DC Velocity - August 2012

planned one- or two-week shutdown that might simplify a retrofit. In most cases, Babel says, you have to maintain service levels and commitments to customers, while simultaneously installing new systems around the existing operation.

That’s not easy. “The analogy I always use
is heart surgery,” Taylor says. “To keep the
business alive, you need a full plan, you
need to educate everybody, and you need
all the tools you envisioned needing. You
need a document that outlines every facet
of the plan. You need to have multiple
meetings prior to any cut-in.”
Babel uses a different analogy to make a
similar point. He compares the implemen-
tation to a game of chess, with careful coor-
dination of how each of the pieces moves.
Babel adds that implementation is particu-
larly difficult in three-shift operations.
That, he says, requires implementing the
retrofit in smaller chunks.

Taylor concurs with that advice. “One of
the biggest mistakes I’ve seen is the tenden-
cy to bite off more than you can chew,” he
says. “You need to make sure you can do
what you plan, but at the same time you
don’t want to extend the schedule out.”
To minimize disruption, companies
often build new systems alongside existing
systems, Babel says. As an example, he cites
one of Forte’s customers, an office supply
company, that revamped all of its 30-plus
DCs, including eight complete retrofits.
“We built the automated system around the
non-mechanized system, and replaced
aging controls and equipment. We built the
sortation system slightly above and behind
the existing systems, then cut over during
the weekend,” he says. As a result of careful
planning and implementation, none of the
facilities lost any time, he reports.

Babel says Forte took a similar approach with a retail apparel company whose whole operation involved a push strategy—shipping its fashion goods, held for a single season, out to 500 stores. To avoid interrupting operations, he says, Forte literally set up a separate area to serve the stores during the changeover. “We devised a way to build mezzanines over the existing packing operation, then we automated the packing operation and the sortation of individual cases, and installed a put-to-light system,” he says. “After that was up and running, we retrofitted the existing area.”

▪ Test and train. Taylor emphasizes
the importance of testing not only
components as they are installed,
but the entire system. “Sometimes
software can be funny in the way dif-
ferent portions of the system can be
affected,” he warns. “You have to val-
idate the whole system and make
sure you are ready to go.”
Another crucial piece of the
implementation is preparing those
who will work with the system.
“You want to make sure your oper-
ators are fully trained,” Taylor says.
That’s partly because you want
employees to look forward to the
change, rather than dreading what’s
to come, he notes. But it’s also a
matter of readiness. “You need to be
ready to go when you go live with
the tie in.”
Taylor says in one of the most
successful retrofits he has worked
on, the company spent a substantial
amount to send operators to a dif-
ferent facility to learn the technolo-
gy. “Although it required a large
investment,” he says, “the DC
became the company’s second most
productive facility on day one.”

▪ Manage the handoff. “Handoffs are always interesting,” Taylor says. “You want to plan them.” He tells of one client that implemented a new warehouse control system, shifted from paper picking to an RF system, and made other operational changes—and then implemented it all in the course of a single weekend. “They affectionately called it the Big Bang,” he says. “It took a long time to plan. The only way to make it work without a shutdown was by a managed transition.

“We never just pack up our tools and leave,” he adds. “The idea is to make sure they need you as little as possible. The idea is for them to want to take the system and go.” ;