Your reputation has been built one order at a time. Every delivery that leaves on time, complete and in perfect condition is a promise kept to a customer. When you invest in warehouse automation, you are trusting it with that promise.
So for most operations leaders, the biggest worry isn’t the racking or the shuttles. It’s handing your stock, your service levels and your hard-won reputation to a system you can’t see inside. Pallets disappear into a dense block of storage and re-appear when called upon. Machines make thousands of decisions every shift. When your customers are relying on you, you need an answer you can see, not a report you have to wait for or a phone call you have to make.
That is exactly what the digital twin in MAxIQ® is built to give you.
Every pallet your customers are counting on, live, on one screen
MAxIQ® presents your AutoCube® warehouse as a live 3D model you can explore level by level. Every pallet sits in its real position in the racking. Every carrier moves in real time, with its battery level alongside. Select any carrier, lift or conveyor and you see its operating mode, current activity, position and status, without leaving the view.
The questions that matter on a busy shift are answered at a glance. Where is that customer’s stock? Which level is working hardest? What is that machine doing right now?
One system, one source of truth
The digital twin isn’t an animation running alongside your warehouse. It is a direct view of MAxIQ®, our own warehouse orchestration software, developed in-house by Thistle. MAxIQ® decides where every pallet is stored, sequences every carrier, lift and conveyor movement, and keeps the inventory record matched to what is physically in the racking. What you see in the twin is what is actually happening in your operation. MAxIQ® also alerts your team when an issue occurs, giving them the visibility to investigate what’s happening and request support from Thistle where required.
Getting your operation right matters to us from the very first conversation. Thistle is a data-first warehouse automation specialist, and every AutoCube® project begins with your own order, receipt and stock data, analysed before a single rack position is drawn. MAxIQ® carries that principle into daily operation: decisions grounded in your data, and data your team can see.
Looking after the people who look after your customers
Your team protects your service every shift, and they deserve clarity rather than guesswork. The digital twin gives each role the view it needs:
- Shift leads see where activity is concentrated and how work is flowing.
- Engineers see equipment states, operating modes in context and planned maintenance schedules.
- Site managers get an instant, visual account of the operation.
- New starters build confidence by watching how the operation runs, rather than learning it screen by screen.
The result is a team that feels in control, with the confidence to keep your customer promises.
Care for your operation that continues long after go-live
Clients for Life is our commitment to stand alongside you for the long term, because your success is how we measure ours. Thistle designs, installs and supports AutoCube®, and owns MAxIQ® outright, so our aftersales team can view your digital twin remotely.
Alongside the twin, MAxIQ® keeps a continuous record of equipment history, including operating modes, alarms, and carrier battery, voltage and temperature data. When you speak to us, you’re talking to people who can see the same picture you can and who care about your operation as much as you do. As trends in that data build over time, maintenance can be planned around evidence. That helps protect your uptime, your service levels and the reputation you’ve worked so hard to build.
One partner, from design to aftersales
From the first analysis of your data, through design, installation and every year of operation, Thistle is one partner, focused on keeping your operation running the way your customers expect. The digital twin is where you see that commitment for yourself.
Thinking about warehouse automation?
Talk to the Thistle team about how MAxIQ® would help you protect your operation, your customers and your reputation. We’ll start where we always do: with your data.
