Slotting engine for Sterling WMS

Sterling Commerce offers a new slotting engine for use with its Sterling Warehouse Management System (WMS) software. Designed to automate and optimize inventory slotting activities, the engine identifies the most efficient placement for items in the warehouse, enabling companies to more intelligently manage both personnel and physical resources.

Sterling WMS gives managers planning, execution, and measurement tools and brings operational discipline to complex warehouse operations. The addition of the slotting engine improves order fulfillment volumes without adding staff or space. It also responds to changes in product volumes and seasonality to maximize product placement and picking productivity.

A good slotting strategy can reduce travel time and improve the efficiency of pickingrelated labor. Specifically, the slotting engine will help companies establish goals and constraints that determine the optimal slotting strategy, and then perform "what-if" re-slotting scenarios based on those goals and constraints. This will enable them to optimize the sequence in which slotting tasks are executed. It also plans the labor required to execute the slotting tasks, while giving companies the flexibility to execute only a subset of the slotting tasks in a situation where sufficient labor is not available to complete all of them. It additionally determines return on investment and payback for alternative scenarios before moves are executed.

The slotting engine comes through a partnership with Optricity, a provider of slotting solutions that offer mathematically advanced optimization engines to enhance return on supply chain investment.

Company: Sterling Commerce

Company URL: www.sterlingcommerce.com