From wave release to the last conveyor, one team.

Thomax designs, delivers and supports the control system as well as the WMS. Decision and machine action come from the same data and same people, and every task, message and rule is visible to you.

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Automated store visualiser for a chilled and a frozen system: storage lanes by level with occupied, empty and blocked positions, lifts and shuttles
Automated store visualiser, .wms wallboard

What our control system runs.

Pallet shuttles, lifts, conveyors and turntables in a live chiller and freezer store. Inbound and outbound sorters and lane decisions. Pick-to-light and goods-to-person tote stations. Right-size packaging and automated packing machines. Robotic depalletise and palletise lines. Print-and-apply, dimensioners and scales. Delivered at sites across Australia since 2023.

A conveyor merge and sorter lines in an automated distribution centre

A control system you can see into.

Every task step, every message to and from the equipment, every equipment state and every business rule is inspectable by your team. Lane choice and putaway acceptance change in configuration, by you, not in a vendor’s code. When something stops, you can see why before you pick up the phone.

Where each decision lives: .wms releases waves and holds business rules and inventory; the Thomax WCS plans, sequences and logs tasks and messages in both directions; equipment controllers keep motion and safety..wmsThomax WCSEquipment controllersWave releaseBusiness rulesInventory truthTask planning and sequencingRedundancy and degraded modesTask and message logsShuttles, lifts, conveyorsSorters, packers, pick-to-lightMotion and safety
Where each decision lives. Thomax in blue, equipment vendors in white.

Any vendor’s equipment, one control layer.

Our control layer talks to equipment through PLC and controller message interfaces with pluggable drivers per vendor, so mixed-vendor sites run on one control system. Integrated with automation from Dematic, SSI Schaefer, Stow, CMC, AIOI, Geek+, Locus Robotics, Mushiny and Modula.

Built to keep running.

Retries, watchdogs, message persistence and resend are built in. When a lift or one side of a store is down, the control system switches to a degraded mode and the rest keeps working. Every site is simulated off-site before go-live, so the first day on real equipment is not the first test.

An automated pallet store with a transfer car

Robots take their work straight from .wms.

Work is released to AMR fleets, goods-to-person systems and AutoStore, and the fleet reports picks, receipts and stock changes back. The robots run their own motion; .wms runs the warehouse.

Tote conveyor beside an automated storage system

WMS, WES and WCS in five sentences.

The WMS decides what should happen: which order, which stock, which wave. A WES decides how the work flows through people and machines in the building. A WCS tells the equipment what to do and listens to what it did. Most sites buy those three from three vendors and spend the integration budget on finger-pointing. At Thomax the WMS and the control layer come from one team, on one data model, with the execution logic between them in the open.

What's inside.

  • Shuttles, lifts, conveyors, turntables and sorters
  • Pick-to-light, goods-to-person and AutoStore
  • Right-size packaging, automated packers and robotic palletising
  • Print-and-apply, dimensioners and scales
  • Task, message and equipment logs open to your team
  • Redundancy modes and off-site simulation
  • Store visualiser on the wallboard

Related

Bring your automation plan, or the one that stalled.

We will walk the flow from wave release to the equipment and show where the control logic lives.

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