Project Scope
Focus
on what you need delivered at "go-live" and allow other things to come
later. Think of it as leaving the top tier of the cake unfinished.
When
users get their hands on the system and start to acclimate to how it
really works, they will eliminate some of the prior requirements and
introduce some new and better ways of doing things. This is especially
true if you are handling product in a new way in a new building on a
new system. That last 5-15 percent of functionality (most of which
users think they need prior to go-live) has a tendency to
over-complicate the project scope and generate code that can be
obsolete within the first year.
Here is where you rely on the
strength of the engineering and project leads to formulate a
progressive solution as you tie the operation and WMS together. Allow
the last bit of coding to be developed and executed after go-live. It
will save you time and money and make your overall coding efforts more
effective.
Customer-to-Vendor Communication
In
a WMS relationship, it is important to create a conduit into the upper
echelon of the vendor organization. Let them understand the importance
of your project, match them up with someone on your side who is of
similar stature, and arrange for periodic reviews. If allowed, the
vendor will have a tendency to drop you off with a project manager and
restrict your interaction with senior management.
Formalize a
regular upper-management meeting every quarter. Strive to make these
meetings substantive and avoid getting wrapped up in billing
conversations. The periodic "across the table" reinforcement of
expectations with decision makers on both sides leaves little room for
push-back at critical junctures in the project when longer hours and
extra resources may be required. These meetings and regular checkpoints
can help set a tone for which circumstances might compel you to seek
credits on billing for things not explicitly captured in the contract.
The Project Team
•
Project lead and project engineer: Get the most intelligent, capable
project leader and project engineer you can get your hands on. They
will lay the foundation upon which your WMS solution will rest. The
wrong people in these positions can literally cost you your company.
Vendors can provide some good resources, but this is not necessarily
their core competency or ultimate responsibility.
The engineer
and the project lead must be smart, operations savvy, and have
experience with some start-up/go-live pain. Scrutinize that aspect of
their qualifications. Quantify how they have fared on prior projects
against the following criteria: on time, on budget, and WMS performance
in relation to client expectations. Did some of the design elements
they introduced become part of the standard product? Did they play a
role in avoiding wasted code, CRP surprises, modification rewrites, and
- most importantly - go-live "grid-lock" scenarios?
• Rounding
out the project team: Whether you use a company to help you implement
the WMS (an advisable strategy) or do it yourself, be careful of people
"cutting their teeth" on such a project.
WMS looks simple.
Vendors can sometimes be motivated to give you the lowest-level person
that they can make billable. Your job is to weed out those people. You
can accept someone who is a little less experienced as long as you are
also given a superstar and can negotiate a lower blended billing rate.
Your
company will want to put some bodies on the project team as well. But
use caution - there are subtle differences between staffing a WMS
project and managing the business enterprise. The business community
tends to believe that you can run your supply-chain project with the
same personnel that run day-to-day operations. This misconception has
brought many WMS and other system launches to their knees.
When
putting together cross-functional teams, the project manager needs to
be alert for other managers or the WMS vendor dumping the wrong people
onto the team. Execute some form of a jury screening process.
Individuals with a prejudice against change or a new system will
undermine the project's ability to succeed. Avoid "last
assignment"-type people with one year left before retirement unless
they have the proper motivations and incentives. A good mixture of
young, aggressive team members and some senior managers will normally
provide the right balance of experience, urgency, curiosity, and
optimism.
Pricing
Work
diligently to craft a closely knit fixed-cost solution for your
organization. Licensing, professional service hours, project manager
hours, training, and coding hours can come at you in a variety of
creative ways; it is the essence of how software vendors make their
margin. Attempt to understand and quantify all the hours and effort
that will deliver 95 percent of the project, and then roll this up into
a fixed-cost proposal. The 5 percent of the project left out of the
fixed bid relates to the post go-live stabilization period.
Luckily,
the modern-day WMS implementation rarely results in a meltdown. The
points covered above are intended to lend themselves to a higher
quality launch with minimal negative impact to your business. The
customer, WMS vendor, and any third-party consultants are equal
partners in the outcome. Like any good business venture, smart people,
solid products, and strong leadership give you the best chance for
success.
Dennis Gerard is
director of operations services at TNT Logistics North America. He can
be reached at (904) 928-1571. Joe Vernon is logistics project manager
at ConAgra Foods. He can be reached at (402) 932-1464.
