How real-world presence, process clarity, and the right people turn complex WMS projects into long-term partnerships.

Setting the Stage

For nearly two decades at Codeworks, I’ve had the privilege of visiting every kind of facility from high-level executive boardrooms to the busiest receiving docks in the country. No matter the site, one truth has held steady:

Trust is the currency of every successful WMS implementation.

You don’t build that trust through presentations alone. You build it by showing up on the floor, in the process, and in the moments when plans shift and reality takes over.

At one facility, I had a detailed meeting with the management team to walk through their processes and goals. But when I got out onto the floor, the reality didn’t quite match the picture I’d been given; not wildly different, just full of small, undocumented steps. Things like down-stacking, writing notes on boxes, and quick relabels were happening constantly, yet none of it appeared in the official process.

When Plans Meet Reality

Several years ago, our team kicked off what would become the largest implementation in Codeworks history; six weeks on site, months of preparation, endless coordination. We had planned, tested, and rehearsed. But on go-live day, everything that could go sideways… did.

Communication gaps. Unreliable data streams. Network instability. Conflicting operational interpretations.

In a matter of hours, the trust we had carefully built was slipping. Situations like this are where seasoned partners separate themselves from vendors. Instead of retreating to offices or conference rooms, we went to where the truth always is... the floor.

Instead of the few inbound hiccups we had prepared everyone for (two or three at most) we watched more than twenty exceptions happen in the first hour. And that was only the start. The receiving team, who were slated to process about 30 inbounds on day one, suddenly found 90 trailers’ worth of product landing at their dock. The overload pushed pallets into temporary corners, overflow aisles, and any open space they could find. Normally, that kind of hustle is something I’d commend, but in that moment, it triggered a cascade: picking delays, unnecessary touches, inventory hunts, etc. Everything downstream started bending under the weight of upstream improvisation.

One of the operations managers pulled me aside and said quietly, “We knew there’d be bumps… but no one expected this kind of chaos.”

Back to the Basics: Where Trust Actually Begins

When complexity rises, clarity becomes the differentiator. Our team broke down the situation the same way we have hundreds of times:

• Rather than overwhelming teams with theories or tools, we returned to operational basics such as verifying data, validating workflows, walking the floor repeatedly, asking operators why they worked a certain way, and adjusting our approach accordingly.
• We watched the process as it actually happened, not as it had been documented. And that made all the difference.
• Like a pit crew at Daytona, we hit the floor with purpose; fast, focused, and fully committed to getting the operation back in sync. As we moved through the pick line, one mismatch surfaced quickly. On paper, bulk zones were meant for full-case picks only. But in reality, operators had built an unspoken workaround: piece-picking from bulk locations whenever product wasn’t where the system said it should be.
• Watching it happen in real time made the root cause obvious. This wasn’t a picking problem at all; it was a put away problem. Misplaced pallets upstream were forcing pickers into extra, undocumented steps downstream.
• Once we identified the culprit, the team corrected the locations, moved product back to the right zones, and the improvised steps vanished almost instantly. Calling out that gap and showing we understood the why behind it went a long way in restoring trust on the floor.

One process. One operator. One question at a time.

This presence, being the first to arrive and the last to leave, sent the message that matters most to any organization:

We’re here to make you successful, not just to deploy software.

Walk the Floor: The Source of Every “Aha” Moment

The more time we spent on the floor, the more opportunities surfaced. The receiving operator uses multiple pallet labels. The forklift routes add minutes per cycle. The pick path shortcuts no one had ever documented.

Small insights become big wins in environments where seconds matter.

One example came from the order fulfillment desk, which coordinated picking and delivery to the production line, an area where delays had an immediate downstream impact. We discovered that staff were manually adjusting pick quantities to reduce unnecessary product handling. That insight led to a small but targeted change in the processing logic, eliminating the manual edits and streamlining the workflow. What seemed like a minor adjustment ultimately reduced handling time, improved flow to the line, and strengthened trust between the floor and the system.

Walking the floor didn’t just help us understand the operation; it established credibility. Operators are more forthcoming when they see you in their world, not watching from the “ivory tower.”

Find Your Champion (and Your Skeptic)

On every floor, there are two people who can make or break your success:
The champion: the person who embraces change and accelerates adoption.
The skeptic: the person who keeps the operation grounded in reality and forces you to prove your value

During an RF implementation, our champion was thrilled about automation from day one. Our skeptic, however, preferred the familiarity of the manual process. Winning him over took time, patience, and transparency. But once he saw his productivity climb and his workload lightened, he didn’t just adopt the new process; he helped improve it.

Skeptics, more than anyone, make us better. They ask the hard questions, and they demand that we back every promise with action.

One team member in particular stood out; a ten-year veteran who knew the operation end-to-end and was widely respected on the floor. He had a reputation for spotting anything that didn’t align with reality, and while his experience made him invaluable, it also made him the most skeptical about the new implementation. That changed during the night we spent together on the third shift, the shift that effectively sets the tone for the entire day.

At first, everything appeared normal, but as the night went on, the traffic pattern felt different. It wasn’t slower; it was more efficient. Pickers were moving through the warehouse in a smooth, streamlined flow, and orders were being completed faster than usual. By the end of the week, the results raised a new question for the management team: should they shift more work to third shift or reallocate staff to support other areas?

Key Players in Trust-Driven Implementations

• SC Codeworks Team – Process architects, floor-level troubleshooters, and guides through operational transformation.
• Operational Personnel – The heartbeat of the implementation, whose insights shape real-world success.
• Executive Stakeholders – The vision keepers ensuring alignment between operational reality and organizational goals.

Each group plays a critical role, but trust binds them together.

Defining Success

Success isn’t just a checklist of completed tasks. It’s the moment when:

• Operators stop asking basic questions because the process finally feels intuitive.
• The documented workflow matches what you see on the floor.
• The champion advocates for refinements and the skeptic advocates for the solution.
• The customer team becomes fully self-sufficient and confident.

When that happens, the technology isn’t just installed; it’s embedded.

Key Takeaways

• Trust is built faster than it can be rebuilt. Stay present and transparent.
• You can’t optimize a process you haven’t watched firsthand.
• Every project has a champion and a skeptic; winning both is the real victory.
• Expertise isn’t just what you know; it’s how you listen, adapt, and show up.