Software
Warehouse Execution System
The WES does the hard part of an automated warehouse - talking to PLCs, robots, machines and the WCS - so the WMS above it can stay standard, clean and upgradable.
Where it sits
WES bridges Level 3 and Level 2 for logistics activities
In ISA-95, MES and WMS both live on Level 3 - planning and managing operations. WES (with WCS) lives on Level 2, turning those plans into real-time machine actions on Level 1. See the related layers in detail: MES and WMS.
Business planning, finance and enterprise logistics.
Manufacturing and warehouse operations management - where MES and WMS both live.
Bridges Level 3 planning with Level 2 control - the layer that absorbs all physical-world complexity for logistics.
Supervisory control and real-time monitoring of the floor, including the Warehouse Control System driving conveyors, sorters and PTL/DTL/LTL.
Programmable controllers, drives, sensors and field devices on the machine.
Why a WES
Keep the WMS standard. Push complexity into the WES.
Highly automated sites - AS/RS, AMRs, conveyors, sorters, PTL/DTL/LTL - need fast, deterministic decisions and tight integration with PLCs. Pushing that logic into the WMS leads to heavy customization, slow upgrades and fragile integrations.
A dedicated WES absorbs that complexity. The WMS keeps managing inventory, orders and replenishment in a standard way. The WES handles routing, sequencing, congestion and every protocol on the floor.
Functionality layers
logic
control
WES sits on the boundary - business logic above, machine control below.
Functional scope
Where WES ends and WMS begins
On a highly automated site, WES and WMS overlap on a clear set of execution functions. Everything below that overlap - the physical, real-time, machine layer - is pure WES territory.
- Optimization order execution
- Automation control
- Real-time decision making
- Congestion management
- Optimized workflows
- Intelligent routing
- Automated sortation
- Real-time visibility
- Business intelligence
- Picking
- Put-away
- Inventory
- Order release
- Location management
- Workload balancing
- QC / VAS
- Reporting
- ERP integration
- Receiving, packaging, shipping
- Transportation management
- Distributed order management
- Replenishment
- Customer information
- Quality assurance
- Traceability
Below the functional layer, WES integrates directly with every piece of equipment and operator technology on the floor.
- AS/RS, robotics
- AGV / AMR fleets
- Conveyors
- Sortation
- Light directed (PTL/DTL/LTL)
- Voice directed
- Radio frequency (RF)
- LMS integration
- Task allocation
- Productivity tracking
What the WES handles
The difficult, physical layer of the warehouse
PLC & device protocols
OPC UA, Modbus, Profinet, EtherNet/IP - direct conversations with controllers, drives and I/O.
Robots & AS/RS
AGV/AMR fleets, stacker cranes, shuttles and robotic cells coordinated as one flow.
WCS orchestration
Conveyors, sorters, PTL/DTL/LTL, scanners and weighers driven from a single execution layer.
Real-time decisions
Slot allocation, route optimization, congestion handling and event-driven re-planning.
Sequence & prepick logic
Cart building, pick-route calculation and prepick requests pushed back to the WMS.
Standard, clean WMS integration
WMS stays out-of-the-box; all customization for the physical world lives in the WES.
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