Retrofitting an existing distribution center can be tricky business. That’s because most companies want that DC to remain operational while also making major changes to it to prepare for the future.
In fact, Michael Roe, senior account executive at material handling system integrator DMW&H compares the retrofitting process to open heart surgery. “We have to keep the patient alive while doing it,” he explained during an educational session at the ProMat DX2021 digital trade show.
To make this complex operation more likely to succeed, Roe outlined five critical steps that companies should undertake during any retrofit.
- Understand your business. For a retrofit to be successful, companies need to identify the best time to perform the upgrade. It would be inadvisable, for example, to undertake it during the company’s peak shipping season.
- Choose the right partner. Companies should look to work with an outside expert that they trust and that has a proven track record of successful retrofits.
- Plan, align, commit. Companies need to create a solid plan with their partners around how the retrofit will be conducted. They must also constantly make sure that everyone is committed to the plan and aligned about what the next steps are.
- Get dirty, come out clean. All major projects like a retrofit will encounter problems, said Roe. Companies, therefore, should go into the project, expecting that there will be hiccups along the way. The emphasis, according to Roe, should not be on assigning blame for the problem but on working together with partners to communicate about issues and find an achievable answer.
- Be flexible. Unforeseen things will happen with every project, companies must be prepared to be flexible and adapt to any challenges that they encounter, recommended Roe.
