WMS Integration
CognitOps Works With Your WMS
No rip-and-replace. No re-implementation. CognitOps connects to your existing Warehouse Management System via standard APIs and goes live in 6–8 weeks — adding the real-time labor intelligence layer your WMS was never designed to provide.
See How It WorksYour WMS Manages Inventory. It Was Never Designed to Manage Labor.
A Warehouse Management System is built to track the movement of inventory — what came in, where it was stored, what was picked, what shipped. It does this exceptionally well. But the WMS was architected around transactions, not decisions. It records what happened; it does not tell you what to do next.
The gap shows up every shift. A zone falls behind pace. A carrier cutoff moves up. A wave is larger than planned and picking labor is stretched thin across three fulfillment channels. Your WMS records all of these events accurately — but it gives your supervisor no real-time signal that any of them are happening, and no guidance on how to respond.
CognitOps was built to close that gap. It sits above your WMS as a real-time intelligence layer — reading the transactional data your WMS generates and turning it into live operational signals, predictive forecasts, and actionable rebalancing recommendations that help your supervisors make better decisions during the shift, not after it.
How CognitOps Connects to Your WMS
The integration is straightforward by design. CognitOps connects via standard APIs — the same data interfaces your WMS already exposes for reporting and integration purposes. No custom development. No infrastructure changes. No downtime.
API Connection
CognitOps connects to your WMS via standard REST or SOAP APIs. We support all major WMS platforms and have pre-built connectors for the most common systems — including home-grown and legacy WMS environments with flexible connector options.
Data Ingestion
CognitOps ingests real-time order, labor, and throughput data from your WMS — typically updated every 30 seconds to 5 minutes — and combines it with historical patterns to build your operational baseline.
Intelligence Layer
Machine learning models process the data to generate real-time labor visibility by zone, predictive demand forecasts, and dynamic rebalancing recommendations — all surfaced in a supervisor-facing dashboard.
Live in 6–8 Weeks
Most CognitOps deployments go live within 6 to 8 weeks of kickoff. Your WMS continues operating exactly as before — CognitOps adds intelligence on top without changing any core workflows.
Compatible With All Major WMS Platforms
CognitOps has been deployed alongside a wide range of Warehouse Management Systems across retail, healthcare, CPG, and 3PL operations. If your WMS exposes standard data APIs, CognitOps can connect to it.
Manhattan Associates
WMS, SCALE
Blue Yonder
WMS, Luminate
SAP Extended WM
EWM, S/4HANA
Oracle WMS
Cloud WMS
Körber
WMS, HighJump
Infor WMS
CloudSuite WMS
Synapse / 3PL Central
3PL-focused WMS
Legacy AS/400 WMS
iSeries / IBM i
Home-Grown WMS
Flexible connector options
Other WMS Platforms
Via standard API
Don’t see your WMS listed? Contact us — if your system exposes data via API, we can connect to it.
What CognitOps Adds on Top of Your WMS
Your WMS continues doing everything it already does. CognitOps adds the capabilities it was never designed for:
Real-Time Labor Visibility by Zone
See exactly where your labor is deployed across every zone and function in the building, updated continuously — not just at end-of-shift in a WMS report.
Predictive Demand Forecasting
Anticipate volume shifts before they hit your floor. CognitOps analyzes order pipeline data from your WMS to give supervisors advance warning of surges, shortfalls, and SLA risk.
Dynamic Rebalancing Recommendations
When a zone is falling behind or a carrier cutoff is at risk, CognitOps surfaces specific, actionable guidance — move X workers from Y to Z — so supervisors can act immediately rather than discovering the problem after the fact.
ML-Derived Labor Standards
CognitOps builds performance benchmarks from your historical WMS data — no industrial engineering required. Standards automatically update as your operation evolves, with no manual recalibration.
Supervisor-Facing Dashboard
Designed for the people running the shift — not analysts. Supervisors get a single view of building-wide labor utilization, throughput pace, and SLA status without needing to pull reports from the WMS.
Cross-System Data Synthesis
If your operation runs multiple execution systems — WMS, LMS, TMS, YMS — CognitOps synthesizes data across all of them into a single operational intelligence layer. No more switching between systems to get the full picture.
