Page 42 - Logistics News - Issue 01 - 2024.indd

WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

(despite not being able to shake hands) and

the first in-progress site visits took place. It was
during this visit that the mammoth size of the
DC and this project started to sink in.

Testing, testing and more testing
As the building progressed, the solution
build phase was reaching completion. All the

configured and developed functionalities were
required to seamlessly work together within
Manhattan WMS and concurrently integrate
with other applications.
material, all Manhattan WMS users were fully trained and
To test this accurately and holistically, an integrated test assessed with MET before they could start working in the
plan was developed with all parties in the software landscape. DC. The training material and assessments on MET are now

Unit testing was first signed off, followed by systems integration a key part of the onboarding process of new employees in
testing (SIT). The key success factor in SIT was the execution Hammarsdale DC.
of end-to-end (E2E) scenarios where interfaces between WMS,
host systems and WES were tested. The final part of testing Day in the life of (DILO)

was user acceptance testing (UAT) where all functionality and To evaluate how the DC will operate and to iron out day-to-day
exceptions were tested in detail. operational issues, SCJ takes projects through day in the life of
(DILO) simulations. PEP was fully on board with this approach
Integrated testing was executed on-site in Hammarsdale. from the onset of the project and made sure to spend an
This was considered a key milestone in the project as this was extensive amount of time on DILO. Real inventory was used to
the first opportunity to see how the physical warehouse, WMS, simulate the full end-to-end process with people. This helped

WES, WCS, host systems, etc. all work together. to identify issues, understand user-system interactions and
allowed all teams in the project to make final adjustments

Professionalised training with MET before go-live.
A facility of this size brings with it a large staff complement.
To onboard employees systemically and professionally, PEP Go-live
used MET Fastrack (MET) as its learning management system After working together through all testing phases and DILO, the
(LMS). The PEP WMS System Analysts were trained on how entire project team was ready for go-live. The strategy was to
to use MET and worked together with SCJ to develop the use a slow ramp-up and get used to processing real stock from
necessary training modules. Upon approval of the training real purchase orders coming in and real stock being picked for
real stores. As with all go-lives, some teething
issues were picked up and resolved by the
support teams and some changes were
implemented to accommodate operational
realities that were not faced before.

It took less than three weeks to roll out
full inbound functionality, and outbound
caught up to full production capabilities in
week four. With up to 3.5 million units going
in and out of the warehouse every week,
PEP Hammarsdale DC is one of the largest
shipping facilities in the country. •

40 I S S UE 01 – 2024