RESTON, Va.--Softeon is again recognized in the Gartner® Critical Capabilities for Warehouse Management Systems report for 2023.*
Gartner notes that companies can “Choose the right WMS for your operations by using the nine highlighted critical capabilities across five different use cases to appropriately align with your levels of operational complexity and sophistication. Supply chain technology leaders can use this research to compare specific WMS products.”
Softeon, a top global provider of WMS, Warehouse Execution Systems (WES), Distributed Order Management (DOM) and other supply chain software solutions, was the third-ranked WMS provider in the Use Case for both Level 3 and Level 4 Warehouse Operations, based on the Gartner warehouse stratification model. Softeon was also the fourth-ranked WMS provider for the Level 5 warehouse Use Case.
Level 5 represents the most complex warehouse operations.
Gartner recommends that companies “target the solutions best suited to your distinctive WMS use cases by developing a right-fit shortlist of vendors and solutions, using this research as a guide in combination with the companion WMS Magic Quadrant.“
To download the full Critical Capabilities report, go to https://www.Softeon.com/Gartner-Critical-Capabilities-Report-WMS
“Softeon continues to score well in WMS capabilities for more complex warehouses operating at levels 3 through 5 in the Gartner report,” said Jim Hoefflin, CEO at Softeon. “We believe that the results of the Gartner analysis, after an extremely rigorous and detailed process, validate our capabilities ranking in the highly competitive WMS industry for a wide range of DC operational complexities, including the most automated and challenging.”
Hoefflin added that “Companies are looking to improve distribution processes and often add automation to counter rising costs and labor challenges. Softeon has WMS functionality and industry expertise to help them successfully achieve their goals.”
Softeon’s advanced WMS capabilities include task optimization, wave-based or waveless picking, e-fulfillment, labor and resource management, advanced cartonization and pallet building, powerful kitting and assembly functionality, truck planning, integrated parcel shipping and more. New WES capabilities provide many additional benefits, including orchestration of the release of work based on a wide range of attributes, with configurable workflow.
Softeon also excels in integration to ERP and materials handling systems, powered by our LUCA platform that provides advanced, composable integration tools. Softeon can also directly manage a variety of picking subsystems (e.g., Voice, pick-to-light, put walls, mobile robots, smart carts and more) without the need for any third-party control systems.
Softeon WMS powers many great logistics performers including Casey’s, DB Schenker, DoItBest, Denso, Duluth Trading Company, Lenovo, Saddle Creek Logistics, Sears Home Services, Suncast, UPS Supply Chain Solutions, UPS Healthcare, and many others.
*Gartner® “Critical Capabilities for Warehouse Management Systems,” Simon Tunstall, Dwight Klappich, Rishabh Narang, Federica Stufano, 27 July 2023
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About Softeon
Softeon is a global provider of advanced, Cloud-based supply chain software that helps companies improve logistics operations and push back against labor, cost and cycle time pressures while maximizing on-going agility. Our software suite is anchored by our Warehouse Management System (WMS), Warehouse Execution System (WES) and Distributed Order Management (DOM) solutions, and empowered by our innovative, composable LUCA integration platform. LUCA enables rapid on-boarding of a wide array of material handling systems, such as mobile robots and goods-to-person automation, and powers development of tailored workflows without coding. Softeon is laser-focused on customer results, with a 100% track record of deployment success. For more information, please visit www.Softeon.com.
Managing a surging tide of post-holiday returns is a daunting task for the warehouse, where staffing shortages are all too common and inventory challenges abound. The need for speed and efficiency has never been greater.
“From the warehouse perspective, [getting] inventory back to saleable condition as quickly as possible is what really matters,” says Wes Coleman, industry principal for warehousing at mobile computing and workforce automation firm Zebra Technologies. “In this day and age of challenged supply chains, this is inventory that is readily available [and] that needs to get turned and ready for sale.”
Thanks to a growing focus on reverse logistics industrywide, more warehousing and supply chain professionals are devising new strategies and applying technology to manage the complexity of the returns cycle. Those strategies include giving retail workers a bigger role in reverse logistics and investing in software and hardware solutions to automate tasks and alleviate the physical burden of restocking items in the warehouse. Both tactics are helping organizations get a better handle on all those returns.
