Hi Reader,
Have you ever stepped inside a massive food warehouse, way larger than Costco?
I have, and it was truly eye-opening.
Seamless warehousing
I once took a tour of a Gordon Food Service warehouse in Milton, Ontario, Canada. As one of the largest food distribution companies in North America, they have a fully automated distribution centre. It was fascinating to see the staff efficiently zipping around in carts, automatically filling orders and delivering them to the trucks.
The seafood section was particularly impressive, with every imaginable type of seafood all perfectly organized and their system flawlessly tracked where everything was. This was a project manager’s dream, especially one who loves seafood.
Warehouse automation project gone bad
In contrast, in the early 2000s, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets, a large UK grocery store, began a warehouse automation project that involved deploying a barcode scanner product using an external company.
They rolled it out simultaneously in four of their warehouses and immediately ran into issues with errors in the barcode reading process. To make matters worse, they did not receive the needed implementation support from the barcode company.
Additionally, they soon realized they lacked sufficient staff to support the entire implementation effectively. Unfortunately, these challenges led Sainsbury’s leadership to announce the project a failure, at a cost of £260 million.
In a recent article, I discussed how effective product delivery, through solid implementation processes, not only satisfies clients but encourages them to come back for more. Unfortunately, this was not true for Sainsbury's Supermarkets and their barcode scanner vendor.
Find missing implementation resources
It's essential to predict your resource needs before a project begins, not during its execution.
Here are a few quick resourcing tips:
- Understand the who and what: Break down the project into tasks to pinpoint the skills and resources required, both technical and soft skills then match available resources to these needs, identifying any gaps along the way.
- Assign clear roles: Align team members roles to keep everyone on the same page to prevent redundant or missed work.
- Be flexible! Be prepared for unexpected changes by having backup plans in place and adapt to any changes in project needs, timing, or scope.
Do you lack people resources for your project?
Keep an eye out for next week's article, where we'll discuss strategies for finding resources, both internal and external to your company, even when they're in short supply.
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Barbara Kephart, PMP
Founder and Chief Project Officer
Projects Pivot
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