Seldom can you walk into a doctor’s office and get a diagnosis for what ails you. Rather the doctor asks you a series of questions runs tests and even sends you to get blood drawn to understand what’s happening on the inside. Yet when important automation decisions are made at distribution centers and manufacturing facilities, solutions are often provided as a result of a diagnosis based on what the customer specifically asks for or some technology that is applied based on some other company’s operation. Important questions are not asked, and the customers end up only with what they asked for.
So some may say “Give the customer what they asked for” and “The customer is always right”. Both are wise statements if you wish to stay in business, but don’t we owe a deeper responsibility to people who entrust us with large financial investments and sometimes their careers?
If the answer is yes, then it is necessary to understand our customers more and further examination is required before we diagnose. Beyond the identification of product dimensions, cartons or pallets per minute or lines picked per hour lay important questions.
· What are the most critical aspects of any potential transition to automation? These answers are often different depending on who you speak with.
· Are there any future growth anticipated through acquisitions or through e-commerce business growth?
· Is the primary goal to reduce labor, increase throughput, increase productivity, reduce operational footprint, extend stay at existing facilities, increase accuracy, improve safety or reduce theft?
· Are there parallel software initiatives such as transitions to a new Warehouse Management System or Warehouse Control System that will require interfacing with and automation initiatives?
As we get the answer to these questions we must also be aware of a great degree of customization that has been increasing over the last 5 years. Customization is increasingly difficult issue for distribution centers and manufacturers to plan for and adapt to. Big box retailers expect their product in specific pallet configurations, labeled and wrapped uniquely, with various product staging times corresponding to transportation scheduling. Particularly in low SKU high volume operations, users want mixed pallets that have layers of different products and sometimes cases of different products that allow them to only stock what they need. Couple this increase in customization with an increasing consumer appetite to purchase items online with options available for shipping speed, specific carrier selection and special packaging and you have system requirements that must be versatile and modular to keep up with changing customer market dynamics.
If we don’t ask enough right questions the examination will not be thorough enough to properly diagnose what type of system is best for your customer. Even if you provide exactly what your customer asked for it is not good enough. Uncomfortable discussions based on challenging the status quo can open details that will result in good quality systems that are built for growth, flexibility and responsive customer service.
