Configura Unveils Transformative Updates with 15.0 Major Release
Configura, a provider of innovative design solutions for the material handling industry, is thrilled to unveil the exciting changes in the latest 15.0 Major update to CET.
Linköping, Sweden–May 20—Configura, a provider of innovative design solutions for the material handling industry, is thrilled to unveil the exciting changes in the latest 15.0 Major update to CET. The update includes a sleeker, more modern interface that's easier on the eyes and smoother to navigate.
“These enhancements mark a significant step forward in our commitment to fostering greater feedback and communication within our user community,” said Erin Corrill, Global Head of User Community at Configura. “Us Configurans are dedicated to continuously improving our products to enhance design flow, speed and overall user experience. By listening closely to our users and implementing their valuable feedback, we can ensure our products remain at the forefront of innovation in the design industry, empowering designers worldwide to achieve their creative visions with greater efficiency and ease."
A New Look for CET
While maintaining the beloved CET user experience, Configura introduces this facelift as part of its steadfast commitment to enhancing usability and delivering a standardized user experience across the platform. Users have complete control over whether they want to opt in and embrace the makeover or prefer the classic look; both options will coexist for a seamless transition.
Users can acquaint themselves with the new interface by simply switching between the two with the convenient UI toggle at the top right of the window or by participating in an interactive tour of the new features.
Expansions for CET Material Handling
In its ongoing efforts to enhance the Essentials for the CET Material Handling family, Configura is thrilled to introduce the debut of the Essential ASRS Extension. This new Extension offers a single-mast crane system that seamlessly integrates with selective racking systems from Essential Pallet Racking. This latest Extension not only broadens the scope of Configura’s material handling solutions but also enriches its platform's overall versatility and functionality.
Essential Conveyor Extension
Configura’s ongoing commitment to refinement and innovation is also exemplified in the recent updates to the Essential Conveyor Extension. Among these enhancements is the introduction of the Total Length Legend tool, which simplifies tracking the overall length of conveyor systems within designs. Additionally, curved conveyor units now boast an expanded range of angle options, offering greater flexibility in design configurations.
Including Pallet Conveyors as a new system type further enriches the conveyor offerings, providing access to essential conveyor parts tailored specifically for pallet movement, such as chain conveyors and pallet turntables. These updates underscore Configura’s dedication to empowering users with comprehensive tools and features that streamline design processes and elevate material handling solutions.
Partnership with Epic Games
Configura is also excited to announce an expanded partnership with Epic Games. This partnership will make Twinmotion the preferred fly-through tool, sunsetting Configura’s in-house solution, Movie Studio. Collaborating with Epic Games offers CET users first-class rendering and flythrough capabilities, elevating design projects to new heights.
As an authorized reseller, Configura offers a Twinmotion bundle for just $445 USD. This includes one year of the Twinmotion for CET Extension and one year of Twinmotion, offering a $100 USD savings. Users who already have a Twinmotion license can still enhance their CET experience with the Twinmotion for CET Extension available in the Configura Marketplace.
CAD Improvements
The 15.0 Major update also significantly improves CAD functionality to ensure a more stable and efficient experience when working with CAD files. These updates ensure users can work seamlessly with CAD files from different sources without a disrupted workflow caused by frequent bugs or performance issues.
The latest updates in CAD functionality include the option to import materials in the CAD Settings dialog, requiring materials to be locally available for import. Additionally, the Export CAD drawing dialog now offers the ability to export materials to DWG format, enabling the retention of CET materials for rendering within DWG drawings. Another new feature allows users to flatten 2D in the 3D view when importing CAD drawings, giving more control over the visualization. Lastly, users can now resize the CAD Settings dialog for improved readability, facilitating adjustments to window size and space distribution within the dialog.
Enhancements to Dimensions
Additional improvements to Dimensions empower users to create, measure and position objects with greater efficiency and precision. The new Quick Chain Dimensions and Quick Measure Mode tools make dimensioning faster and more intuitive.
The Quick Chain Dimensions tool lets users place chain dimensions faster and with fewer clicks. Once placed, Quick Chain Dimensions work with any type of object in CET from any Extension, and their properties and behavior are equivalent to those of the regular chain dimensions. With Quick Measure Mode, CET can automatically detect and measure distances, boosting design accuracy and speed.
COM Dialog Updates
In the design world, it’s common for users to have multiple unique Customer’s Own Materials (COMs) that are consistently used across various products within the same drawing. To simplify and standardize the time-consuming process of integrating COMs, Configura is releasing several updates to the COM dialog box in CET. By implementing these changes, Configura stays committed to streamlining its users’ design workflow, reducing the time spent on COM integration, and setting the stage for greater efficiency.
For more information on these exciting updates, explore Configura’s Roadmap, where users can discover upcoming projects, read full release notes and rate the importance of current ideas and projects.
The New York-based industrial artificial intelligence (AI) provider Augury has raised $75 million for its process optimization tools for manufacturers, in a deal that values the company at more than $1 billion, the firm said today.
