AMHSA Opinion WMS: cloud or crowd?
In this month’s article in the series from members of the Automated Material Handling Systems Association (AMHSA), Derek Kay, business development director for Logistex, considers whether a cloud-based WMS can limit growth.
Many suppliers have recently been promoting the advantages
of cloud-based Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), but there is a danger of jumping on the bandwagon without considering all the implications. For a smaller business with a manual warehouse operation, cloud technology initially appears to makes sense, particularly when combined with a software as a service (SaaS) payment option.
Cloud systems benefi t from a large-scale IT infrastructure with applications running on virtual servers hosted remotely. The disaster recovery plan is already in place and the customer does not need to worry about maintaining servers on site.
connection and an internal IT infrastructure to connect local PCs and peripheral equipment. So, in reality, someone on site needs to be responsible for internal IT support regardless.
THE GROWTH ISSUE These are not uncommon arguments against use of a cloud-based WMS, but one key argument always seems to be overlooked. Most businesses have aspirations to grow – and growth generally requires increased throughput and improved effi ciency. So what happens when you realise that, to get these improvements, you need to move to some level of automation, no matter how simple?
The general opinion is that you need to have an on-site
“For a smaller business with a manual warehouse operation, cloud technology initially appears to makes sense, particularly when combined with a SaaS payment option”
To get the real benefi t of a WMS, however, you need real- time responses to the warehouse transactions; usually this involves RF terminals to promote accuracy in receipt, storage, picking and despatch operations. RF terminals require an RF infrastructure, the maintenance of which needs to be someone’s responsibility. It is possible to outsource this, but how long can you afford for the operation to be out of service while they respond with a site visit?
A cloud-based WMS also needs a reliable Internet
Warehouse Control System (WCS) to integrate and control the materials handling equipment (MHE). So now you have a WMS hosted remotely and a WCS hosted locally, communicating over the Internet, which can mean you are paying for two systems, often from two suppliers.
INTEGRAL WCS
Many WMS vendors specifi cally avoid any responsibility for WCS functionality, focussing only on non-automated operations. One solution is to opt for a WMS with
www.shdlogistics.com
an integral WCS that is capable of controlling the MHE found in a modern automated warehouse, such as Logistex’s LWS Refl ex. This system can be deployed initially as a cloud solution if required but, when growth leads to automation, the application can be directly transferred to local servers and can immediately make use of its WCS capabilities. The LWS Refl ex WMS allows users to choose and pay for any combination of pre-installed features as and when they need, matching their needs step-by-step as their business grows. With costs refl ecting actual usage of selected features, the solution can deliver fast payback and ROI. The question that needs to be asked when considering a cloud- based WMS is: “Do I want my business to grow and will this system limit that?” This is not to say that cloud computing will not have a huge impact on how we share and manage data. Hybrid cloud computing in which enterprises extend their resources to public clouds may well be the trend of the future. In addition to providing reliability and scalability of public clouds, hybrid cloud computing has the appeal of providing the most suitable environment for some applications, such as databases, that run better on a dedicated server than on a shared server. What is important, as with any new technology, is to understand both its advantages and limitations and to ensure it fully integrates with established and proven systems. ■
www.amhsa.com Storage Handling Distribution June 2012 37
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