If we’ve learned anything from the trials of the past few years, it is that adaptability matters.
With luck you will carry that lesson through the trials ahead.
But how, exactly? Adaptability is not only difficult to define, it’s also difficult to prepare for and really hard to achieve.
For businesses, it is, perhaps, the most difficult of all competencies to really pull-off. Which is why far too many companies have fallen into bankruptcy despite best intentions.
So what can you really do to build adaptability into your distribution operations? And how will you know what level of adaptability is best for your business?
For those involved in ecommerce fulfillment, wholesale and retail distribution, and even returns processing, three key steps can answer those questions and provide the assurance to tackle unforeseen challenges in the future.
Step 1: Adopt a New Approach to Problem Solving
As we pointed out in our blog, Why the Status Quo Won’t Cut It in Today’s Fulfillment Market, for many companies, the approach to solving some of their biggest operational challenges is rooted in the idea that what worked in the past will work in the future.
This is based on the mindset that favors the known — even if it is unfavorable — over the unknown and favors risk avoidance over being early adopters of new technology.
For those in our industry, this mindset can lead to an approach to fulfillment system automation and design that…
“…relies on linear growth scenarios and static input variables to design equipment-heavy solutions that deliver narrowly focused throughput results. And as such, it allows for little in the way of accommodation for unplanned order volume, fluctuations in order profiles, unforeseen growth, or changes to merchandising strategies. It is a reactionary approach that solves production problems on the warehouse floor through the use of excessive equipment, people, and processes — and addresses problems only after they have occurred.”
What’s needed instead is an approach that…
“…moves problem solving from the equipment and personnel on the warehouse floor to the initial design process and the software that runs the system. It is a proactive approach that anticipates issues before they happen and solves for problems in advance through a highly methodical, iterative, computer simulation design discipline, the use of carefully formulated, tested, and proven system algorithms, and the leveraging of business intelligence offerings.”
The change in approach opens doors to automation efficiencies not previously available and sets the stage for building adaptability into systems designs. For more about what such an approach can do for your business, read the full blog here.
Step 2: Use Computer Simulation to Model Your Success
Computer simulation modeling and analysis is really the key to success for any company that is considering automating, optimizing, or upgrading their fulfillment processing capabilities and technology.
As we pointed out in our blog, How to Use Computer Simulation to Model Your Success:
“When done right, computer simulation modeling provides a virtual environment in which design ideas can be tested, discretely analyzed, iterated, refined, and proven out — all before a single piece of equipment is purchased or bolted to the warehouse floor.”
Discrete event simulation enables designers to build adaptability into their systems. Through iterative testing of design options along with fluctuations in production conditions for those options, proactive providers can build adaptability into their fulfillment automation system designs.
This adaptability can be found in both the equipment technology chosen for implementation as well as the robustness of the algorithms that emerge from the computer simulation modeling process. As we noted in our blog:
“By building measures into algorithms that enable a fulfillment solution to adapt on the fly to the variables that would cause most systems to fail, modelers can not only create more robust algorithms that are adaptable to wider swings in production demand, they can even create algorithms that can accommodate future changes in business models.”
Building adaptability into system design is a critical, but often overlooked step, especially for companies focused only on patchwork improvements to existing systems. For those companies, the illusion of progress often overshadows the need for building adaptability into their systems and they ironically fall farther behind with each investment in their future.
For more on how to use computer simulation to ensure adaptability, read the full blog here.
Step 3: Use Continuous Improvement to Ensure Adaptability
The continuous improvement process enables operations to continually enhance system efficiency and expand system capabilities through incremental adjustments, improvements, and investments that are made from a holistic systems perspective.
Differing from a patchwork approach to systems improvement, the continuous improvement process builds adaptability into systems with each incremental improvement. In doing so, it can dramatically extend system life, while enhancing a system’s ability to adapt to changes in market demand.
As we note in our white paper, Maintaining a Competitive Edge Through Continuous Systems Improvement, the continuous improvement process uses critical data from system transactions, events, and activities to understand the correlations and causality between system activities that must seamlessly work together to enable peak operational performance.
So building adaptability into a fulfillment or distribution operation also requires building in the ability to record and report on the data that provides the foundation for the improvement process. Adaptive systems rely on sophisticated system software to enable this key step in the continuous improvement process. So be sure to include software in your search criteria when researching future systems enhancements.
To learn more about the continuous improvement process, read our white paper here.
The Journey Forward Begins
Adaptability is what separates businesses from bankruptcies. If you are looking to improve your operational adaptability, we would love to help.
Walter High is VP Marketing at MSI Automate, where he has worked since 2012.