John Baysore, president and CEO of Dematic North America, uses the analogy of instrumentation in a modern automobile. Through that instrumentation, drivers can get real-time information on, for example, their miles per gallon and adjust their driving to improve performance.

Just so, he said during a press conference at Modex on Monday, the new Dematic iQ software platform can provide distribution center managers with information well beyond that offered by traditional warehouse control systems, allowing what Dematic calls "knowledge-based logistics optimization."

The software platform makes use of advanced analytics to provide real-time visibility and control, Dematic says, enabling users to make management decisions anywhere from the DC floor to headquarters.

Ulf Henriksson, president and CEO of Dematic Group, said that Dematic is focusing more of its efforts on providing software intelligence to customers. He said that the company is investing more than $100 million a year in research and development. The company is actively hiring software professionals. He asserts that providing customers with a combination of material handling systems and intelligence will help them serve their own customers more rapidly and accurately. "When someone buys something on the Web, one of our cranes will move it into a box as soon as possible," he said. "Goods will move within hours instead of days."

Baysore added that Dematic iQ integrates with its Sprocket maintenance management software to provide visibility into both equipment functioning and order management. Dematic iQ is designed to help manage operations ranging from manual processes to those that are fully automated, the company said. It is built on an open architecture and can integrate easily with existing systems for access to logistics, data, and cloud services.

For more information, visit www.dematic.com.