Supply Chain Execution Software

Charged with orchestrating behind the scenes movements like warehouse, labor, yard/dock, transportation and global trade management, supply chain execution (SCE) software continues to play a critical role in today’s overall supply chain processes. Folded under the umbrella of supply chain management (SCM), along with supply chain planning (SCP), SCE focuses on execution-oriented applications that carry out the plans created by those planning systems.

Because they play such an important role in the smooth running of the modern day distribution center (DC), SCE solutions are continually being honed and finessed to meet the needs of those operations. “Within transportation management systems (TMS) and warehouse management systems (WMS), in particular, we continue to see a steady stream of new developments, functionalities, and capabilities,” says Steve Simmerman, senior director of sales for JDA Software.

Simmerman says two of the newer developments are intelligent fulfillment and profitable fulfillment, both of which are being driven by the “Amazon effect” on the supply chain. Simply put, everyone wants to know where their orders are going to ship, how the shipping process will work and when the goods will get to their intended destination. A phenomenon in both the business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) realms, it’s pushing software developers to come up with new ways to help their customers meet those demands.

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