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Frequently Asked Questions
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- What is TCS?
- What functionality does TCS provide?
- What benefits will companies gain from the implementation of TCS?
- What business process improvements can clients expect to be enabled by TCS?
- Why would a company need TCS if their old controls system(s) were still working?
- How does TCS fit in between the WMS solution and the device control systems from the MHE vendors?
- Why would a consulting company want to develop a control system?
- Who offers competitive products to TCS and why is TCS superior?
- What is the basic architecture of TCS?
- What is the design methodology behind TCS?
- What is the current install base for TCS?
- Can you provide past projects and benefits TCS provided?
- How is TCS sold?
- Does all the functionality of TCS need to be installed?
- Does TCS lend itself to future growth?
- What WMS and legacy host systems has TCS interfaced to?
- Can TCS be integrated with an existing control system?
- How is TCS supported?
- Can TCS be applied to something other than use in distribution centers?
- Does TCS provide operational data and how is that presented?
- Can TCS be used to control high-speed sorters?
- What redundancy is built into TCS?
- What are some of the automation equipment TCS integrates with?
- Does the Tompkins TCS group have the capability to develop custom
software applications?
- How does TCS reduce the risk of a new WMS implementation? Why is it a good idea to evaluate TCS as part of a WMS project?
- How could TCS enable/utilize RFID technology in a DC?
- After installation, can changes to TCS be made using internal resources, or is a client dependent on Tompkins?
- What TCS functions are configurable by users?
- Can clients easily make changes to existing reports and add new reports on their own?
- Does TCS support remote access or viewing of the system by users? If so, how?
1. What is TCS?
TCS is a layered software product that acts as middleware combining material handling control with a warehouse control system. This product integrates to a WMS, provides a graphical overview of the warehouse systems, gives the operations manager data reports on product picking and shipping status, provides centralized fault reporting for the maintenance manager, and performs all aspects of material handling equipment control.
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2. What functionality does TCS provide?
- An integrated systems graphical user interface (GUI) of all warehouse material handling systems
- A database to capture all MHE-related warehouse data, such as cartons shipped, orders in-process, or conveyor fault data
- Integrated operations or maintenance reports available from the workroom floor
- A single point of integration to the WMS (simplifies IT integration and maintenance)
- Extensive internal logging capability to facilitate system trouble-shooting
- Built-in maintenance paging function
- Built-in support for optimal remote support via the Tompkins Support Center
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3. What benefits will companies gain from the implementation of TCS?
TCS gives clients a robust material handling control system using field-proven leading-edge technology. TCS allows companies to unlock the data inherent in their material handling controls ands use it to be more responsive in the areas of maintenance and operations. In addition, the TCS single point of integration to the WMS provides IT integration, maintenance, and trouble-shooting savings. Web-based reporting allows enterprise-wide access to operational and performance data.
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4. What business process improvements can clients expect to be enabled by TCS?
By providing real-time and accurate data transmission between the WMS (and other execution systems) and shop floor equipment, TCS integrates facility operations and IT. TCS provides real-time diagnostics and alert capabilities, allowing maintenance to respond quickly with detailed information on system problems. Detailed data collection and reporting allows maintenance and operations personnel greater visibility into the facility’s operations and automation systems. This allows operations to optimize the flow of product through the facility. Maintenance can use this data to ensure automation equipment is running at peak performance.
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5. Why would a company need TCS if their old control system(s) were still working?
Depending upon the business needs, a client may not need TCS. Tompkins performs all consulting engagements from a standpoint of justifiable ROI to the client.
Reasons to migrate to TCS include:
- Old control system experiences unplanned downtime
- Old control system does not allow good visibility of DC operations
- Old control system does not provide timely data on problems for operations or maintenance intervention
- Old control system does not provide closed-loop feedback on critical data, such as sorter divert confirms
- Higher throughput needed from the MHE and the client suspects the existing controls are limiting the potential of the MHE hardware (typically a consideration in saw tooth merges and shipping sorters)
- Client is migrating to a new WMS and the data requirements imposed on the MHE have increased
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6. How does TCS fit in between the WMS solution and the device control systems from the MHE vendors?
