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Drive Better Automation Decisions with a Consultative Approach

Learn how a consultative approach helps organizations understand operations, align automation with business goals and design flexible solutions.

by Ben Robson

Start with your operation

Every supply chain transformation begins with a business objective. Companies rarely invest in automation because they simply want more technology. They invest to increase capacity, address labor challenges or support growth.

However, the pressure to act often leads organizations to focus on technology first. By the time they begin evaluating partners, they may have already built a business case for a preferred solution, whether that’s an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS), goods-to-person technology or autonomous mobile robot (AMR) solution.

Technology plays an important role, but it should support the overall strategy. When a project begins with a specific solution, there is a risk of designing around the equipment instead of the operation.

Consultative Approach to supply chain challenges - FORTNA

That’s where the difference between a transactional relationship and a consultative one becomes clear. Customers bring deep knowledge of their operation, while an experienced partner provides an objective perspective to help evaluate opportunities and challenge assumptions. Instead of starting with technology, the process begins by understanding business goals and reviewing the operation before selecting the technologies that will deliver the higher greatest value.

This blog explores how a consultative approach helps organizations uncover operational challenges and design solutions that support long-term business priorities.

Understanding today’s operation

Every operation is different, which is why evaluating current performance is the foundation of every successful supply chain transformation. Even organizations with comparable products or strategic goals may require different solutions because their order profiles, systems, workforce or service commitments vary.

Understanding those differences influences the direction of the design. As operations evolve, workarounds can become standard practice, and blind spots can develop, making it more difficult to determine whether a proposed solution addresses the right challenge. That is why it’s important to establish a shared understanding of the inputs that matter. Begin by:

  • Analyzing operational data and critical business metrics.
  • Observing workflows throughout the existing facility to identify complexity and constraints.
  • Listening to stakeholders across the organization to understand challenges and business priorities.
  • Collecting business context, including demand forecasts, service expectations, labor considerations, the system landscape, investment priorities and readiness for change.

Together, these perspectives create a complete picture of the current operation. With that understanding, business strategy and company priorities define the future state, creating a roadmap for the recommendations and decisions that follow.

Supply chain transformation begins with:
  • Analyzing
  • Observing
  • Listening
  • Collecting

Validate the direction before selecting the solution

Many automation projects begin with a direction already in mind. A customer may have a preferred technology, an aggressive timeline or a facility concept they believe will solve their problem. Those inputs are valuable because they reflect the business objectives driving the investment.

The next step is to validate that direction before selecting the solution. A consultative process creates space to ask important questions:

  • Will this approach solve the right problem?
  • Does it support the desired business outcome?
  • Will it improve how the operation performs day to day?
  • Does it provide flexibility to support future requirements?
  • Are there simpler or more effective ways to achieve the same objective?
Management of warehouse automated solutions

The answers determine whether the original direction is confirmed or whether another approach would better support the business. That may mean adjusting the level of automation, rethinking product flow, changing the role of software or developing a phased implementation strategy.

Only after the direction has been validated are potential solutions reviewed. Instead of promoting a preferred technology or vendor, a consultative process takes a technology-agnostic approach, weighting the strengths and tradeoffs of each option to identify the solution that best supports the organization’s long-term needs.

By validating the direction first, organizations can move forward with confidence that they’re making the right investment for their operation.

Building the solution with the customer

A customer approached FORTNA with a vision for a new distribution facility and assumptions about the technology and operating model they believed they needed.

Instead of accepting those assumptions at face value, FORTNA analyzed the operation and worked closely with the customer to understand performance requirements, service expectations and expansion plans.

That process uncovered new insights into the customer’s strategy and identified opportunities that hadn’t yet been fully explored. Instead of designing around the original request, the FORTNA team evaluated alternative approaches with the customer and discussed tradeoffs.

Because the customer was involved throughout the process, the recommendation was shaped along the way, not simply presented at the end. Stakeholders understood what was recommended and why, because they evaluated ideas and refined the direction together.

The result was a shared solution that combined the customer’s operational knowledge with the design, automation, software and implementation experience of FORTNA. That’s what it means to design with the customer, not simply for the customer.

Balancing today’s needs with future growth

Once the direction is validated, the next challenge is determining how much automation the business needs. Design only for today’s requirements, and capacity may quickly become a constraint. Design for every possible scenario, and the business may carry unnecessary capital costs for years. The objective is to strike the right balance.

That doesn’t mean investing in excess capacity on day one. It means designing a solution that can adapt as demand changes. Modern automation can expand storage, increase throughput, add capacity over time and integrate new capabilities without replacing the entire system.

A scalable design is about making the right investment at the right time while creating an operation that’s easier to manage every day. Achieving that level of simplicity requires looking beyond the equipment to consider workflows, software and how the teams interact with the operation. The goal isn’t to simply install equipment. It’s to deliver an integrated system that’s practical to operate today and adaptable for tomorrow.

Worker in 3PL warehouse monitors automated sorting processes - FORTNA

Building long-term value

Every automation investment has long-term implications for operational performance, labor and growth. The technologies selected today will shape how the operation performs in the future.

Technology alone shouldn’t define the direction. A consultative approach aligns automation with operational priorities, so every investment supports the organization’s strategy.

The result is an operation that’s easier to manage today and better prepared for tomorrow.

FORTNA Can Help

FORTNA partners with organizations to understand their operations and design warehouse automation solutions that simplify execution and support long-term growth.

Discuss your automation strategy

About the author

Ben Robson, Sr. Manager, Solution Architect | FORTNA

Ben Robson

Senior Manager, Solution Architect

Ben Robson is Senior Solution Architect Manager at FORTNA and a trusted advisor to organizations evaluating automation strategies for distribution operations. He partners with customers to develop automation solutions that improve operational performance, support scalable growth and deliver long-term business value.