Optricity
Software Innovation Benefits Warehousing Ecosystem

From adopting automation to creating multichannel solutions, logistics companies are constantly evaluating and implementing breakthrough technologies to enable complete control of product flow. As logistical activities continue rapid restructuring, companies have shifted focus towards formulating innovative warehousing strategies. Solution innovation for warehousing has been the cornerstone of Optricity, a market-leading software provider founded to improve warehouse operations. Utilizing advanced mathematics coupled with specialized software engineering techniques, Optricity’s planning and analysis solutions, which integrate with systems already in place, offer the ability to compare scenarios, ensuring management can make informed decisions toward developing and maintaining an optimal warehousing health strategy to sustain the warehousing ecosystem.

“Our role in the warehousing ecosystem is to make labor, demand, order fulfillment and warehouse management systems (WMS) smarter. By enabling the WMS to address warehouse workflows more efficiently, processes become more labor-efficient and low-cost,” says Chuck Grissom, co-founder and CTO, Optricity. An optimally designed warehouse, controlled by a data-driven slotting strategy, supports user-defined initiatives, while enhancing and adhering to operational standards. With the help of Optricity’s slotting optimization software, OptiSlot DC™ (OptiSlot), warehousing operators can compare ROI for different strategies and tackle different “what-if” scenarios to improve space utilization, reduce labor expenses, and enable faster order fulfillment.

“One of OptiSlot’s early achievements came while conducting a study for a grocery facility,” mentions Grissom. The facility of focus was a warehouse serving 300 retail stores. Interested in selecting a solution to best benefit the company holistically, the results of two slotting layouts were analyzed: one focused solely on supporting retail facilities, and the other, strictly on warehouse productivity. If the product layout within the warehouse were reorganized to mirror product family groups within retail centers, workers at store-level would be able to unload pallets quicker. This retail-friendly model would save labor costs when unloading the pallets; but, left warehouse management with increasing costs in question. Testing both scenarios virtually, the company discovered the retail-friendly model not only saved considerable time and money, but also improved productivity within the warehouse.

Grissom says, “This study showcases a first-rate example of how engineering tools can substantiate the returns of different slotting strategies before implementation.”

Our customers love our product, and for the 6th consecutive year, we achieved a 97 percent renewal rate, and continue adding an average of 40- 80 percent more schools each year

While engineering tools prove beneficial in initial reslots, consumer demands impact the environment necessitating regular adjustments (i.e. certain items gain popularity due to seasonality or promotions). Such fluctuations demand revisions to the original slotting to ensure operational efficiency. Addressing this, Grissom says, “We put engineering intelligence in the hands of the operator.” With Optricity’s @Ease Warehousing Technologies™, clients can easily facilitate daily, weekly, seasonal, or on-demand rearrangement of the warehouse keeping operations on track while supporting optimization objectives. Each @Ease Technology, or “green button,” corresponds to a unique challenge, which, when clicked, creates a simple report detailing steps to re-establish lost operational equilibrium and restore operational health.

In a recent announcement, Optricity introduced the Moves Conductor, a patented technology using real-time communication with the WMS to continuously fulfill rearrangement needs while complying with strategic objectives. Through this orchestration of product, the Self Healing Warehouse™ emerges.

According to Grissom, Optricity’s success lies in its ability to understand nuances within each problem and provide powerful software solutions that offer clarity to operators utilizing the tools for analysis and operational planning. To meet the growing demands and increasing sophistication within the industry, Optricity has expanded offerings. Looking forward, Optricity commits to build on its thought-leader reputation of industry-advancing technologies by strengthening core solutions and developing software to address the evolving needs of the warehousing ecosystem and broader community.