THINKING STRATEGICALLY
More than $700 billion worth of merchandise was returned in 2023, according to the National Retail Federation—a figure that includes an estimated 8.4 billion pounds of products that ended up in landfills. Those numbers illustrate the extent of the returns problem across the supply chain, and it’s only getting worse. Accelerating e-commerce sales and the consumer behaviors that accompany them necessitate a strong returns strategy, according to reverse logistics technology company Optoro.
“Many retailers are [rightfully] focused on the buying experience. Yet critical aspects of the customer experience happen beyond the buy button,” Natalie Walkley, Optoro’s vice president of marketing, explained in a blog post about today’s challenging returns environment. “While returns avoidance seems appealing, returns will always be inevitable to some degree, so it is wise to apply the same strategic approach to curating the best returns experience.”
For many, that means taking a step back and considering the entire returns process, which begins with the customer’s initiating a return and ends with the resale or disposition of merchandise. In the middle is the crucial step of processing the return, which happens in the warehouse. Today, many organizations are engaging front-line retail workers earlier in that cycle to help streamline the overall process.
Jim Musco, industry principal for retail at Zebra Technologies, explains that the growing complexity of returns has put the issue front and center with store operations teams—many of whom are developing presorting strategies to guide the returns journey rather than simply tossing items into a bin and sending them back to a warehouse, where pick, pack, and ship associates must figure out what to do with them. Instead, retail workers are designating whether an item can be returned to the shelves or must be sent back for further processing, as one example.
“On the retail side, they are seeing that there’s some thought that has to go into that—so that [the warehouse can get returned items in and out] quicker and more efficiently,” Musco explains. “[The industry is] becoming cognizant of the fact that the front-line retail store is part of the process—whereas before we wouldn’t have thought of it in those terms.”
APPLYING TECHNOLOGY
Technology is helping to spur that thinking. In Zebra’s “17th Annual Global Shopper Study,” released in November, nearly 90% of retail associates said they believe they can provide a better customer experience when they have mobile technology tools to help simplify communication, prioritize tasks, and check prices and inventory.
Specialized software helps as well: A returns management software (RMS) platform, for example, automates and directs the returns process. A separate 2024 returns study by post-purchase and returns management platform Narvar noted that RMS systems do several key things: enforce return windows and rules; generate a return shipping label or QR code for dropoff; route the return to the appropriate dispositioning [site] based on rules and logic; and notify customers of the status of their return. Handheld devices provide added assistance—speeding processes in the store by giving associates easy access to data and allowing them to communicate in real time via instant messages and alerts.
“These types of [technologies] are working their way into the conversation,” Musco observes. “Retailers [recognize] that reverse logistics is a big part of the equation and [that] being efficient [when processing returns] matters.”
Indeed, most retailers responding to the Zebra study said they agree that technology allows workers to do their jobs better, with 75% saying they plan to increase their technology investments in 2025.
MOBILIZING ROBOTICS
The technology trend holds true in the warehouse as well.
Some warehouses are beginning to incorporate mobile robots to help with reverse logistics, in addition to the handheld and wearable devices they already use to manage the flow of items in, out, and around their facilities. Optoro’s partnership with autonomous mobile robot (AMR) maker Locus Robotics is a good example. The companies announced a deal in 2023 to provide a scalable software and robotics automation solution for high-volume retail e-commerce returns processing. The partnership integrates Optoro’s returns technology platform with the Locus AMRs, feeding the returns information to the robots, which then navigate through the warehouse to deliver returned items to human workers for putaway in a kind of reverse picking process. The system uses data science and automated real-time decision-making to determine the best path for each returned item.
The process alleviates the physical burden associated with returns as well—human workers spend less time walking up and down warehouse aisles and more time restocking, speeding the overall returns process. Locus Robotics describes the AMR-assisted returns process as follows:
Returned goods are received by the facility.
The facility reviews and sorts returned goods.
Returned goods to be put away are sent to a holding location until the task is activated in the system.
When the task is “ready,” the returned item, container, or case to be put away is scanned and placed onto the robot, which then takes it to a human near that location.
For the human worker, the display screen shows the location, license plate, item UPC (Universal Product Code), and picture for the item or carton to be put away.