In the traditional approach to this problem, each device control system demands its own interface to the WMS. The various MHE systems represent islands of automation within the distribution center. This approach incurs WMS modification expense and does not provide an integrated systems view of the entire MHE layout.
TCS integrates between the WMS and the existing device control systems (or, in some cases, replaces the existing device control systems). This allows TCS to consolidate all of the MHE data and present operations and maintenance management with one integrated system view. This approach also allows TCS to provide one point of integration to the WMS, thus minimizing WMS modification and maintenance expense. The figure on the next page shows the difference between the traditional and the TCS approach.
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7. Why would a consulting company want to develop a control system?
TCS was developed to support Tompkins’ turnkey material handling integration business. A typical MHE integration job involves Tompkins management and integration of equipment from several different vendors. The highest risk to the performance of the entire project is often the selection and management of the controls integration subcontractor. Tompkins chose to develop controls integration capability in-house to minimize project performance risk and maximize the quality of the controls solution offered to our clients.
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8. Who offers competitive products to TCS and why is TCS superior?
OEMs and integrators often offer control systems with their products. The primary reason why TCS is superior is that operations experts who have spent time on the floor working hand-in-hand with operations designed it. The data that is most useful to operations is collected and presented in an intuitive format. Operations personnel don’t have to weed through pages of useless data to find what they need.
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9. What is the basic architecture of TCS?
TCS is a PC-based controls solution. At the material handling cell level, TCS uses PCs to control material handling equipment. TCS can also integrate to existing PLC controls. The cell-level controls communicate via LAN to a Microsoft Windows server that supports the TCS middleware layer. This server coordinates all the activities of the cells, provides the integration layer to the WMS, and contains a database to support the operations and maintenance reporting functions. See the diagram.
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10. What is the design methodology behind TCS?
In software-industry terms, TCS is designed as a multi-tiered networked application. The primary development languages are Entivity VLC, Microsoft C/C++, and Microsoft Visual Basic. The system includes a Microsoft SQL Server database and web-based reports. TCS offers a diverse toolkit of capabilities that are tailored to the end-user’s unique business needs.
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11. What is the current install base for TCS?
TCS has an install base of 17 units. TCS is used in food storage applications, pharmaceuticals, retail distribution, and government logistics. Our largest TCS verticals are pharmaceuticals and retail distribution (both store replenishment and direct-to-consumer). TCS is also used in packaging lines within industries as different as retail photographic finishing and gourmet premium fruit packing.
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12. Can you provide past projects and benefits TCS provided?
Yes, we can discuss several different case studies showing the benefits of TCS. References can be provided upon request.
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13. How is TCS sold?
TCS is sold via two channels:
- As part of a Tompkins material handling contract
- As a replacement or addition to a client’s existing control system
In both cases, the initial costs to the client are a licensing fee and customization services. There are no subsequent fees. A yearly support contract is offered, but not required.
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14. Does all the functionality of TCS need to be installed?
No. Due to the modular nature of TCS, the system can be tailored to specific client needs. For example, a single TCS area controller may be installed to perform local control of material handling equipment if a client does not have a need for the warehouse control and reporting layer. In another example, the TCS warehouse control and reporting features may be integrated to a client’s existing PLC controls to help the client mine their operational data and obtain good system-level reporting.
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15. Does TCS lend itself to future growth?
Very much so—this is a routine requirement of our largest TCS installations. TCS is built around a networked architecture that makes adding new area controllers easy. As a facility expands, TCS can expand with it.
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16. What WMS and legacy host systems has TCS interfaced to?
In the WMS space, TCS has interfaced to:
- Manhattan Associates PkMS
- Manhattan Associates WM for I-Series
- Manhattan Associates WMOS products
- High Jump
- Retek
- IMREX
TCS has interfaced to numerous legacy host systems in various industries. Most of these host systems were in-house applications that required Tompkins to develop custom interfaces. We have developed interfaces for the following computers and technologies:
- IBM System/370 Mainframes
- IBM I-Series (AS-400)
- Unisys Mainframes
- Windows Servers
- Unix (AIX, TSX32, QNX)
- FTP
- File Exchange via Shared Directories
- Sockets over TCP/IP
- IBM DataQueue
- PeopleSoft PARs
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17. Can TCS be integrated with an existing control system?
