WMS
“The biggest impact of AI that I see from a warehouse operation perspective is the future growth in robotics,” says Amit Levy, executive vice president of sales and strategy at Made4net. As warehouse operators consider adding automation, it’s critical for the WMS to be compatible with the installation timeline as well as the operating systems. “The automation should be implemented at the same speed as the WMS so they can go forward without having a phased approach,” Raphael says. GETTING READY FOR AI With an AI-enabled WMS, warehouse managers can monitor labor productivity and throughput to identify bottlenecks that might threaten strict service- level agreements. “You can see where a zone is struggling and where one might be performing well and shift people around for a real-time response,” Batchelder says. A company’s current WMS may seem adequate until it’s not. Many companies are locked into existing solutions that can’t support new expectations for AI and automation integrations. To support growth and adoption of new technologies, a WMS must be scalable and adaptable. “Technology is moving fast, and customers want more for less. You need to be able to address the whole AI journey, which is part of every company’s roadmap today,” Levy says. “Companies want to invest in technology for the next 20 years, and they want to make sure that whatever they do is there for the long run.” Here are exclusive insights from some leading WMS providers that offer solutions incorporating the latest advances to help drive ef ciency and service innovations to meet ongoing supply chain challenges. DATEX: ADAPTING TO TRANSFORMATIVE TRENDS Datex’s Footprint ® WMS has been designed to tackle prominent industry trends, including the migration to cloud- native architecture, labor optimization amid workforce shortages, and the rapid
From optimizing labor to leveraging artificial intelligence, Datex’s Footprint® WMS addresses market trends and customer needs.
integration of automation and robotics, along with the rising in uence of arti cial intelligence. Datex has undertaken a fundamental shift from traditional, on-premise, and virtualized WMS solutions to a fully cloud-native approach built upon containerized microservices. By leveraging containers, the system now instantly scales resources up or down according to demand, discarding the old model of xed CPU and memory allocations. This exibility ensures not only zero downtime for software deployments, including seamless rollbacks, but also enables warehouses to tailor their computing resources for peak or off-peak periods, reducing cost and complexity, notes Bryan Batchelder, vice president of product for Datex. This modern architecture also tackles longstanding issues around system maintenance, user disruption, and the time-consuming nature of upgrades. “Deploying new versions of our software can now happen with zero downtime, and our customers don’t even notice,” Batchelder says. The platform’s overlay system enables deep customization without isolating customers from ongoing updates, a crucial advantage for industries with stringent compliance standards. A robust WMS helps address the
persistent warehouse labor shortage, which is especially challenging for third- party logistics (3PL) providers, who must balance rising labor costs with the pressure for competitive rates. To address this challenge, Datex has focused on building integration partnerships that bring labor optimization, forecasting, and management directly into its platform. Plus, the interface can be intentionally streamlined for rapid onboarding, slashing the training time for seasonal and temp workers to as little as 15-20 minutes. By presenting only essential functions and eliminating unnecessary menu options, the system reduces cognitive load and error rates, allowing employees to be productive as quickly as possible after onboarding. SUPPORTING SMB While automation once seemed attainable only by giants like Amazon, Datex enables small and midsize warehouses to implement cutting- edge robotics. Recent projects, such as an integration with Locus Robotics, emphasize the value of a WMS as the operational hub. The system can coordinate hundreds of autonomous robots based on real-time data, with robots checking in, con rming tasks, and making work ow decisions dynamically.
72 Inbound Logistics • September 2025
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