Warehouse Execution System

Make warehouse work faster and safer for your staff and frontline managers.

The Lucas Warehouse Optimization Suite fills the gap between your management system (WMS) and control software (WCS). We help you evolve and adapt to changing markets and customer demands with dynamic AI-based solutions, voice-directed mobile applications, and intelligent automation. Our innovative warehouse execution software lets you work smarter without replacing your current systems.

Piece Pick by tote-warehouse worker

Key Takeaways: 

  • Connect WMS, automation, and frontline operations in real time.
  • Scale and innovate without replacing existing systems.
  • Optimize labor, inventory, and workflows with AI-driven execution.
  • Orchestrate people, robots, and machines through a unified platform.
  • Increase productivity, accuracy, and operational agility.

Warehouse execution system to evolve your business

Laptop screen AI based optimization demo

Lucas AI technology, flexible workflows, and modular IT architecture allow your operations to be more dynamic, adapting to each DC’s unique process and technology requirements. Our system can easily be scaled up as your products, customers, and business grow.

Optimize performance: Adaptive workflows, warehouse optimization and AI optimization help you maximize productivity and accuracy today while meeting your need for continuous improvement and optimization.

Make effective & efficient decisions quickly: Give managers real-time visibility and AI-assisted insights to manage labor, inventory, and other resources to optimal potential.

Add performance agility: Lucas software includes decades of process innovations that adapt to your DC.

Prepare the future of warehouse execution: Seamlessly integrate robots and other next-generation technology without replacing current systems—reducing the costs and risks associated with change.

Dynamically orchestrate and optimize your critical distribution center processes

Jennifer™, the brains and voice of the Lucas solution, orchestrates warehouse processes for people, robots, and machines. Lucas modules provide configurable workflows and reporting. Our standard interfaces communicate seamlessly with users, managers, and other systems.

Computer chart graphic

End-to-end warehouse execution: Increase efficiency, throughput, and accuracy with workflows and mobile applications. This solution works for all major material handling processes, from receiving to picking and shipping, including audit, cycle count, and returns.

Real-time reporting and analytics: Give supervisors and managers up-to-the-minute information they need to allocate labor, manage work, and make better decisions.

Standards-based system interfaces: Lucas software is designed to integrate with virtually any on-premise, hosted, or cloud-based IT or automation system. This includes ERP, order management, and warehouse management packages such as SAP, Oracle, BlueYonder, Manhattan, Infor, and Microsoft. It can even integrate with custom-developed host systems, warehouse control systems, autonomous mobile robots, and other automation and IT systems used in distribution centers.

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Warehouse orchestration and optimization, plus functionality for all processes

Jennifer™ is the brains and voice of the Lucas solution. She helps you leverage machine learning to make real-time decisions that reduce dwell times and support flow distribution. Lucas optimization modules provide configurable workflows and reporting, and our standard user- and system interfaces communicate seamlessly with users, managers, and other systems.

Imagine the benefits of increased efficiency and throughput for all major material handling processes. All processes can improve significantly, from receiving and picking to shipping, including audit, cycle count, and returns. The Lucas software solution natively integrates with various picking technologies to dramatically reduce errors and the need for intervention.

With the Lucas warehouse execution software, you can positively impact business performance in various sectors, including consumer goods, omnichannel, retail, and wholesale distribution.

Warehouse Execution System vs. Warehouse Management System (WMS)

A Warehouse Management System (WMS) is responsible for inventory control, order management, storage strategies, and overall warehouse planning. It answers the question: What work needs to be done? A WMS maintains inventory accuracy, allocates orders, manages replenishment, and provides the system of record for warehouse operations.  

A Warehouse Execution System (WES) focuses on real-time operational execution. It answers the question: How should work be performed right now? A WES orchestrates labor, workflows, equipment, and automation in real time, continuously adjusting priorities and assignments as conditions change on the warehouse floor.  

WES vs. WMS Comparison 

Capability  Warehouse Management System (WMS)  Warehouse Execution System (WES) 
Primary Purpose  Manage inventory, orders, replenishment, and warehouse processes  Optimize and orchestrate execution of work in real time 
Decision-Making Capabilities  Rule-based planning and inventory decisions  Dynamic task prioritization, resource allocation, and workflow orchestration 
Real-Time Optimization  Limited; typically relies on predefined workflows and release rules  Continuously reprioritizes work based on demand, labor, automation status, and constraints 
System Integrations  ERP, order management, transportation, and inventory systems  WMS, ERP, labor systems, mobile applications, robotics, MHE, and WCS 
Best Use Cases  Inventory accuracy, order allocation, compliance, stock visibility  Throughput improvement, labor optimization, dynamic work execution, automation orchestration 

In simple terms: A WMS determines what inventory should move and where it should go. A WES determines the most efficient way to execute that work at any given moment.  

Why a Warehouse Execution System Complements Your Existing Technology Stack 

Most warehouses do not need to replace their WMS, ERP, or automation systems to improve performance. Instead, a WES acts as an intelligent execution layer that connects these technologies and helps them work together more effectively.  

