The Upside of Software Upgrades

Today, maintaining the systems that a warehouse operation relies on for throughput is as much about tending to the software as it is about lubricating equipment or checking for tightness on fasteners. The way you tend to software is with upgrades, either to new versions of an operating system or to an enterprise application like a warehouse management system (WMS).

That makes software upgrades a warehouse reliability issue. And to complicate matters, in today’s highly automated warehouses that leverage WMS solutions, rugged mobile devices and warehouse control system (WCS) or warehouse execution system (WES) software for orchestrating warehouse resources with automated materials handling systems, upgrades concerns are up and down the technology stack.

“Upgrading your software across all these various levels can be very challenging,” says Roger Counihan, vice president of sales with Fortna, a distribution consulting and integration company that also offers WES software. “You have WMS, you may have a WCS or a WES, and then various ‘black box’ systems, such as a goods-to-person automation system or a print-and-apply system, and each of those is going to have its own software layer. When the time comes to upgrade, it can be incredibly challenging.”

There are two basic drivers for upgrades, notes Counihan. One is that a system’s server hardware, operating system or database version have become obsolete, or are aging, and while the warehouse-focused application may function, its supporting infrastructure needs a refresh. The second reason is that a new version of an application like WES or a WMS offers new functionality that can bring operational benefits to the business.

In Counihan’s view, upgrading out of necessity due to aging infrastructure is the more challenging scenario because there may not be a business payoff. “That kind of investment is challenging for a lot of operations because it’s not driving additional functionality,” he adds.

Fortunately, say consultants and software providers, end-user companies can take steps to keep upgrades from hobbling operations. For one thing, it may be time to do away with the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality toward upgrades. Sticking with the same version of a WMS or a control system may seem prudent if it still runs, but sticking to an outdated release can make upgrading that much harder when it becomes necessary—either to gain new functions or because third-party infrastructure is becoming obsolete.

Additionally, some vendors offer tools and services that help a company more easily transition to new versions of a software system. These can make upgrades more manageable, though not pain free.

WMS upgrades

For most warehouses, a WMS is the mother ship of software applications. In automated distribution centers, a WMS may coordinate with a WCS to drive production, but for DCs with largely manual processes and some WMS-directed order picking, WMS is the main system that needs upgrade attention.

“How difficult [WMS upgrading] is depends on the versioning,” explains Jason Yantiss, vice president of client services for Open Sky Group, a consulting firm that does WMS implementations and upgrades. “If you’ve been keeping up with the updates and service packs, going to the next version doesn’t really require a large project. However, if you’ve been on the same version for five or six years, and you’re comfortable with and have built up all this tribal knowledge around that version and have just stayed with it, then when it’s time to upgrade, the learning curve could be significant and the project itself deserves a lot more time and effort.”

Consulting firms like Open Sky help organizations with upgrades in various ways. Open Sky can do a WMS upgrade assessment to help an organization figure out the testing and training needed. It also uses an agile upgrade methodology to speed up the project itself. Generally, consulting firms can help in areas including end-user training on the user interface or dashboards, with testing integration, and with testing how the new version will execute established processes.

Open Sky Group’s implementation and upgrade expertise is around JDA WMS solutions. One mechanism it uses to ensure the new version will run smoothly, says Yantiss, is a type of testing called user acceptance testing or UAT. That UAT step brings a snapshot of data from the current production version into a test environment for the new
version to verify that WMS processes like cartonization will run as expected.

It is possible to add new functionality with a WMS upgrade project, adds Yantiss, though it is usually best when the new version first goes live to get users proficient with its navigation on core functions before turning on entire new capabilities like slotting or labor management. “When you first go live, some things are going to be different, so you want to minimize the difference between the old way of doing things and the new way, so that it’s a more seamless transition,” says Yantiss. “Once the operation is used to the overall system, then you start to introduce some of new bells and whistles and efficiency gains from new functions like slotting.”

There are five main WMS upgrade questions your operation should ask before getting started.

Testing aspects of the integration with an organization’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, or an e-commerce platform if online orders come straight to a WMS, is typically part of a WMS upgrade project, says Yantiss. If the ERP isn’t being upgraded at the same time, the existing integration can usually be “ported forward,” says Yantiss, but with appropriate testing. “The new version may populate some [database] tables in a different way, so you want to dissect that,” he says.

Going with a WES can simplify the upgrade challenge for an organization because it puts more key functions under one integrated umbrella, says Counihan. WES is in some respects an outgrowth of WCS in that it orchestrates the automated zones of a warehouse, but it also takes on some WMS-level functions. WES solutions vary in focus, but generally, they take a more continuous or “wave less” approach to order releasing.

“WES allows you to have a more simplistic WMS layer because the WES is taking on a lot of the heavy lifting in regard to order management, wave management, and potentially inventory management,” Counihan says. “We consider this to be an enterprise architecture question—how are you architecting your supply chain systems so you’re not having these major disruptions?”

Similarly, says Counihan, having a single WES can reduce the number of individual control systems an operation needs to maintain and interface to a WMS or an older WCS. “And that single piece of [WES] software can be architected to have redundancy and disaster recovery,” he says.

