10 steps to deploying a WMS in your warehouse
A warehouse management system (WMS ) is crucial to the supply chain, as it optimizes warehouse resources and logistics processes.
Care must therefore be taken during the implementation phase, as successful deployment will determine future efficiency.
Generix WMS explains the steps to follow here.
Step 1 - Involve your organization in a collaborative approach
The implementation of a WMS impacts the entire company:
- marketing management,
- IT DEPARTMENT
- logistics managers, etc.
To accelerate return on investment and reduce the risk of rejection by teams, each department must prepare to absorb the change.
Once the principle of WMS deployment has been accepted, it is vital to review the company's internal organization, and to plan ahead for the training of all staff involved. To achieve its full potential, the project needs to be approached in its entirety, with flow managers at the heart of your approach.
So, to ensure everyone's commitment, change management support is often essential and strategic to reassure them about the evolution of their job: no, your employees won't be replaced by robots when the software is deployed!
👉 Several levers are available to support teams, depending on the project, the people involved and the resources available, so solutions such as digital learning, training or coaching can be good ideas.
Step 2 - Define the precise scope of change
Whether you're installing a WMS for the first time, or replacing an existing one, you need to systematically consider the scope of the changes you want to implement. It may seem obvious, but.... Your needs are not those of your neighbor.
That's why you need to take them into account and define the performance objectives you need to achieve, so you can choose the right WMS solution. This is the local scaling of the global strategy. This stage is divided into two phases:
- Requirements gathering: we need to define the logistics sites to be equipped and the physical flows to be modeled. Care must be taken to include the various departments concerned.
- Drawing up specifications: we need to specify the company's major objectives and the business challenges it faces.
💡 This phase of operational anticipation will bring out the industrial resources to be triggered, with regard to the WMS.
Step 3. Consult field teams
There are often gaps between the information known to decision-makers (warehouse manager, project manager, logistics manager) and what operators know and do.
In a warehouse, you always have to put yourself in the operator's shoes: is he able to find his way around, to fulfill his mission with the information in his possession?
At this stage, the idea is to compare decision-makers' forecasts with estimates and feedback from operational teams. This enables the time required for change to be specified within the framework of budget estimates.
Step 4. Define and deploy the project team
The WMS implementation project team is made up of two parts:
An external project team
These are the people in charge of the project at the publisher, and include :
- A functional expert, with in-depth knowledge of the tool and solid experience of WMS implementation projects. He or she will be in a position to advise on standard parameterization, but also to draw on his or her experience to adapt the tool to the specific needs of your project.
- A technical consultant who will implement these customization recommendations.
- A solutions architect, who will be responsible for integrating the tool into the technical architecture of the warehouse, as well as the rest of your company's IS.
- A project manager who will be responsible for the coherence and smooth running of the project as a whole: adherence to schedule, provision of resources, time recording, invoicing, management of follow-up committees and arbitration of decisions.
An in-house project team
Identifying team members is essential. Indeed, the choice and availability of the people in charge of the WMS project are at the very heart of its success. It's important to have a very good knowledge of the field:
- Warehouse managers and supervisors in charge of activities such as receiving, preparation or shipping.
- A project manager is also needed to steer the project through follow-up committees, and to liaise internally with the organization's management, whose involvement is essential. The technical team will also be called upon during the installation and information exchange phases between the WMS and the existing management software.
Step 5 - Draw up a precise schedule
The time required to implement a WMS depends on its functional scope. Implementation can vary from a few weeks to a year, depending on the company's needs, the type of warehouse (manual or automated) and the complexity of the logistics flows to be managed.
According to WMS market research, implementation takes an average of 6 to 9 months.
- if the warehouse is automated, in 30% of cases, the lead time will be as long as 10-12 months;
- if the warehouse is manually managed, in 50% of cases, the lead time may be less than 6 months.
Step 6 - Configuring the solution and scaling it to the project
This stage enables the service provider to adapt the WMS software to the warehouse organization. For this purpose, a design must be developed, containing general specifications and then detailed step-by-step specifications.
It defines both the outline and the content of the project. Required to analyze needs, this is a very intense stage of reflection on current and future logistics processes.
👉 Next, a functional analysis is carried out to ensure maximum compliance with the chosen solution's standard, and to identify any deviations from the standard. The team in charge of this step will then exploit the tool's parameterization capabilities to meet specific business requirements, prepare a full acceptance booklet and work with the editor to make improvements.
Step 7 - Integrate the solution... and test it
Just before going live, a period of testing is required, taking into account all possible scenarios. This is the last stage before the go live.
It's vital to get everyone involved in this stage. It should be noted that tests must be carried out by the customer and not by the integrator, as the latter cannot be "judge and jury".
At this stage, a strategic steering committee will decide on the GO / NO GO in the light of the various indicators and alerts it receives. The training phase follows this stage, once the problematic indicators have been dealt with.
Step 8 - Communicate regularly with operational teams
Changing the whole world of work from one day to the next can significantly disrupt teams: so it's vital to keep them informed on a regular basis.
📣 An important point to communicate: this is first and foremost a project for them, to facilitate their day-to-day work. Beforehand, you need to report on the project's progress, give it a name and get the teams involved to create and maintain a buzz around it.
Step 9 - Make the WMS your own
On the day the WMS is launched, operators will probably not be at 100% capacity. There's a learning curve. Teams will need some time to fully familiarize themselves with the new solution, even with prior training.
The first few weeks will bring out a few issues that could not be identified during the test period, and employees will have to learn to master the wide range of functionalities. However, if the preceding steps have been followed, internal adoption of the tool will be relatively rapid.
Step 10 - Keep in regular contact with the vendor
With a WMS Cloud solution, you can be sure of using the latest version of the software: updates are automatic, both technically and in terms of regulations - your invoice management will always remain compliant. And all with the same fluidity as a simple application update on a smartphone. But that doesn't mean you should cut all ties with your solution provider!
At least for 2 reasons:
- The first is that publishers evolve their solutions based on feedback from the field - by formalizing your needs or difficulties, you'll undoubtedly be helping the tool to progress in your interest!
- The second reason is that, by definition, the editor will always be there to assist you if you need it, by telephone, chat, e-mail or even in person.
Article translated from French