VIEWPOINT [ INSIGHT ]
by Lucas Manganaro Managing Director, Leader, Supply Chain Innovation, Protiviti Lucas.Manganaro@Protiviti.com | 602-697-5760
The High Cost of Hidden Workarounds Costly problems stemming from excessive paperwork, manual workarounds, and hidden work remain deeply nestled throughout inbound logistics processes, out of sight from senior leadership.
processes and automation tools should be adjusted to address real-world obstacles. Hunt one duck at a time. While senior leaders understandably prefer to hunt 100 ducks at a time, that approach does not work with hidden workarounds. Instead, 100 messy problems need to be solved one at a time. Address resistance. Each messy problem also represents a bad process that someone is used to doing and that someone else is used to receiving the output from. This makes change dif cult. Savvy problem solvers need incentives and mechanisms for bringing counterproductive work processes to leadership’s attention. Modernize and optimize. While technology modernization is crucial to inbound logistics functions, it is equally important to optimize advanced automation systems and applications once they are in place. Barcode and RFID tools bring many bene ts, but not if scans fail 30% of the time. The effective takeback of wasted time requires creating listening moments where senior leaders can leverage the knowledge and experience of frontline workers to create solutions that target inef ciency where it lives. If knowledge is power, then the power to apply automation needs to move down the org chart to meet the knowledge of the people who do the work every day. n
container warp, preventing water skids from being processed on scanner- equipped conveyor belts. Why is the company’s ERP cloud migration stalled? Because one procurement group accepts 15,000 PDF invoices a month that require 25 employees to read and retype. A PUDDLEPROOF PLAN C-suite and senior leadership levels rarely know that bad processes, misused labor, and outdated technologies exist because they lack visibility into the guts of the business. Savvy middle managers who do know about these cumbersome circumventions often encounter resistance when elevating issues. Inbound logistics functions that successfully mitigate these inef ciencies tend to: Distinguish theory from reality. Most failure points are similar in that they exist beyond the reach of automation systems that are designed and con gured to support a theoretical “best case” process (e.g., perfect road conditions, barcodes that never warp). Eliminating wasteful workarounds requires an understanding of how processes work in reality and how
These inef ciencies limit the returns on digital tools, data analytics and arti cial intelligence applications; they also slow operations, increase workforce dissatisfaction, and reduce pro ts. Addressing this problem requires expert detective work, better approaches to issue identi cation and problem solving, and an expansive de nition of technology modernization. Truck drivers, order pickers and other logistics specialists processed absurd amounts of paperwork in 2024. They also spent untold hours waiting in traf c lines for bills of lading to be processed and for containers to be removed from shops and hooked to trucks. This time- consuming manual work ourishes outside the boundaries of written policies and ERP, transportation management, warehouse management and inventory management systems. Yet, these workarounds are also crucial to the execution of sourcing, purchasing, transportation and inventory management activities. Why do thousands of water pallets need to be manually entered at the distribution center? Because the barcodes on the shrink-wrapped outer
88 Inbound Logistics • January 2025
Powered by FlippingBook