Manufacturing journalist, Thomas R. Cutler, profiles the “Quality, Compliance, and the Bottom-line” in the current issue of Baking & Snack magazine. According to Cutler, “Warehouse management systems (WMS) are often insufficient for baking production and supply chain efficiency. The batch data often used by a WMS in the baking industry falls short of the real-time data needed to meet the strict Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) requirements. And the real-time pick-and-pack requirements for bakeries on the plant and warehouse distribution floor are rigorous because the Bioterrorism Act necessitates near immediate responses for possible contamination. Increasingly, warehouse control systems (WCS) are being used to overcome these mandates.”

Jerry List, vice-president of QC Software (www.qcsoftware.com), which provides warehouse control systems for several sectors including food distribution, suggested that, “A bakery warehouse without a WCS operates as separate islands of automation, with each system working independently. Without a WCS, the conveyor system may decide where to route a carton with no information from the other systems. The decision to divert a carton (or not) to a specific zone will depend on whether the carton has a “1” or “0” in the barcode. Another approach would be to load a routing table into the programmable logic controller. However, this fixed table does not allow flexibility. Both of these techniques are very basic and give little or no control.” The entire feature can be read at http://trcutlerinc.com/Baking%20&%20Snack%20Magazine%20WCS%20SPC%20Ju

QC Software is the leading provider of Tier 1 warehouse control systems to the warehousing and distribution industries. Since 1996, QC Software, utilizing state of the art technology combined with extensive research, development, and rigorous testing, has developed the QC Enterprise suite of products. Designed to be modular in nature, easily configurable, and platform independent, this highly scalable solution satisfies the needs of any size warehouse.