Bob Trebilcock

Apriso brings MES and WMS together

Apriso is one of those supply chain execution companies that has always fascinated me, in part because I never really knew how to categorize them.

When you write about supply chain management software, you want to pigeonhole a company.

• Manhattan and RedPrairie: They do WMS.
• i2: They do supply chain planning.

Those companies, I’m sure, would argue that I’ve over-simplified what they do and where they fit, and they’d have a point. But it’s a way of thinking about them.

Apriso, a software provider that focuses on manufacturers, never fit nicely in a box. With roots in manufacturing, they certainly qualified as a manufacturing execution system (MES) provider. But they also had WMS functionality to manage a raw materials and parts storage area feeding the line. They could also handle finished goods storage at the other end of the manufacturing line.

It’s a concept that RedPrairie and HighJump, two household names in the WMS space, have adopted in the last year or two.

So, how does a WMS operate when it’s in a manufacturing setting? To find out, I talked to Tiago Wright, Apriso’s product manager for logistics execution solutions.

First, a couple of quick facts:

Apriso has done WMS and MES for at least ten years now, going back to the 1990s.

The application was rewritten in 2003 on Microsoft’s .NET framework.

70% of Apriso’s customers use the company’s WMS solution in their manufacturing operations. 5% use only the WMS functionality, including a few distribution customers.

“A WMS in manufacturing is very different from WMS in a distribution environment,” Wright says. “A typical WMS is good at tracking inventory so that a warehouse is accurate and efficient. Our customers are focused on the flexibility and efficiency of their manufacturing processes. For them, the most important assets aren’t in the warehouse but on the production line. That’s the end customer.”

In a manufacturing environment, then, the WMS is synching with the production line, picking and delivering materials, parts, subassemblies and work-in-process so that the line doesn’t shut down. That’s the efficient piece. Being able to respond to rush orders as they come in is the flexible piece.

Finally, a WMS in a manufacturing setting has to be able to support lean manufacturing concepts, like capturing metrics for continuous improvement; capturing the genealogy of the parts that go into a product for traceability and quality testing; and finally, being able to replicate those processes across a network of manufacturing locations.

“If you’re just now implementing lean manufacturing processes, you can gain a lot of benefit just by putting in a standard WMS in your facilities,” says Wright. “But if you have been on this path for awhile, you want to synchronize activities from dock-to-dock. That calls for a more integrated solution.”

Posted by Bob Trebilcock on June 20, 2008 | Comments (0)