Ease Integration With Standards-Based Software and Mobile Technology

Lucas warehouse optimization solutions are built on standard software, communications and mobile technologies used in the enterprise. The solutions can be cloud-based or hosted on-site, and they integrate and communicate with other automation and IT systems using industry-standard integration technologies.

Our mobile applications run on rugged smartphones, traditional handheld, wearable and vehicle-mount computers used in the warehouse, and emerging wearable devices that connect over wireless networks to warehouse management and other IT systems. Our mobile applications combine voice direction and speech recognition with other input, data capture and display technologies to make hands-on processes easier and more efficient for workers within distribution centers and downstream in the supply chain.

Advantages of Modular Software

Each of our solutions are made up of standard software components designed in a modern service oriented architecture (SOA). In simplest terms, this system design and architecture allows us to rapidly assemble and configure unique customer solutions using standard software building blocks, each of which is designed and tested for rapid modification and reuse.

Rapidly incorporate customer-specific business rules and application logic without the cost and risk of developing a custom application.

Flexibility beyond the limited options of a standard software package, without the constraints of customizing a large, monolithic software package.

Get only the features, functions and application components you need. Don’t pay for components you don’t want. The net result is more manageable, compact and efficient software.

Simplified Integration

Lucas solutions are designed to communicate with and orchestrate your existing warehouse management, labor management, transportation management and other systems, so there’s no need to change or upgrade your WMS. We strive to take advantage of the processes and systems you already have in place, but we also seek ways to supplement and extend other purpose-built solutions.

If your WMS includes built-in voice-directed interfaces and functionality, Lucas applications communicate directly to the WMS. This direct approach provides rapid deployment for basic voice capabilities. In some cases, however, DCs will need to configure or customize the standard WMS voice functionality to address specific process and operations needs. A good first step to determine if a direct WMS solution is right for you is to define an optimal voice process flow for your operation and to use this as the basis for a gap analysis of your WMS voice capabilities.

Companies that need to add optimization, reporting and management capabilities will utilize Jennifer™ – the brain, voice and orchestration engine of our solutions.  Similar to direct mobile interfaces, most WMS packages offer standard application programming interfaces (APIs or material handling interfaces). In this multi-tier architecture, Jennifer™ communicates with your host, WMS, WCS and other systems, and orchestrates work across your people, machines, and inventory. Jennifer™ provides greater flexibility to implement an optimal work process (or processes) in your DC without the time, cost and risk of customizing your back-end systems.

Mobile Computing Devices

Lucas Systems has delivered more mobile applications on a wider range of voice-enabled mobile industrial computers than anyone. The current generation of Lucas software can run on all major mobile operating systems (Windows Mobile, Android, iOS), and warehouses can choose to use Lucas mobile applications on a wide range of standard industrial mobile computers from leading providers such as Zebra/Motorola®, Honeywell (including LXE and Intermec™), Bluebird and Datalogic, as well as rugged smartphones and new Android wearable devices.

Because our software is designed for multi-purpose, multi-modal hardware, our applications can take advantage of the full range of capabilities of these devices, including the screen and keyboard (for logging on and training, for example), and barcode scanners, which are an ideal complement to voice recognition for data capture and produce traceability during picking, receiving, putaway and more.

Ready to create an agile, optimized DC operation?

Let’s turn your distribution operation into a competitive advantage, together.