Of course, if a company goes the WES route, that puts the onus on the WES vendor to have solid implementation and upgrade methods and supporting tools. In Fortna’s case, it uses “digital twin” capability prior to WES implementation to digitally simulate how a DC operation wants its processes to run and how the WES will support those processes, says Counihan.

Since systems like WES use a database, when a database vendor such as Oracle releases a security patch or other update, Fortna provides a testing process to ensure WES functions aren’t impacted by a database patch or upgrade, says Counihan. “We’re building that [test capability] into our platform so there is the ability to do all that testing before we do a rollout,” he says.

New functionality

While sometimes the sunsetting of a hardware platform, OS, or database version can trigger the need to upgrade WMS or move to WES, the driver can often be operationally driven. In the case of WES solutions, says Counihan, users are typically after smoother, more continuous order releasing that considers machine status, labor and inventory factors. “The main driver for WES is usually around enabling operational benefits like smoother order flow and having more efficient processes throughout,” he says.

Automation vendors often need to support older control-level systems for clients who want to run a system for 15 or even 20 years, say Stuart Dunn, product manager of customer service software and controls for Swisslog, a warehouse automation provider that also offers WES. Some clients have a pre-determined lifecycle replacement plan for an older control system and aren’t inclined to ditch the older technology even if newer and better solutions are available, at least until that investment lifecycle is complete.

However, adds Dunn, more companies now realize that newer automation and WES software to coordinate resources will be more effective than older automation systems and control software could ever be, much like a new smart phone supports more apps, better streaming of content, and other functions compared to an aging cell phone. “If you have an older phone, the most you can get out of it is telephone calls and maybe some SMS messaging,” says Dunn. “So, the question is, do you want to settle for a solution that is 10 years old and has limited functionality?”

The newer automated materials handling systems and supporting WES are better at dynamically managing throughput, says Dunn. Older control systems were sufficient in terms of triggering material flow and movement, but weren’t designed for today’s challenges, including tighter cycle times and smaller order sizes. “Historically, automation control was about ensuring that product moved correctly from Point A to Point B, and that was normally sufficient, whereas now companies are looking at having systems that support continuous improvement and condition monitoring, and that overall, keep the operation running as quickly and accurately as it can,” Dunn says.

Generally, Dunn says, operations people appreciate the benefits of new warehouse automation and WES, but they may not realize that older databases, or older proprietary controllers or programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are no longer supported by the vendor, or that the programming talent for older controls is simply hard to find. In some cases, says Dunn, it’s the information technology people at an end user company who bring up these obsolete IT concerns to the operations people. At the same time, it’s the role of the automation provider to regularly meet with the end user organization and review what might need upgrading.

Device layer concerns

In a warehouse, the client layer hardware for front-line warehouse associates typically consists of rugged handheld mobile computers or vehicle mount terminals. Historically, says Mike Petersen, head of global product and solutions marketing with Zebra Technologies, a provider of industrial mobile computers, these devices typically run on operating systems from Microsoft such as Windows CE and Windows 6.5.

Due to lack of a broad, diverse market for its mobile operating systems, Microsoft decided to retire them (in 2020 and 2021, depending on the OS), causing industrial mobile computing vendors like Zebra to tap the Android OS for rugged mobile computer products. Petersen says that about four years ago, Zebra began investing heavily in Android technology to ensure it worked well in industrial settings like warehouses. In recent years, WMS and other software vendors also have enhanced user interfaces to make fuller use of the newer generation of devices with touchscreens, making today’s warehouse apps a far cry from the terminal emulation “green screens” of the past.

“What we found was our warehouse customers were probably ready to get into Android, but Android wasn’t ready for the enterprise,” says Petersen.

While a highly capable consumer OS, Android needed extra stability, centralized management features, and security characteristics for enterprise use, Petersen says. Zebra came up with a mobility platform called Mobility DNA that fortifies Android for enterprise use, he adds. The Mobility DNA platform has about 25 software-related elements including device tracking and centralized management, staging and deployment tools, and something called LifeGuard, a security software solution that extends security support for the consumer OS.

This last capability is important for DCs, says Petersen, because a warehouse might want to keep its rugged handhelds for five-plus years, running the same version of Android, even though Android security patches typically end after 36 months. This allows Zebra, through the DNA platform, to keep supporting users with security updates over the typical lifecycle of an industrial device. “For our users to upgrade just to get a security update—there’s little value in that,” says Petersen. “They’d rather just have the newer security features on the existing operating system.”

With all the different layers of software, computing hardware and controls in a modern DC, being disciplined at software upgrades is good for overall reliability. It’s not an easy task, even with tools and methods from vendors.

With higher-level applications like WMS, there is hope that Cloud deployment could lessen the upgrade challenge if Cloud WMS becomes more “evergreen” in nature, with frequent updates to subscription-based software, especially when the software is architected to so that customizations don’t interfere the ability to load and use new functionality.

User training would still be needed, but Cloud WMS could change the nature of WMS upgrades for the better. “I think that a more evergreen approach to WMS releases is definitely on the horizon,”
says Yantiss.

Companies Mentioned in this Article:

• Fortna
• Open Sky Group
• Swisslog
• Zebra Technologies