The worker puts the carton or the individual units away.
The worker places the empty carton on the robot for disposal.
The robot travels to the dropoff location. Empty cartons are disposed of, and the process begins all over again with the next item(s).
The scalable solution allows warehouses to add AMRs during the busy post-holiday returns season and scale back when volume eases.
Scalability is key, whether you’re adding robotics, mobile devices, handhelds, or wearables, Zebra’s Coleman notes.
“You want some sort of scalable option that allows you to ramp up for as long as you need to,” he says, noting that warehouses see an average return rate of about 15%, which is in line with the 2023 data from NRF.
A little help on the retail side makes a difference too.
“[There needs to be] more conversation and energy [put] into making sure you’re making appropriate decisions at the point of return or in the store as opposed to just sending [an item] to the warehouse,” Musco adds. “We’re trying to be good partners to our friends in the warehousing space.”
Seventeen innovative products and solutions from eleven providers have reached the nomination round of the IFOY Award 2025, an international competition that brings together the best new material handling products for warehouses and distribution center operations.
The nominees this year come from six different countries and will compete head-to-head during a Test Camp that will be held March 26 and 27 in Dortmund, Germany. The Test Camp allows hands-on evaluation and testing of products based on engineering and operational design. In contrast to the usual display of products at a trade show, The Test Camp also allows end-users and visitors to the event the opportunity to experience these technologies hands-on as they would operate in a facility.
Award categories include integrated solutions, counter-balanced forklifts, warehouse forklifts, mobile robotic solutions, other warehouse robotics, intralogistics software, and specialized solutions for controlling operations. A startup of the year is also recognized.
The finalists include entries from aluco, EP Equipment Germany, Exotec, Geekplus Europe, HUBTEX, Interroll, Jungheinrich, Logitrans, PLANCISE, STILL and Verity.
In the “IFOY Start-up of the Year” spin-off award, Blickfeld, ecoro, enabl and Filics are in the running. These finalists were selected from all entries following six weeks of intensive work by the IFOY organization, test teams, and a jury composed of journalists who cover the logistics market. DC Velocity’s David Maloney is one of the jurors, representing the United States. Winners will be recognized at a gala to be held July 3 in Dortmund's Phoenix des Lumières.
While Christmas is always my favorite time of the year, I have always been something of a Scrooge when it comes to celebrating the New Year. It is traditionally a time of reflection, where we take stock of our lives and make resolutions to do better. I’ve always felt that I really didn’t need a calendar to remind me to kick my bad habits in favor of healthier routines. If I was not already doing something that was good for me, then making promises I probably won’t keep after a few weeks is not really helpful.
But as we turn the calendar to 2025, there is a lot to consider this new year. The election is behind us, and it will be interesting to see how supply chains react to the new administration. We’ve been told to expect sharp increases in tariffs, like those the president-elect issued in his first term. Will these cause the desired shift away from goods made in China?
What we have actually seen so far is a temporary surge in imports that began in late fall in anticipation of higher tariffs. This bump will be short-lived, however, unless consumer confidence remains unusually high.
Of course, the new administration’s aim with tariffs is to encourage companies to bring production back to America. Will we see manufacturing surge at home? Probably not. It took us decades to send our manufacturing to parts of the world where production was cheaper. I imagine it will take decades to bring it back, if it can ever really be fully brought back. We’ve become accustomed to those lower labor costs. So take your pick—higher tariffs or higher labor costs. Regardless of which route businesses choose, it will probably drive prices higher.
Labor itself will be interesting to watch this year. As I write this, the three-month extension of the master agreement between dock workers and East and Gulf Coast ports is due to expire in a few weeks—on Jan. 15, to be precise. While the two sides have resolved their wage disputes, the issue of automation remains a major sticking point, with the workers resisting the widescale implementation of automated systems.
And of course, we still have two wars raging overseas that have disrupted supply chains. Will we see peace this year, or will other trouble spots flare up?
And here at home, we’ve now been in a trucking recession for two years. What will happen in that sector in 2025? Hopefully, better days are ahead, but only ifconsumers keep spending, demand increases, fuel prices continue to drop, and capacity levels out. That’s a lot to ask.
