CognitOps Insights
Warehouse System Integrators:
Why Data-Driven Warehouse Designs are Critical
Whether we’re talking about large consultancies like Accenture or McKinsey that offer turnkey designs or mid-size SIs that recommend and project manage implementations with outside solution providers, delivering what they promise their customers is critical for warehouse system integrators.
But, it can be challenging to demonstrate just how much value they’ve delivered. That’s where CognitOps can help.
Building on Baseline Warehouse Data
Warehouse Integrators offer supply chains custom solutions to achieve goals like increased efficiencies, faster operations, or more effective space utilization. These solutions can include software like a WMS, LMS, WCS, or more, as well as hardware like Pick to Light picking or Autostore automated storage and retrieval systems. The potentially high cost – anywhere from $1 million at the low end up to a hundred million dollars or even more at the very sophisticated level – makes these projects big risks for both supply chain leaders and the SIs.
Despite the risk, warehouse SIs often base their plans and proposals on the information or assumptions they receive from their clients. The promised results are extrapolations from their understanding of how the warehouse has been operating up until that point.
The problem is that many warehouses struggle with consistent, comprehensive measurement. They can be filled with satellite applications, fragmented tech stacks, data integrity and accuracy issues, and more.
These ultimately introduce little fractures in the assessment that turn into big cracks when we’re talking about an 80-million-dollar project. Because existing warehouse operations can’t truly be benchmarked, the project plan gets built on something that is fundamentally flawed or on “experience” instead of data.
By implementing a solution like CognitOps Align before even thinking about offering a proposal for new solutions, warehouse SIs can develop plans built on real insight into existing conditions – what areas are most productive, which areas have hold ups, which are more or less efficient today.
This enables warehouse integrators to create plans that connect the dots from benchmark data to real, measurable outcomes for their customers.
When Theoretical Warehouse Design Meets Operational Reality
Even if all parties agree on the assumptions, that won’t matter if the project fails. We’ve seen situations where the recommended solution is not hitting the expected rate, causing the facility to incur extra, unbudgeted costs and the SI to lose credibility – just because there was a disconnect between the assumptions that led to the design and the realities on the ground.
Circumstances like these can easily turn to finger-pointing – is it the fault of the warehouse that provided insufficient data, the new solution that’s not meeting expectations, or the SI responsible for the overall project? It’s difficult to get a clear picture of what’s happening when each piece of software and hardware is an island. Regardless of the underlying cause, SIs are often ultimately held responsible for the project’s success or failure.
CognitOps can act as an objective source of truth – unifying data from the many islands of automation, satellite applications, and tech stacks in a warehouse into a holistic view of what’s actually happening. This can help prevent situations where SIs build a theoretical throughput for the building, that everyone agrees to, which doesn’t end up matching reality.
Unfortunately, sometimes the mismatch only comes to light when the building basically gridlocks. CognitOps gives advanced visibility to when reality is going to break your assumptions and catches exceptions before they happen. This helps match theoretical design to the operational reality and keep them consistently aligned.
And despite the constant drive for the latest shiniest new toy, warehouses are still highly dependent on human beings. When new warehouse solutions are rolled out, leadership typically either hires a new labor force or new supervisors who have zero experience with this new design. Or they bring in supervisors from another building that has always done it a different way. Guess what they’re going to do? They’re going to do it the old way with new equipment. This again breaks assumptions around how the building is meant to operate.
So, giving new operators tools like CognitOps, which allow users to manage the new system according to how it was designed, can be a game changer for warehouse system integrators.
Now, reality can match the design.
“Chief Supply Chain Officers don’t get put in a position to defend a project without tangible results, let alone try to convince the rest of the executive team that it’s worth it to continue investing. ”
Data Drives Strategy and Investment for Warehouse Integrators
With unified information and insight, CognitOps empowers warehouse integrators to have more data-centric post-activation conversations. Once all the involved parties have a common data foundation to understand what before versus after looks like, there’s no longer room for finger-pointing. Or if there is finger-pointing, at least everyone agrees on the facts. This enables more scientific and data-driven discussion rather than emotional, anecdotal conversations, a big step forward for this industry.
This also allows SIs to take a strategic role in the customer conversation with a sharp and clear vision of the path forward. Being able to demonstrate the value delivered lets SIs maintain their competitive edge and give their customers a compelling reason to not only continue the relationship but to grow it. Comprehensive insight can uncover ongoing but unknown problems and provide a compelling reason to allocate budget. Provable results and unprecedented insight empower SIs and their clients to continue the roadmap and drive automation and innovation forward because there’s confidence that they will be worth the investment.
Chief Supply Chain Officers don’t get put in a position to defend a project without tangible results, let alone try to convince the rest of the executive team that it’s worth it to continue investing.
With CognitOps in their tech stack providing a baseline, delivering deep visibility into actual warehouse operations, and proving ROI, SIs become strategic partners, helping align all business units to support the company’s long-term vision.
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