Recently, Softeon and Thru-Put Partners – a leading supply chain consulting firm – produced a webinar with Modern Materials Handling Magazine on the “7 Uncommon Keys to End-End WMS Success.”

On this podcast we’ll cover the first 4 of those, and we promise these will be a little different than tips you might have heard from others.

Logistics Insights @ Podbean.com

Full Transcript:  

Recently, Softeon and Thru-Put Partners – a leading supply chain consulting firm – produced a webinar with Modern Materials Handling Magazine on the “7 Uncommon Keys to End-End WMS Success.”

On this podcast we’ll cover the first 4 of those, and follow up with the final three keys to success in our next broadcast. We promise these will be a little different than tips you might have heard from others. So here we go:  

Number 1:  Understanding WMS Value Upfront: Some companies approach a project as if what they need is a WMS, when what they really need is improved logistics processes. 

It’s a small but important distinction. 

A WMS deployment should never be viewed as a solution in and of itself. A new WMS should be viewed as a configurable tool that can enable what’s really needed - new business and logistics processes and ef¬ficiencies. 

The WMS will be cost justified based upon improved productivity, ser¬vice-quality and adoption of repeatable best practices. But the business case is more than just an exercise to get funding approval. It should also serve as a business plan that informs all other steps in the process, from vendor selection to go-live and beyond.

Number 2:  Create a clear decision-making framework: Having a well-defined decision-making structure is mandatory for success. Yet, many companies do not have this framework well-established going into the project, resulting in issues later in the timeline when it can be too late to rectify them.

In the end, one individual must be designated as the final decision-maker, and that needs to be communicated to the team. This role, however, should rarely be assigned to a senior logistics executive.

Number 3:  Getting the demo right: WMS software demos are never exactly fun, but they are a critical step in picking the right partner. Therefore, they must be thought through sufficiently in terms of both content and process. One common issue is time allocation - equal demo time is often given to critical and non-critical and/or more commodity functionality.

Another common problem: Creating demo scoring systems that are not then not really used in practice.

Number 4:  Don’t waste time early in the project: This one is really important, yet often not well considered.

Too many companies let critical time slip by early in a project when it seems a lot of time is available.

But that time is then lost forever and the slippage may come back to cause real problem later on in the project.

For every issue resulting in a delay, you have one less day to test, for example.

The opening weeks of the project are critical to keeping on schedule – do not let time bleed here as often occurs.

So there you have the first four of our uncommon keys to WMS success. We’ll be back with final three keys in the next edition of Logistics Insights. If you want more, we have a full white paper on the topic here.