Risks with implementing WMS

• The Design for Operational Improvement is not the responsibility of the software vendor as their focus is on the application itself. It is the client's responsibility to provide key internal resources to assist in the development of the design by defining their needs based on their knowledge of the business. This document only serves as the framework and its circulation requires considerable feedback from key stakeholders to ensure that all requirements have been considered with contingency plans identified and documented.

• Your organisation must take ownership of the planning process and should not rely on the software vendors implementation methodology to deliver the project as their knowledge is not focused on your business, but rather the software application.

• The establishment of a team at the site is critical to the success of your project as there will be considerable failure points that may appear and the teams function is to respond to these issues head on with clear direction and timely action.

• Back filling of key project resources to be made available on the project for the majority of time during the implementation phase and at least 2 weeks post implementation. Release a key resource who will become the onsite champion that needs to invest considerable time learning about the new system and ask intelligent questions during the implementation phase.This is a critical role and is essential to the success of the project.

• If you are being provided a “Train the Trainer solution” by the software supplier, your organisation will need to provide a super user, person from previous point, who will be trained how to use the system and then pass this knowledge to all other users. This will entail the development of a training program and documentation designed around specific job functions utilizing realistic examples of the current work flow and a competency based program.

• Need to implement a “User Acceptance Testing” environment on site which will entail full testing and validation of setup, interfacing, configuration and base functions to produce acceptable results and perform to expectation. This needs to include a small number of transactions through linear steps as well as a load stress test to reflect a full production cycle. All testing needs to occur in an environment that mirrors the production environment and issues that arise through the testing cycle need to be remedied and retested prior to formal signoff for go live. The super user and project team are critical to this process.

• The signal coverage on site can be a significant problem as dropout rates experienced daily will turn users against the system due to the delay it will add to their productivity. Ensure that the right communications infrastructure is in place in order to achieve a sub second response time for transaction processing via RF.

• The on time availability of third party resources who are part of a large project will require extensive management and coordination.

• Take control post Go live – Problems will occur and require an immediate focus by the project team, rather than relying on the your organisations "Super user". Resources must be backfilled to accommodate this as discussed earlier.