requirements were completely different at the time when the specifications for the software were written. The more configurable elements a software can show, the easier it is for everyone involved.

Needs-based combination with Flow Configuration

With PSI Logistics' WMS, the "modeling of a warehouse with all master data, topology information and strategies can be carried out completely offline", explains Tepuric: "PSIwms offers extensive configuration options with rule tables in order to select the right strategies depending on the situation. In addition, individual software components can be combined and parameterized as required in expert mode using Flow Configuration. Numerous logistics service providers use PSIwms to independently configure new locations - up to 54 - and clients - up to 150 - and adapt their entire strategies to the customer's requirements as the situation demands."

Future-proof software: Screenshot of the IoT (Internet of Things) map of the PSIwms software.

At Aberle Logistics, the parameters are also left to the customer, as Stefan Weisshap explains: "During the go-live, software developers from Aberle are initially on site so that the customer can have changes made to the system at short notice. Furthermore, important areas such as manual storage locations, parameters for controlling the articles in order picking and other parameters can be adjusted. These parameters can also be changed by the customer during subsequent operation."

Oliver Mebert, Klinkhammer Group, goes into more detail: "With the new KlinkWARE software, processes can be flexibly controlled and influenced by configurations. All configurations are stored in the database. The software is implemented in C#, follows the principle of object orientation and integrates modern frameworks. The .NET Framework from Microsoft and WPF are just a few examples. The individual modules use elements or objects, which in turn use the configurations to make decisions for the process flow and, if necessary, to transfer processing or responsibility to other objects.

Three advantages at once

Oliver Mebert, Project Manager Software Development at the Klinkhammer Group

SITLog refers to its system, which was "structured according to object-oriented design aspects and consists of an extensive library of function modules." This ensures flexibility and portability and offers future-proofing.

viastore Software is proud of the existing viadat software standard. According to the company, all intralogistics processes are mapped there and can be made available in the desired variants via parameterizations. Configurations for the number of employees, workstations, additional or new warehouse areas or activities can be created. "Complex, company-specific processes are customized - but are generally already available in the software library, so that even highly individual customer requirements can be mapped almost completely in the standard system," says Markus Müllerschön. He refers to the interfaces and calls them "state-of-the-art", as they are already available as standard for all common ERP, shipping and customs systems and, if necessary, "only need to be adapted to individual company requirements."

Innovations should not be missing either

The five managers were just as eager to provide information as when asked about configuration and intuition when it came to another important "I" that no company should be without: innovation. For example, Aberle Logistics is rolling out the new release of PMS-W version 3.0 in 2016. In this version, the PMS-S shuttle control system is fully integrated and the warehouse processes for manual areas have been expanded. New functionalities such as condition monitoring, predictive analytics and virtual twin have been added.

Stefan Weisshap, Head of Sales Software Products at Aberle Logistics

viastore Software is investing in new, dialog-supported configuration options in 2016, "with the help of which even users without in-depth software knowledge can add or change warehouse components, storage areas or processes," says Markus Müllerschön.

Klinkhammer is using LogiMAT 2016 to present KlinkWARE, a completely new generation of warehouse management software that replaces the previous DC21 program. The company promises up to five times faster processing speeds for control orders in the form of PLC telegrams.

PSI has now reached version 3.5 of PSIwms, which will also be presented at LogiMAT. The user interface has been revised, including the integration of a mobile client with control station and cockpit functionality and an open street map for visualizing tracking & tracing.

Finally, SITLog will be releasing SITLog WMC 3.1.5 in the coming year. Key features here are demand-oriented and transparent serial number management and user-specific filters on tables in information screens.

So there is a lot going on among software providers, all the more reason to look forward to LogiMAT in Stuttgart and take a look at the first new releases.

Martin Schrüfer

Contact:

Aberle Logistics GmbH

A. Klinkhammer Förderanlagen Kreative Lager- und Produktionslogistik GmbHwww.klinkhammer.com

PSI Logistics GmbHwww.psilogistics.com

SITLog GmbHwww.sitlog.de

viastore Software GmbHwww.viastoresoftware.de