A WMS remains the system of record for inventory and orders. A WCS continues to control conveyors, sorters, and robotics. The WES sits between planning systems and physical execution, using real-time operational data to dynamically release work, prioritize tasks, balance workloads, and coordinate automation.  

Where WES Fits in the Technology Stack 

Technology Layer  Primary Responsibility 
ERP / OMS  Business planning, purchasing, and order management 
WMS  Inventory control, order allocation, and warehouse planning 
WES  Real-time orchestration, optimization, labor management, and execution intelligence 
WCS  Equipment control and material flow management 
Automation & MHE  Physical movement and handling of goods 

Key Benefits of Adding a WES 

  • Brings real-time decision-making to static warehouse processes. 
  • Improves throughput by dynamically prioritizing and sequencing work.  
  • Coordinates labor, automation, and workflows as a unified system.  
  • Adapts continuously to changing order priorities, staffing levels, and operational constraints.  
  • Extends the value of existing WMS and automation investments without requiring wholesale replacement.  

In Summary: WMS manages the warehouse, WCS controls the equipment, and WES provides the intelligence that connects planning to execution—helping distribution centers become more responsive, productive, and adaptable in real time.  

What results can you expect with warehouse execution software from Lucas?

36%

productivity gains

99.9%

picking accuracy

> 1 Day

new employee onboarding

36

languages supported

90%

reduction in shipping errors

10%

reduction in total labor hours

Frequently Asked Questions

Warehouse execution systems optimize hands-on work and streamlines manual processes with software or mobile applications designed to make work easier, faster, and more accurate for workers. It directs and coordinates how associates perform tasks on the warehouse floor, including picking, replenishment, putaway, loading, and more. It communicates to the end user through voice, scanning, and other input modes. Unlike planning-level systems, Warehouse Execution Systems focus on real-time work assignment, worker guidance, and performance optimization at the point of activity. 

A WMS is designed for inventory optimization and planning, things like managing stock levels, locations, and order allocation. It does not provide rich, configurable workflows that optimize how work is actually performed on the warehouse floor. Ay WMS that claims such is referring to expensive customized enhancements to mimic what a Warehouse Execution System naturally does. A WES fills that gap without all the expensive customization, sitting between the WMS and the worker to orchestrate execution: intelligently batching orders, optimizing pick paths, directing workers in real time, and tracking performance. The WES complements and extends existing WMS capabilities without requiring a WMS upgrade or replacement. 

Key benefits include significant productivity gains (over 120% increase in lines per hour in some cases), reduced labor costs (up to 50% reduction in labor hours), improved order accuracy, faster worker onboarding, and real-time operational visibility for managers. Because Warehouse Execution Systems are software-driven rather than hardware-dependent, it's flexible and adaptable, meaning workflows can be reconfigured without physical changes. It also extends the useful life of existing WMS and ERP investments by adding execution intelligence on top. 

Warehouse Execution Systems improve productivity by applying AI and optimization algorithms to how work is performed. This includes intelligent order batching (grouping picks to reduce trips), optimized travel paths (computing the shortest route through assigned locations), dynamic work prioritization (continuously releasing the most efficient assignments), and voice-directed guidance that keeps workers hands-free and eyes-up. Together, these capabilities reduce non-productive travel time, increase pick density per trip, and allow workers to complete significantly more work per hour. 

Yes. Warehouse Execution Systems are designed to interface with virtually any WMS, ERP, labor management, or order management system. Common integration methods include RESTful APIs (HTTP/JSON), file transfer (FTP), socket communications (TCP/IP), and web services, with more than one method supported within a single implementation. Lucas has successfully integrated with SAP, Oracle, Manhattan, Infor, Dematic, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Deposco, and numerous proprietary systems. The execution layer adds intelligence without requiring changes to the host system. 

A Warehouse Execution System delivers value across any industry with high-volume distribution operations. Industries that benefit most include grocery and food service, beverage distribution, wholesale distribution, retail and e-commerce, 3PL/logistics providers, healthcare and medical supply, and consumer goods. Any operation where manual picking, replenishment, or loading represents a significant portion of labor cost and where order accuracy, speed, and on-time delivery are critical, stands to gain from execution-level optimization. 

Work smarter with people-centered warehouse execution

Lucas has consistently innovated new approaches to optimizing warehouse operations, with a consistent focus on creating technology tools that are easy to use for hourly associates, front-line supervisors, and IT staffers.

UpperLakes warehouse voice picking

Get Started With These Helpful Resources

Three Steps to Creating a More Productive DC

This guide takes you through three steps that have helped hundreds of distribution centers worldwide increase productivity and throughput in their picking processes.

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Three Strategies for Leveraging Voice in Your DC

This guide looks in depth at how different approaches to implementing voice determine the magnitude of productivity gains any facility may achieve. Use the guidelines in this paper to estimate the potential results in your DC.

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AI-Based Travel Optimization

This 10-minute demo dives into the various components of our AI-based optimization tool – dynamic prioritization, path optimization, and intelligent batching. Fill out the form and we will send you the demo.

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