How to Bring Your Senior Management On Board with Logistics Solution

When considering a shift to a logistics mobility solution from a paper-based process, emphasizing the shortfalls of the manual process and the benefits of a logistics management solution helps define the need for one.

Change is inevitable but not necessarily easy. Especially in an organization, change can invite a lot of resistance from the team. The more mature your team, the more difficult it is to bring them on board with new ideas and drastic changes.

As a company that drives digital transformation in other organizations, we often come across a common query: “We’ve always worked like this, so why should we do it differently?”

One of the best ways to reduce resistance in your workforce is to involve them in your decision-making process. However, it is not only challenging to get your team to accept the change, but it is equally or more challenging to get your senior management on board to make the shift.

Your senior management’s approval is not only essential to adopt new technology but also to support its implementation. The change requires a considerable financial investment and substantial changes in operational approach.

The Investment

There are several mistakes you could make during logistics management solution implementation. Before you take the proposal of implementing a logistics mobility solution to your senior management, you need to understand the cost of the logistics mobility solution. Because it would be the most significant consideration while making a decision. Broadly put, the cost of the logistics solution would include costs of a barcode scanning device, Wi-Fi infrastructure, and completely integrated ERP software. Also, your senior management would gauge the Return on Investment (ROI) of a Logistics mobility solution.

Other Considerations

Apart from investment, you should also consider other aspects of the implementation. A few other things you need to consider while adopting a logistics mobility solution are:

• Duration of the implementation
• Barcode placements
• Barcodes on inventory locations
• Barcodes on items
• Barcodes on documents
• The level of change in the existing procedures

Problems with Manual Processing

An efficient Logistics Mobility solution should be able to address the issues of your current process. One of the most effective ways to convince your senior management is to elucidate the shortcomings of the existing logistics process. The following statements can help you identify the areas of improvement in your logistics inventory management process.

• We need one uniform system to manage logistics processes to sustain quality
• Essential logistics procedures are carried out with the workforce’s knowledge, so it is difficult to find replacements in instances like illness or holidays
• Our delivery reliability is poor. There is an increase in customer complaints about incomplete or incorrect deliveries
• The finance department writes a lot of credit notes. As a result, it has bad credit management because unsatisfied customers do not pay invoices on time
• Picking takes a very long time, but we do not know why
• Counting is tedious and results in a lot of write-offs
• Our sales department makes wrong promises to customers as they rely on outdated data in the ERP
• How can the sales department make sure that rush orders are picked first and how to check if an order is picked?
• In my previous company, we implemented a barcode scanning solution, and it has improved our daily warehouse operations tremendously

The Common Concerns of Senior Management

Your senior management might have a lot of concerns and questions about the Logistics Mobility solution implementation. Here are a few common apprehensions and queries your management would have and how to address them:

“We always worked like this, so why should we do it differently?”

This is the most popular excuse for not embracing new technology. However, change and advancement are the order of life. You cannot enjoy the fantastic benefits of the latest technology if you are stuck to your old one. In the long run, if you do not adopt the trends and changes, you would fall behind in the competition. Moreover, a logistics mobility solution can benefit other business operations as well.

“It is too expensive for our current ERP solution, which is an older version.”

You can also get a Logistics Mobility solution for older version ERP. For instance, STAEDEAN Anywhere for Logistics is not only available for D365 F&O but also AX2012 and AX2009. Investing in these earlier versions is not very expensive. Besides, implementing older versions of the solution would help you understand the know-how of the mobile scanning solution. With time, this would make it easier for you to adopt the new versions of the solution while migrating to an advanced ERP version.

 “The workforce is not going to understand this as it is too complicated.”

This is not necessarily true. Most logistics mobility solutions come with an easy-to-use interface that would optimize the efficiency of your staff. For example, the Anywhere for Logistics solution offers mobile processes that are simple to understand and use. Even less experienced users can easily navigate through and operate the mobile scanning device to perform their daily logistics management processes. Anywhere for Logistics focuses more on the functional logistics processes rather than the ERP processes.

“We are a unique company with specific procedures that makes automating these procedures impossible.”

You need to consider that probably your processes are not that unique. Even if the procedures are special, you might still be able to configure a logistics mobility solution to suit your needs. Anywhere for Logistics is built on a framework that makes it simple to alter the existing processes. You can customize the software to your specific needs through configurations and customizations.

“We have too many customizations in our ERP system.”

You could still find Logistics Mobility solutions that support your ERP customizations. In our case, as the Anywhere for Logistics’ framework is built within Microsoft Dynamic 365 F&O, you can effortlessly embed and use existing customizations in the logistics processes.

“We are going to migrate to another ERP solution, so we are not going to invest in new functionality.”

You can adopt older versions of the solution that are compatible with your current ERP system to gain experience with the processes. This knowledge would be helpful after you migrate to the latest ERP. Anywhere for Logistics solution is available in Ax2009, Ax2012, and D365 F&O. Thus, when you migrate from an older version to a new one, the available processes would be similar. Hence, the transition would be simple and hassle-free.

The Next Steps to the Implementation

One could find several reasons not to implement the solution. However, you could address most of those points with logical reasoning. Adopting technology is the only way to get ahead in the competition. Here are the next steps for Logistics Mobility solution implementation:

• Get buy-in from your senior management
• Understand the level of support you would need from the management to execute the solution
• Research the investment required for the implementation
• Calculate the ROI of implementing a Logistics solution
• Identify the staff training requirements to use the solution

Why Anywhere for Logistics?

Once you get buy-in from your senior management, evaluate your options carefully and select a solution that suits your business needs. Here are the top-5-customer-questions related to the Anywhere for Logistics mobility app that will give you a comprehensive understanding of the solution.

Anywhere for Logistics offers great mobile processes that would help you streamline your daily logistics processes. It not only helps your staff improve their efficiency but also assists your senior management in making informed decisions. The solution would be a great asset to your end-to-end logistics processes.