Exacta Maestro™ Integration Design Workflow
What types of agents will be included in the system
- Zoning and Positioning (ZaP), [semi-automated]
- AutoSWR [Fully automated]
- Courier [Fully automated]
Who is driving the work?
a) Exacta Maestro™ will drive the work:
The host will send "batches", "waves", "groups" (etc) of work to be completed. Exacta Maestro™ will determine the best bit of work to be completed in the moment considering work in queue, work balance, and vehicle availability. Provided work can include metadata such as Priority/Due Date, required agent id (etc) to augment the way that Exacta Maestro™ will process work. The host has the ability to query for and determine the current work item that is being executed for each vehicle. Host screens, reports, etc can be driven off of this information.
b) The Host will drive the work:
The host will determine the next bit of work based off of internal prioritization logic unknown to Exacta Maestro. This can be based off of existing host logic such that the work selection process does not change from current state. This puts more responsibility in the host system, but can be preferable if there is existing logic in place. Once the work is determined, the host will send the assigned work item to Exacta Maestro™, which will take over the responsibility of directing and navigating the vehicle to the assigned location.
Note: In any scenario, the Exacta Maestro™ only has knowledge of vehicle ids. Any pairing of vehicle-to-operator or vehicle-to-scanner, etc will be mapped and maintained in the host system. No utility to do this mapping is provided by Exacta Maestro™.
Given the host is driving work, will tasks be systemically completed?
Note: If Exacta Maestro™ driving work, or if the vehicle is fully automated, skip
a) Work is systemically completed:
Upon completion of the work at the location, the host system notifies Exacta Maestro™ that the work is done and that the vehicle can move to the next work items upon receipt. If the notification is not received, the system will queue up any additional incoming tasks.
b) Work is not completed (Active Mission Override)
The system will be configured to not expect work confirmations to come in from the host system. Exacta Maestro™'s only responsibility will be to get the vehicle to the "last" destination provided. Upon receipt of a new task, Exacta Maestro™ will assume any current tasks are out of date, and will cancel them.
How will transfer requests be made? (Load Ids vs Location Ids)
a) Work is submitted for a load (Pallet, container, gaylord, etc) -- Black box container management
The host will request movements of specific license plates (LPNs) of a given load. Exacta Maestro™ will track container locations to a set of pre-configured locations. Upon request of a load that is currently stored, Exacta Maestro™ will resolve the request to the task or task(s) required to retrieve the load. A request to move the load into the Exacta Maestro™ controlled zones will have a destination determined by Exacta Maestro™. In this configuration, it is important that all movements are performed within Exacta Maestro™ such that inventory is not dual managed (this can cause likely out-of-sync issues that would need to be resolved manually).
b) Work is submitted for a load (advanced) -- Black box inventory
Similar to above. However, the customer requires that the fleet system track advanced inventory attributes about the load (ie, SKU, weight, qty, dimensions, etc) and make decisions about assignment based on these attributes. In this scenario, the solution will include additional inventory-related Exacta WES modules. This allows for a full inventory managed solution by the Exacta suite.
c) Work is submitted for a location identifier. -- Host-managed inventory
Exacta will honor the transfer request to/from the location directly. All inventory is tracked and evaluated within the host system. The desired movements are resolved to locations prior to sending to Exacta Maestro™.
Note: In any scenario, the host system will have the ability to query Exacta Maestro™ to determine where the load is systemically.
Steps Toward Integration
Customers frequently cannot commit to an up front integration from the host system into Exacta Maestro™. Whether due to time, budgetary, or manpower limitations, the integration potential is limited in the short term. To address this issue, the following tiers are defined as options for rolling into integration.
Tier 1: No Integration
Exacta Maestro™ includes an HMI application which can be used to drive work in the system. In this situation, an operator would be required to manually enter requested inventory movements for all loads. Movements can be "batch loaded" where possible (ie, a list of pallets to be pulled from inventory can be loaded into Exacta Maestro™). These tiers build on each other so each progressive tier would be fully inclusive of the previous tier(s).
PROS: There is, theoretically, no work required from the customer integration team. The application can be installed, and all the work is driven manually without connection to a host system.
CONS: Exacta Maestro™ operations will operate on an island. The host will not automatically be aware of any inventory movements or load statuses. An operator will need to be stationed at the Exacta Maestro™ HMI during all hours of operation.
Note that if loads are moving to/from inventory locations in this tier, the Exacta Maestro™ container management features will need to be included
Tier 2: IO Based Triggers
Exacta Maestro™ leverages the Exacta AOR software module to read load statuses or other triggers from a PLC. This would be used to signal that a load is "ReadyForPickup" (etc). From this trigger, the system can create the necessary movements required to move the load appropriately.
PROS: The integration work is shifted from the customer host integration team to a controls engineer. This may be separate personel, or (in some cases) can be outsourced to Bastian or other 3rd party vendors. The application can be installed, and all the work is driven either manually or through IO without connection to a host system.
CONS: Exacta Maestro™ operations will operate on an island. The host will not automatically be aware of any inventory movements or load statuses. IO work/hardware can be expensive to implement depending on what type of triggers are required and with what accuracy.
Note that if loads are moving to/from inventory locations in this tier, the Exacta Maestro™ container management features will need to be included
Tier 3: Periodic Sync integration
Exacta Maestro™ would be driven using methods from the previous two tiers. However, the host builds in a routine to periodically sync the host state. This could be to sync inventory, identify work completed, collect data for analytics, etc.
PROS: The integration work is limited to what data needs to be collected. This can be stored offline of the core host application if necessary. The application can be installed, and all the work is driven either manually or through IO without connection to a host system.
CONS: The host will not automatically be aware of any inventory movements or load statuses.
Note that if loads are moving to/from inventory locations in this tier, the Exacta Maestro™ container management features will need to be included
Tier 4: Full System Integration
Exacta Maestro™ would receive and provide updates directly to the host system. All requested load movements would come from the host leveraging the full capacity of the Exacta Maestro™ API.
PROS: The provides a full access to the data available within the Exacta Maestro™ operating space.
CONS: The host integration team would be responsible for the work to integrate with existing host applications.
Note the Exacta Maestro™ container management features will need to be included only if the host is directing load id movements (not location movements)
Optional for any tier - Standalone Server Hardware
Exacta Maestro™ would come with a standalone server device which would contain the full Exacta Maestro™ application deployment. This would be connected to the customer network on a dedicated VLAN with the vehicles. The IT management of this device would be the responsibility of the customer.
Note: IT management of this device could be included at additional cost (premium)
Optional for any tier - Standalone Network
The applications group would setup their own private network in the facility specifically for handling communication between server and vehicles. Any external communication or remote access would still need to come through a customer dedicated VLAN.