In a recent webinar, WMS technology innovator, SnapFulfil, advocates that proactively managing this cultural shift aids business growth and adds value – plus ensures that staff embrace it, rather than perceive new technology as a threat.

Rich Pirrotta is CEO of their North America business and as a vastly experienced transformational leader for the likes of Procter & Gamble, Deloitte and Logicalis, across 35 countries, knows only too well that it’s what you do rather than just say that really cultivates change.

He explains: “If you don’t recognise the consequences of the change you’re trying to implement then you’re on the way to failure. Culture is the formal and informal ground rules for how things are really done on a day-to-day basis, and as the famous saying goes: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

“Strategy needs to reflect the culture of the organisation to succeed and as a leader used to bringing uncomfortable but necessary changes to the work place; it really is a case of people don’t care about what you know, until they know that you care. It’s all about legitimising change initiatives through transparent communication and open consequence management.

“WMS technology adoption is a great example, because workers fed up with the onerous task of manual, paper-based systems can quickly get excited about the time and labour-saving efficiencies of digital, but then fearful about the associated training and learning of new skills.

“But this is a pattern that is present in every aspect of life and change just doesn’t happen overnight. People need time to process things, internalise matters and come to accept them.”

This view is echoed by Maria Sopwith of Bunzl plc, a leading global distribution group providing customised solutions to B2B customers across 30 + countries. Maria is the operations director for their Safety/Workware division based in the West Midlands and two years ago was brought in to deliver a more systematic and time/cost effective WMS approach for the business.

She quickly found SnapFulfil provides visibility of information, better understanding of the shape and scope of the business, ease of integration and user friendliness, plus tried and tested processes that facilitate structured change.

Maria says: “There’s always resistance to any transition and in my experience a feeling of teach and preach and I’ll forget, but involve me and I’ll learn – so before go live it was essential to familiarise and acclimatise our staff.

“With SnapFulfil’s help, we created a mini warehouse scenario (5,000 sq.ft) with goods-in, put away, despatch, location and replenishment elements, so that all operatives were able to practice and repeat based on real orders rather than any classroom approach.

“Culturally it was very important, because with 15 years on average in the job, there was certainly fear, trepidation and the ‘if it isn’t broke don’t fix it’ attitude. But it was ineffective and very admin heavy, so we also actioned three separate sessions per worker to cross-train and multi skill them and provide extra resilience to the workforce.

“It worked very well and the buy in was complete, because they all felt part of the journey and in tandem with SnapFulfil’s approach to partnership it bred a culture of continuous improvement. We’re now developing a productivity tracker for Wednesbury, for future use in other parts of the company, and preparing to roll-out the cloud-based software solution across other sites.”

Digital transformation is not just an IT decision and it pays to involve and consult your staff every step of the way. Dealing in real time data is also about facts, rather than tribal knowledge, and a properly utilised WMS brings discipline, consistency and uniform processes.

Only then will you know where the true costs lie and the best improvement levers to push.

You can watch the full, on-demand session here.