How to Avoid These Three Common Automation Mistakes

Written by Rhyce Dawson, Senior Consultant at TMX Global 

While most organisations accept they need to automate their warehouse operations, they often don’t know what steps to take or when to take them. Here, Rhyce Dawson, Senior Consultant at TMX Global, reveals the most common automation mistakes – and how to avoid them.   

Organisations often don’t know where to begin their digital transformation or automation journey. The business must change, but it may not have the people, processes, or capability to do so. There may be a lack of project formality, or inhouse skillsets to usefully comprehend the information moving through the organisation’s supply chain operation every day. Sticking to key, guiding principles upfront can help make it a less daunting undertaking. Here is how your organisation can avoid the most common missteps.  

Mistake 1 – Going it alone.  

Instead: Establish a cross-functional team and be inclusive.  

Many organisations underestimate the diverse skillsets needed to extract, share, and apply valuable insights. Often projects are led by a traditional procurement department with a black-and-white mentality, where bureaucratic layers stall critical project progression and momentum. A committed, cross-functional team who are supported to succeed is essential. Secondly, where an organisation doesn’t employ skillsets such as engineering, or they exist but a large-scale automation project is new, it’s important to engage specialists.  If design and implementation go wrong, they do so with spectacular cost. Therefore, it’s essential to protect yourself and de-risk your projects by engaging external parties or upskilling your employees – often both.  In the same vein, at Gartner’s recent Supply Chain Symposium, Caroline Chumakov, Director Analyst of Gartner’s Supply Chain Practice spoke of the need for CSCOs to break down projects into component tasks and seek skills needed for those tasks across the entire organisation.   

Mistake 2 – Assuming you need to invest big.  

Instead: Don’t rush and start small.  

What, when, and how to automate depends on where you are now and where you want to be in the future. Businesses need to ask themselves: “What is A, what is B, and how do l get from A to B?”  Companies may assume automation necessitates long lead times and multi-million-dollar investments. But, if due diligence is carried out upfront, opportunities for tactical initiatives pop up.  Take the process of selecting an automation vendor or solution: how can an organisation evaluate the options without knowing where they are, where they need to be, and then assessing the costs, challenges, and risks associated with any decision-making? It does not always have to be a large-scale transformation. Often, incremental change in a warehouse results in automated solutions because they are the optimal choice. But if an organisation ploughs ahead with a transformation plan and automation vendors, they may invest in a solution that does not drive the best outcome for their business – and at a significant cost.    

An initial investment in an operational diagnostic often saves hundreds of thousands in operational costs through tactical operational improvements, and millions in preventative capital investments. Remember, automation is not always the answer. 

Mistake 3 – Hesitating.  

 Instead: Accept uncertainty and pull the trigger with a high degree of confidence.  

Every operation changes gradually and can unintentionally become inefficient, unpredictable, and unsuitable for automation.  Data can predict where this might happen, but far too often these ‘what if’ moments paralyse a project.  An operation is fluid regardless of the manual or automated status of the site. Vendors test the sensitivity of their designs, but the only thing that is certain is that design projections are never guaranteed. Project teams may increase their contingency plans or aim for perfection – both of which can kill the project.  Systems can be made up of a wonderful mechanical maze of conveyors; however, they can be modified, manipulated, and adapted in the future.  Use the data to drive the best solution for the organisation, and carry out due diligence independently, objectively, and accurately. 

Case study: Automation at a national scale   

TMX partnered with Coles Group, one of Australia’s largest supermarkets, on a five-year automated fulfilment project. The investment in two of the largest and most productive automated distribution centres in the world (the first of which opened in Redbank, Queensland, this year) enables Coles to efficiently service 219 supermarkets and deliver higher service levels for customers. Working with Coles and additional partners WITRON Group, Goodman, and Richard Crooks Construction, TMX was engaged to develop highly technical design and architectural plans, procure property, and project manage the delivery of the facility – including integration of the automation.  
  
Coles Group Chief Operating Officer, Matt Swindells said, “Compared to a manual warehouse, these new automated warehouses will be able to handle twice the amount of volume of goods on half the footprint. It’s game-changing”.  

To find out more about TMX Global, visit: www.tmx.global.