Whatever this year holds for our supply chains, it is definitely setting up to be very interesting, to say the least.
That is important because the increased use of robots has the potential to significantly reduce the impact of labor shortages in manufacturing, IFR said. That will happen when robots automate dirty, dull, dangerous or delicate tasks – such as visual quality inspection, hazardous painting, or heavy lifting—thus freeing up human workers to focus on more interesting and higher-value tasks.
To reach those goals, robots will grow through five trends in the new year, the report said:
1 – Artificial Intelligence. By leveraging diverse AI technologies, such as physical, analytical, and generative, robotics can perform a wide range of tasks more efficiently. Analytical AI enables robots to process and analyze the large amounts of data collected by their sensors. This helps to manage variability and unpredictability in the external environment, in “high mix/low-volume” production, and in public environments. Physical AI, which is created through the development of dedicated hardware and software that simulate real-world environments, allows robots to train themselves in virtual environments and operate by experience, rather than programming. And Generative AI projects aim to create a “ChatGPT moment” for Physical AI, allowing this AI-driven robotics simulation technology to advance in traditional industrial environments as well as in service robotics applications.
2 – Humanoids.
Robots in the shape of human bodies have received a lot of media attention, due to their vision where robots will become general-purpose tools that can load a dishwasher on their own and work on an assembly line elsewhere. Start-ups today are working on these humanoid general-purpose robots, with an eye toward new applications in logistics and warehousing. However, it remains to be seen whether humanoid robots can represent an economically viable and scalable business case for industrial applications, especially when compared to existing solutions. So for the time being, industrial manufacturers are still focused on humanoids performing single-purpose tasks only, with a focus on the automotive industry.
3 – Sustainability – Energy Efficiency.
Compliance with the UN's environmental sustainability goals and corresponding regulations around the world is becoming an important requirement for inclusion on supplier whitelists, and robots play a key role in helping manufacturers achieve these goals. In general, their ability to perform tasks with high precision reduces material waste and improves the output-input ratio of a manufacturing process. These automated systems ensure consistent quality, which is essential for products designed to have long lifespans and minimal maintenance. In the production of green energy technologies such as solar panels, batteries for electric cars or recycling equipment, robots are critical to cost-effective production. At the same time, robot technology is being improved to make the robots themselves more energy-efficient. For example, the lightweight construction of moving robot components reduces their energy consumption. Different levels of sleep mode put the hardware in an energy saving parking position. Advances in gripper technology use bionics to achieve high grip strength with almost no energy consumption.
4 – New Fields of Business.
The general manufacturing industry still has a lot of potential for robotic automation. But most manufacturing companies are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which means the adoption of industrial robots by SMEs is still hampered by high initial investment and total cost of ownership. To address that hurdle, Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) business models allow enterprises to benefit from robotic automation with no fixed capital involved. Another option is using low-cost robotics to provide a “good enough” product for applications that have low requirements in terms of precision, payload, and service life. Powered by the those approaches, new customer segments beyond manufacturing include construction, laboratory automation, and warehousing.
5 – Addressing Labor Shortage.
The global manufacturing sector continues to suffer from labor shortages, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO). One of the main drivers is demographic change, which is already burdening labor markets in leading economies such as the United States, Japan, China, the Republic of Korea, or Germany. Although the impact varies from country to country, the cumulative effect on the supply chain is a concern almost everywhere.
Container traffic is finally back to typical levels at the port of Montreal, two months after dockworkers returned to work following a strike, port officials said Thursday.
Today that arbitration continues as the two sides work to forge a new contract. And port leaders with the Maritime Employers Association (MEA) are reminding workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) that the CIRB decision “rules out any pressure tactics affecting operations until the next collective agreement expires.”
The Port of Montreal alone said it had to manage a backlog of about 13,350 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) on the ground, as well as 28,000 feet of freight cars headed for export.
Port leaders this week said they had now completed that task. “Two months after operations fully resumed at the Port of Montreal, as directed by the Canada Industrial Relations Board, the Montreal Port Authority (MPA) is pleased to announce that all port activities are now completely back to normal. Both the impact of the labour dispute and the subsequent resumption of activities required concerted efforts on the part of all port partners to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, even over the holiday season,” the port said in a release.