Parcel - March/April 2009 - (Page 30) WMS: A Blueprint for Success — B y C h r i s We r l i n g — sheet, which outlines how they do their jobs and how to handle exceptions, for people on the floor. As you consider training components, take care to not forget exception training. Walk through the exceptions early in the process. Take the top 10 or 15 problems that personnel could run into and make sure the resolution steps are thoroughly documented. Conversion Make sure that you test the data conversion well. You do not want to get to go-live weekend and have your IT team doing the data conversion and it not work. These types of issues can take hours or even days to resolve and may ultimately postpone your go-live. Validation Validate that operational and technical processes are being followed and work. You should also focus on data integrity — after you have gone live, make sure that everything in the database table is being updated correctly. This is very important because even a very small database problem can snowball and cause huge headaches. Common Implementation Mistakes Poor Planning One simple step in preparing your facility is with labeling. This means effectively labeling your warehouse with retro-reflective labeling if necessary, making sure your facility is labeled on the proper levels, making sure things are labeled in order, etc. These are very basic considerations, but if they are not done properly, they can cause major problems in your warehouse. Secondly, many warehousing systems require a scan when product arrives at a dock. The problem lies with understanding where you scan and what you scan. Do you have something that’s human readable on the floor? Do you have something hanging from the ceiling? What are your goals and your objectives as a company? How about CFO goals or specific goals of the project team? Proper An implementation guide based on 50+ WMS implementation projects YOU know that implementing a WMS can increase your operation’s accuracy and efficiency and, ultimately, your bottom line. But what you don’t know can hurt you. We’ve taken information from 50+ WMS implementation projects to reveal common mistakes that may negatively affect the implementation process. Traditional Implementation Components Testing Make sure you do a thorough system test of your WMS. You should also focus on integration testing with other systems, such as ERP, transportation, material handling, etc. A key component involved with testing is to include exception testing. How do you identify the exceptions? When you go through your initial conference room pilot, you will identify operational exceptions that you may or may not use in the system. But note that you still have to have a process outlined and understand your action plan when those happen. Also, lean on your implementer, whether it is internal or external. They should have some ideas of what considerations you should look at and what areas are important. Last, look at your operational folks and ask them the top five things they run into. Find out what issues outside of the normal process cause them pain. Utilizing these suggestions should allow you to hit on 80-90% of the exceptions, and the rest you will be able to handle pretty easily. Training Successful implementation projects start training early. The normal process of training is by repetition. You should focus on training those on the floor along with IT people on the system. Be thorough, and cover areas such as how to maintain the system, fix technical issues, database issues, etc. Documentation is often something that is missed in this step. Make sure that all the enhancements that you made to the system are documented. We often recommend that you create a one-page cheat 30 MARCH 2009 | www.PARCELindustry.com http://www.PARCELindustry.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.