Deployed Alongside the World’s Leading WMS Platforms
CognitOps customers include McKesson, Sephora, Tractor Supply, and PetSmart — all of whom continue running their existing WMS while using CognitOps as their real-time operational intelligence layer. Average labor cost savings: $780K per facility per year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does CognitOps replace my WMS?
No. CognitOps is specifically designed to work alongside your existing WMS — not replace it. Your WMS continues handling inventory tracking, order management, and transaction processing exactly as before. CognitOps adds the real-time labor intelligence layer on top: live visibility, predictive forecasting, and supervisor decision support. The two systems serve different purposes and complement each other.
How long does the WMS integration take?
Most CognitOps deployments go live within 6 to 8 weeks of project kickoff. The integration uses your WMS’s existing data APIs — no custom development, no infrastructure changes, and no disruption to your current operations. The timeline depends on your WMS platform and the number of data sources being connected.
What data does CognitOps pull from the WMS?
CognitOps reads order data, labor activity records, throughput metrics, and inventory movement data from your WMS — the same data your operations team already uses for reporting. It does not write back to the WMS or modify any transactions. All changes to inventory and order data continue to flow through your WMS as before.
We run multiple systems — WMS, LMS, and a TMS. Can CognitOps connect to all of them?
Yes. CognitOps is designed for complex multi-system environments. It can ingest data from your WMS, LMS, TMS, yard management system, and other execution platforms — synthesizing them into a single operational intelligence layer. Many CognitOps customers run three or more execution systems; CognitOps provides the unified visibility across all of them that no individual system provides on its own.
Will we need IT resources to maintain the integration?
Ongoing IT involvement after go-live is minimal. The API connection is maintained by CognitOps, and updates to the platform do not require changes to your WMS configuration. If your WMS undergoes a major version upgrade, a brief re-validation of the data feeds is typically all that is required. Most customers find that IT involvement after go-live is limited to periodic access management and occasional data field additions as they expand their use of the platform.
Keep Your WMS. Add the Intelligence Layer It’s Missing.
CognitOps connects to your existing WMS in 6–8 weeks and starts delivering real-time labor visibility from day one. Average savings: $780K per facility per year.
WMS + Labor Planning — Common Questions
If I already have a WMS with a labor module, do I still need separate labor planning software?
Depends on how seriously you need to manage labor costs. WMS labor modules are built to track task completion — they know an associate picked 47 units between 10am and 11am. That’s useful. But they weren’t built to measure efficiency against standards, surface variance by person or shift, or give a supervisor an actionable real-time view of how labor is being consumed across the facility. If your labor variance is a line item your CFO is asking about, or if your cost-per-unit keeps creeping up without a clear reason, that’s the signal that your WMS module has hit its ceiling. The LMS layer is what turns that task data into decisions.
How does labor planning software connect to an existing WMS without breaking anything?
The standard integration is event-based: the WMS emits task start/stop events and the LMS captures those events to build a labor record. This is read-only from the WMS perspective — the LMS isn’t writing back to the WMS or changing any inventory logic. Most integrations use APIs or file-based feeds. The biggest risk isn’t the integration itself; it’s data quality. If your WMS doesn’t consistently capture task-level timestamps, or if workers are sharing RF devices, the LMS data will have gaps.
What WMS systems does CognitOps work with?
CognitOps is built to work alongside the WMS you already have — Manhattan Active WM, Blue Yonder, SAP EWM, HighJump, Infor, Körber, and others. The approach is integration, not replacement. Your WMS handles inventory logic and task management; CognitOps adds the labor intelligence layer on top — real-time productivity tracking, labor planning, variance analysis, and coaching tools for supervisors.
What happens to data quality when workers don’t log tasks properly in the WMS?
If workers skip task scans, share devices, or log out during work, your labor record will have holes — time that shows as unaccounted for. That’s actually useful (you can see the pattern and address it) but won’t tell you specifically what that time was spent on. The fix is almost always a process and supervision problem, not a technical one. Facilities that have clean LMS data treat task logging as non-negotiable and audit compliance regularly.