According to Augury, its goal is deliver a new generation of AI solutions that provide the accuracy and reliability manufacturers need to make AI a trusted partner in every phase of the manufacturing process.
The “series F” venture capital round was led by Lightrock, with participation from several of Augury’s existing investors; Insight Partners, Eclipse, and Qumra Capital as well as Schneider Electric Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures. In addition to securing the new funding, Augury also said it has added Elan Greenberg as Chief Operating Officer.
“Augury is at the forefront of digitalizing equipment maintenance with AI-driven solutions that enhance cost efficiency, sustainability performance, and energy savings,” Ashish (Ash) Puri, Partner at Lightrock, said in a release. “Their predictive maintenance technology, boasting 99.9% failure detection accuracy and a 5-20x ROI when deployed at scale, significantly reduces downtime and energy consumption for its blue-chip clients globally, offering a compelling value proposition.”
The money supports the firm’s approach of "Hybrid Autonomous Mobile Robotics (Hybrid AMRs)," which integrate the intelligence of "Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs)" with the precision and structure of "Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs)."
According to Anscer, it supports the acceleration to Industry 4.0 by ensuring that its autonomous solutions seamlessly integrate with customers’ existing infrastructures to help transform material handling and warehouse automation.
Leading the new U.S. office will be Mark Messina, who was named this week as Anscer’s Managing Director & CEO, Americas. He has been tasked with leading the firm’s expansion by bringing its automation solutions to industries such as manufacturing, logistics, retail, food & beverage, and third-party logistics (3PL).
Supply chains continue to deal with a growing volume of returns following the holiday peak season, and 2024 was no exception. Recent survey data from product information management technology company Akeneo showed that 65% of shoppers made holiday returns this year, with most reporting that their experience played a large role in their reason for doing so.
The survey—which included information from more than 1,000 U.S. consumers gathered in January—provides insight into the main reasons consumers return products, generational differences in return and online shopping behaviors, and the steadily growing influence that sustainability has on consumers.
Among the results, 62% of consumers said that having more accurate product information upfront would reduce their likelihood of making a return, and 59% said they had made a return specifically because the online product description was misleading or inaccurate.
And when it comes to making those returns, 65% of respondents said they would prefer to return in-store, if possible, followed by 22% who said they prefer to ship products back.
“This indicates that consumers are gravitating toward the most sustainable option by reducing additional shipping,” the survey authors said in a statement announcing the findings, adding that 68% of respondents said they are aware of the environmental impact of returns, and 39% said the environmental impact factors into their decision to make a return or exchange.
The authors also said that investing in the product experience and providing reliable product data can help brands reduce returns, increase loyalty, and provide the best customer experience possible alongside profitability.
When asked what products they return the most, 60% of respondents said clothing items. Sizing issues were the number one reason for those returns (58%) followed by conflicting or lack of customer reviews (35%). In addition, 34% cited misleading product images and 29% pointed to inaccurate product information online as reasons for returning items.
More than 60% of respondents said that having more reliable information would reduce the likelihood of making a return.
“Whether customers are shopping directly from a brand website or on the hundreds of e-commerce marketplaces available today [such as Amazon, Walmart, etc.] the product experience must remain consistent, complete and accurate to instill brand trust and loyalty,” the authors said.
When you get the chance to automate your distribution center, take it.
That's exactly what leaders at interior design house
Thibaut Design did when they relocated operations from two New Jersey distribution centers (DCs) into a single facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2019. Moving to an "empty shell of a building," as Thibaut's Michael Fechter describes it, was the perfect time to switch from a manual picking system to an automated one—in this case, one that would be driven by voice-directed technology.
"We were 100% paper-based picking in New Jersey," Fechter, the company's vice president of distribution and technology, explained in a
case study published by Voxware last year. "We knew there was a need for automation, and when we moved to Charlotte, we wanted to implement that technology."
Fechter cites Voxware's promise of simple and easy integration, configuration, use, and training as some of the key reasons Thibaut's leaders chose the system. Since implementing the voice technology, the company has streamlined its fulfillment process and can onboard and cross-train warehouse employees in a fraction of the time it used to take back in New Jersey.
And the results speak for themselves.
"We've seen incredible gains [from a] productivity standpoint," Fechter reports. "A 50% increase from pre-implementation to today."
THE NEED FOR SPEED
Thibaut was founded in 1886 and is the oldest operating wallpaper company in the United States, according to Fechter. The company works with a global network of designers, shipping samples of wallpaper and fabrics around the world.
For the design house's warehouse associates, picking, packing, and shipping thousands of samples every day was a cumbersome, labor-intensive process—and one that was prone to inaccuracy. With its paper-based picking system, mispicks were common—Fechter cites a 2% to 5% mispick rate—which necessitated stationing an extra associate at each pack station to check that orders were accurate before they left the facility.