Yes, this happens all the time. TCS is designed to share data with existing control systems that conform to common industry standards such as OPC or serial data exchange. We frequently integrate TCS into an existing PLC controls architecture by adding Ethernet I/O modules to a client’s PLC rack. This provides a good return on investment and immediate operational benefits of utilizing the data available from the PLC in an integrated controls system.
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18. How is TCS supported?
TCS is supported by the Tompkins Support Center. Various levels of support are offered, up to 24/7 support.
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19. Can TCS be applied to something other than use in distribution centers?
Yes, in fact, TCS is already in use in packaging line applications. TCS can be adapted to manufacturing or other applications where real-time control in a data-rich environment is a key requirement for system success.
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20. Does TCS provide operational data and how is that presented?
TCS provides standard operational data such as cartons shipped, work in process, cartons rejected/recirculated, scanner no-reads, and orders pending. The data is presented as reports that are both printable and viewable on-screen using a web browser. TCS also allows users to create their own reports using the industry-standard Crystal Reports data reporting and analysis tool. . As part of every TCS installation, we work to identify client-unique reports to provide the client with better visibility onto the workroom floor.
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21. Can TCS be used to control high-speed sorters?
Yes, TCS is currently controlling high-speed shoe sorters running at up to 600fpm.
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22. What redundancy is built into TCS?
There are several levels of redundancy that can be implemented based upon a client’s business requirements. All TCS implementations use servers with dual CPUs, dual power supplies, and RAID 5-disk arrays. TCS area controllers are rack-mounted industrial PCs with mirrored drives. This combination of hardware provides cost-effective ruggedness and redundancy. For highest availability requirements, TCS can be implemented in a clustered server configuration for automatic fail-over protection.
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23. What are some of the automation equipment TCS integrates with?
- Print-and-apply labelers
- RF picking
- Pick-to-Light
- Voice-based picking
- Handheld scanners
- Fixed scanners
- Carousels
- Conveyors
- Sorters
- RFID
- And many others
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24. Does the Tompkins TCS group have the capability to develop custom
software applications?
Yes, we do. Our clients frequently request that we develop custom software to replace out-dated systems. We also develop enterprise integration software to adapt legacy applications to new WMS or TCS installations.
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25. How does TCS reduce the risk of a new WMS implementation? Why is it a good idea to evaluate TCS as part of a WMS project?
TCS reduces the number of interface points for the WMS. Most WMS packages are very good at managing facility operations, but are limited when it comes to interfacing with automation. This is what TCS does best: collects data from shop floor automation and serves as the interface between the shop floor and the WMS.
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26. How could TCS enable/utilize RFID technology in a DC?
TCS functionality includes interfaces to RF reading and writing devices. RF tags on re-usable totes can be used in lieu of bar code labels. The tags can contain license plate identifiers or product information that can be collected by RF readers distributed throughout the material handling system. Also enterprise-level data (e.g., order information) can be sent from higher-level execution systems through TCS to RF tag writing devices.
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27. After installation, can changes to TCS be made using internal resources, or is a client dependent on Tompkins?
Parts of TCS are configurable, allowing the client to make configuration changes without Tompkins’ involvement. For example, the client may reconfigure a divert to send No-reads straight instead of diverting. Likewise, TCS provides configuration editors, allowing the client to change configuration data, such as sort plans and routes. These editors are easy-to-use software programs designed to allow operations personnel to make real-time changes to the system. TCS also includes user-definable reports that allow supervisors to create and modify TCS reports.
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28. What TCS functions are configurable by users?
- Sort plans and routes
- Exception (e.g., no-reads, unknowns) handling at diverts (e.g., go straight, divert left)
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29. Can users easily make changes to existing reports and add new reports on their own?
Yes. TCS comes with standard reports and the ability to add new ones.
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30. Does TCS support remote access or viewing of the system by users? If so, how?
Yes. TCS has several different methods of remote access:
- The TCS GUI/client can be installed on any networked PC to access all the TCS functionality
- Using a standard web browser, the user can access reports from any networked PC
- VPN or dial-up remote access allows authorized users to access the system
- Users across the enterprise may view TCS reports using their browser
For more information on the Tompkins Warehouse Control System, call 407-362-0362.
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