ARCHITECTURE

Building a successful suite of warehouse automation software starts with a stable and secure data storage, management and analytics platform with reliable communications protocols. As the foundation of the Momentum software suite, Momentum Core provides the underpinning for our warehouse execution ecosystem — from modular applications and microservices to data-driven, decision-making intelligence and seamless integration capabilities. Simply put, Momentum Core is the brains of the operation, facilitating connections, enabling communications, and providing a master data repository.

Momentum Core empowers our software suite with advanced data science techniques, an industrial internet of things (IIoT) infrastructure and host system connectivity to deliver the functionalities and benefits which are most important to distribution and fulfillment operations:

• Safeguard data in a secure cloud-based infrastructure
• Stay informed of DC issues and events with alarms and notifications about live status and system health
• Safely test and validate fulfillment scenarios with robust simulation capabilities
• Balance system workload, maximize throughput, and optimize performance with data-driven, decision-making intelligence
• Connect to warehouse management systems (WMS) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) host systems for data mapping and process integration

As e-commerce fulfillment requirements become more complex and change from day to day, retailers need a technology platform that allows them to deploy new functionalities quickly and add new automation systems — without jeopardizing operational stability, getting locked into constraints or introducing security risks. Momentum software is designed to support an ever-expanding suite of modular applications (apps), allowing companies to scale rapidly to meet their next fulfillment challenge. This robust warehouse execution ecosystem delivers facility-wide orchestration, high availability to operation uptime, and industry-leading stability and security. 

Momentum’s scalable applications significantly reduce the engineering and operational costs often associated with deploying new features while minimizing implementation disruptions and timelines. From order management, routing, picking and capacity planning, automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) and labor, Momentum orchestrates every aspect of order fulfillment to streamline the execution of all critical warehouse functions. Key apps include:

• Picking: leverage Honeywell Voice Guided Work Solutions to drive continuous warehouse productivity gains; ensure the most efficient pick path optimization
• Order Prioritization: automatically prioritize order backlogs and intelligently release orders to meet aggressive SLAs
• Routing: provide real-time routing intelligence to ensure that orders travel via the optimal path to avoid bottlenecks
• Put-away and Replenish: gain more warehouse capacity with optimal slotting and smart storage optimization; balance slotting locations by considering outbound demand

Another key enabler of the Momentum software suite is its ability to provide seamless integration with proprietary automation equipment and systems — including Honeywell Intelligrated’s extensive warehouse automation, robotics and productivity products portfolio — as well as third-party material handling equipment (MHE) providers. This allows DC operators to leverage their existing hardware into the Momentum warehouse execution ecosystem without impacting the underlying software infrastructure (i.e., Momentum Core). 

Momentum Integration connects the software platform to all your current and future warehouse automation systems to provide real-time asset monitoring and the potential to leverage predictive maintenance via advanced data analytics. Our proprietary machine controls platform improves communication among assets and even integrates with hybrid PLC- and PC-based controls systems to enable the system-wide visibility you need to make real-time, data-driven decisions. With Momentum Integration, you can:

• Connect your entire DC and warehouse execution ecosystem, including: MHE; labor management; automation and robotic systems such as Honeywell Voice; autonomous mobile robots (AMR); and automated guided vehicles (AGV)
• Integrate with advanced robotic automation for rapid adoption of new and emerging technologies
• Leverage the industrial internet of things (IIoT) to monitor asset health and system performance in real time; even make the transition to a predictive maintenance program
• Preserve existing equipment investments via our hardware-agnostic integration methods