Software to Run Your Sorters and Conveyors
Ignyte Software builds and supports warehouse control systems (WCS). A WCS takes work from the warehouse management system and tells the conveyor PLCs where every carton, tote, and unit goes, in real time. We have built them for sortation, unit sorters, put walls, and print-and-apply lines, and we support them across multiple customer sites.
What changes
- A WCS only its vendor can changetoSource code and documentation you own
- Go-live as the first real testtoSimulated PLC and WMS traffic first
- Exceptions handled on papertoProblem resolution on a handheld
- A black box between WMS and PLCtoMessages logged and searchable
- One oversized system for every sitetoModules for the work areas you have
- Lexington, KYCentral Kentucky & nationwide
- In production todayRunning distribution and fulfillment centers
- Starts with a reviewFee credited toward the build
- First conversation is freeWe reply within one business day
Last updated November 11, 2026
Work Areas We Build
A warehouse control system is a set of work areas on one core. Each one answers the same question for a different piece of equipment: this item was just scanned, where does it go?
Scan, look up the destination, assign a lane, and confirm the divert. Handles recirculation, reject lanes, and full lanes on inbound, packing, and shipping sorters.
Tray sorters fed from induction stations. The WCS maps each wave to chutes, assigns every unit, and confirms each discharge.
Light-directed slots that build orders from sorted units, with station sign-in and pack-out on a handheld.
Request the label, send it to the right printer, and verify the applied label with a scan before the carton moves on.
Send each tote to the pick zones it needs and past the ones it does not.
Receive waves and allocations from the WMS, release work to the floor, and report every divert, short, and completion back.
Android apps for induction, pack-out, put walls, problem resolution, and trailer loading, running on the same rules as the WCS.
Live work-area views, throughput counts, connection status, and searchable history, in a browser.
Proof From the Floor
The largest site running our work is Maersk's omnichannel fulfillment center in Groveport, Ohio. It serves the wholesale, retail, and e-commerce channels of Levi Strauss & Co.
Lafayette Engineering: warehouse control systems
- Outcome
- The systems run at multiple customer sites. Lafayette says we hit every milestone and calls our support rock solid.
We built the warehouse control system at the Groveport site for Lafayette Engineering, and we still develop and support it.
One building for wholesale, retail, and e-commerce orders.
Sortation systems that match products to orders.
The most products the sortation systems can process in an hour.
The most outbound units the sortation systems can process in a year.
The floor area, sorter count, and capacities are Maersk's published figures, from its announcement and from Supply Chain Dive, which quotes Maersk.
How We Deliver a WCS
Equipment time on a new site is short and expensive. We do as much of the proving as we can before the conveyor runs, so more of commissioning goes to tuning and less to finding basic faults.
- 1Specify the interfaces
Write the message specification with your controls engineers and your WMS team before any code. It covers every message, its timing, and what happens on a no-read, a full lane, or a lost carton.
- 2Build in modules
Each work area is its own module on a shared core. Your site carries only the work areas it has, and a new one can be added with little change to the others.
- 3Simulate
Drive the WCS with a PLC simulator and WMS load tools, at the equipment's maximum rate and beyond. Operators see their screens against realistic traffic before the conveyor runs.
- 4Commission on site
Work beside the controls engineers while real cartons run. Tune timing, lane assignments, and exception rules against what the floor does.
- 5Run and support
Ship versioned releases with scripted database upgrades and a rehearsed way back. Stay on for the changes that follow peak season, new customers, and new equipment.
Built for the Floor
A WCS fault stops cartons, and stopped cartons stop people. We design our systems around these rules.
The WCS answers a scan from memory, then writes the history to the database, so the reply to the PLC does not wait on a query.
Items in flight are saved as they move and reload when the service starts, so the WCS can pick up the cartons already on the sorter after a restart.
Scans, diverts, connection events, and WMS messages are logged and searchable, so there is a record of where a carton went and why.
No-reads, unknown items, and full lanes route to defined destinations and appear in a problem-resolution queue for an operator.
After Go-Live: WCS Operations Center
WCS Operations Center is our own monitoring product. It shows the health of every warehouse control server it is installed on, in one dashboard.
The agent sends processor, memory, disk, WCS process, and SQL Server health every ten seconds while it is connected.
A small agent on the warehouse server connects out to the dashboard, so the site opens no inbound ports. The agent needs outbound access to the dashboard.
Read a site's logs and pull its database backups from the dashboard, without logging on to the server.
See the server's desktop through the same connection when a problem needs a closer look.
Agent updates roll out from the dashboard, to a pilot site first and then to the rest.
Servers grouped by customer and site, with their status at a glance.
Start With a Review
The paid step between a free call and a build. The fee is credited toward the build.
For a new build. You get a map of the process, an inventory of the systems and data involved, a risk list, three priced options, and a fixed-price offer for a first version. Fee credited toward the build.
For software you already run. You get a scored report on access control, data, backups, security, and how easy the software is to change, a risk list with recommended fixes, three priced options, and a fixed-price offer for the next step. Fee credited toward the build.
Who We Work With
We work directly for the building's operator, and as the software team behind an integrator or an equipment maker.
- Material-handling integrators and conveyor makers that need a software team for the layer above the PLC.
- Distribution and fulfillment operators replacing a WCS their vendor no longer supports.
- Third-party logistics providers adding sortation, put walls, or print and apply to a building.
- Teams with a WCS that runs but that nobody can safely change.
How we build
Related Reading
Manufacturing and warehouse operations
Label printing, data capture, and the integrations between your floor and your ERP.
See the industry page ServiceSystems Integration
The host side of a WCS: ERP, WMS, and partner systems kept in step.
See the service ServiceSoftware Rescue & Takeover
When the WCS runs but the vendor who built it is gone.
See the service Our toolZPL Viewer
Our free preview tool for the ZPL that print-and-apply lines send to label printers.
See the toolCommon Questions
A warehouse control system (WCS) is the software layer between the warehouse management system and the automation equipment. The WMS decides what should ship. The WCS decides, in real time, where each carton, tote, or unit goes and tells the PLCs. The PLCs move the equipment.
A WMS manages inventory, orders, and labor across the building, and it works in minutes and hours. A WCS manages the flow of physical items on the equipment, and it must answer a scan before the item reaches the divert point. Most automated buildings need both.
Yes. We take over systems another vendor built, and we replace systems that have reached the end of support. A takeover starts with a Production-Readiness Review. For a replacement, we start with the interface documents and the message logs, then run the new system against simulated PLC and WMS traffic before any cutover.
The WCS talks to the PLCs over TCP/IP, using a message specification we agree with your controls engineers, so the interface matters more than the brand. Systems we have delivered run carton sorters, tray-style unit sorters, light-directed put walls, print-and-apply lines, and fixed scanners.
No. We work directly for distribution and fulfillment operators, and we also work as the software team for material-handling integrators and equipment makers.
We drive the real WCS with simulated PLC and WMS traffic. A PLC simulator sends the same messages the equipment will send, and a load tool replays traffic at the equipment's maximum rate and beyond. That finds many problems in the test, before the equipment is running.
You do, once the work is paid for. You get the source code and its documentation, so your own team or another vendor can change the system later.
Planning a sorter, or living with a WCS nobody can change?
We reply within one business day, and the first conversation is always free.
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