Simulating WMS

By Bob Trebilcock, Editor at Large -- Modern Materials Handling, 3/22/2005

Simulation software has long been used to prove new concepts for automated and manual materials handling processes. After all, who wants to spend millions on new equipment only to find out the solution doesn’t deliver the right results?

Simulation is now also being used to model warehouse management systems (WMS).

One early adopter was Nike.“About five years ago, we did a project with Nike,” says Ben Fuqua, vice president, Automation Associates, Inc. (615-313-7773). “While we were simulating a new materials handling system, we asked whether it might make more sense to change the software rather than replace the hardware. So, we constructed the capability to simulate wave planning, value-added services and time constraints to meet shipping deadlines.”

The tool is designed to allow warehouse managers and wave planners to simulate and compare various ways of picking a group of orders before releasing them to the floor.

Simulation can also be used with a WMS to compare both hardware and software solutions to meet seasonal demand or an increase in business. “Adding simulation capability to a WMS allows you to fine-tune your operations when demand or throughput changes,” says Jan Young, product manager, Catalyst International (414-362-6800). “If you sign Wal-Mart and plan to triple your volume, the simulation tool allows you to ask questions like whether you should add a shift, expand the size of your forward pick operations, or increase the number of work assignments.”

Simulating demand and orders is one approach. Another is to use simulation software to ask whether it’s more economical to use off-the-shelf WMS functionality and modify a business process to solve a problem. Or, is it more cost-effective to customize the software package in order to maintain an established warehouse practice?

“We’re working with an automotive spare parts distributor that has every kind of storage medium imaginable,” says Kevin Hume, director of consulting services, ESYNC (419-842-2210). “A key to their operations is a mezzanine that is constrained by its physical parameters. With simulation, we can plug in a year’s worth of daily orders and very quickly find out whether it will pay to make modifications in the software to make that area more efficient.”