All that has changed since implementing Voxware's Voice Management Suite (VMS) at the Charlotte DC. The system automates the workflow and guides associates through the picking process via a headset, using voice commands. The hands-free, eyes-free solution allows workers to focus on locating and selecting the right item, with no paper-based lists to check or written instructions to follow.
Thibaut also uses the tech provider's analytics tool, VoxPilot, to monitor work progress, check orders, and keep track of incoming work—managers can see what orders are open, what's in process, and what's completed for the day, for example. And it uses VoxTempo, the system's natural language voice recognition (NLVR) solution, to streamline training. The intuitive app whittles training time down to minutes and gets associates up and working fast—and Thibaut hitting minimum productivity targets within hours, according to Fechter.
EXPECTED RESULTS REALIZED
Key benefits of the project include a reduction in mispicks—which have dropped to zero—and the elimination of those extra quality-control measures Thibaut needed in the New Jersey DCs.
"We've gotten to the point where we don't even measure mispicks today—because there are none," Fechter said in the case study. "Having an extra person at a pack station to [check] every order before we pack [it]—that's been eliminated. Not only is the pick right the first time, but [the order] also gets packed and shipped faster than ever before."
The system has increased inventory accuracy as well. According to Fechter, it's now "well over 99.9%."
IT projects can be daunting, especially when the project involves upgrading a warehouse management system (WMS) to support an expansive network of warehousing and logistics facilities. Global third-party logistics service provider (3PL) CJ Logistics experienced this first-hand recently, embarking on a WMS selection process that would both upgrade performance and enhance security for its U.S. business network.
The company was operating on three different platforms across more than 35 warehouse facilities and wanted to pare that down to help standardize operations, optimize costs, and make it easier to scale the business, according to CIO Sean Moore.
Moore and his team started the WMS selection process in late 2023, working with supply chain consulting firm Alpine Supply Chain Solutions to identify challenges, needs, and goals, and then to select and implement the new WMS. Roughly a year later, the 3PL was up and running on a system from Körber Supply Chain—and planning for growth.
SECURING A NEW SOLUTION
Leaders from both companies explain that a robust WMS is crucial for a 3PL's success, as it acts as a centralized platform that allows seamless coordination of activities such as inventory management, order fulfillment, and transportation planning. The right solution allows the company to optimize warehouse operations by automating tasks, managing inventory levels, and ensuring efficient space utilization while helping to boost order processing volumes, reduce errors, and cut operational costs.
CJ Logistics had another key criterion: ensuring data security for its wide and varied array of clients, many of whom rely on the 3PL to fill e-commerce orders for consumers. Those clients wanted assurance that consumers' personally identifying information—including names, addresses, and phone numbers—was protected against cybersecurity breeches when flowing through the 3PL's system. For CJ Logistics, that meant finding a WMS provider whose software was certified to the appropriate security standards.
"That's becoming [an assurance] that our customers want to see," Moore explains, adding that many customers wanted to know that CJ Logistics' systems were SOC 2 compliant, meaning they had met a standard developed by the American Institute of CPAs for protecting sensitive customer data from unauthorized access, security incidents, and other vulnerabilities. "Everybody wants that level of security. So you want to make sure the system is secure … and not susceptible to ransomware.
"It was a critical requirement for us."
That security requirement was a key consideration during all phases of the WMS selection process, according to Michael Wohlwend, managing principal at Alpine Supply Chain Solutions.
"It was in the RFP [request for proposal], then in demo, [and] then once we got to the vendor of choice, we had a deep-dive discovery call to understand what [security] they have in place and their plan moving forward," he explains.
Ultimately, CJ Logistics implemented Körber's Warehouse Advantage, a cloud-based system designed for multiclient operations that supports all of the 3PL's needs, including its security requirements.
GOING LIVE
When it came time to implement the software, Moore and his team chose to start with a brand-new cold chain facility that the 3PL was building in Gainesville, Georgia. The 270,000-square-foot facility opened this past November and immediately went live running on the Körber WMS.
Moore and Wohlwend explain that both the nature of the cold chain business and the greenfield construction made the facility the perfect place to launch the new software: CJ Logistics would be adding customers at a staggered rate, expanding its cold storage presence in the Southeast and capitalizing on the location's proximity to major highways and railways. The facility is also adjacent to the future Northeast Georgia Inland Port, which will provide a direct link to the Port of Savannah.
"We signed a 15-year lease for the building," Moore says. "When you sign a long-term lease … you want your future-state software in place. That was one of the key [reasons] we started there.
"Also, this facility was going to bring on one customer after another at a metered rate. So [there was] some risk reduction as well."
Wohlwend adds: "The facility plus risk reduction plus the new business [element]—all made it a good starting point."
The early benefits of the WMS include ease of use and easy onboarding of clients, according to Moore, who says the plan is to convert additional CJ Logistics facilities to the new system in 2025.
"The software is very easy to use … our employees are saying they really like the user interface and that you can find information very easily," Moore says, touting the partnership with Alpine and Körber as key to making the project a success. "We are on deck to add at least four facilities at a minimum [this year]."