No master plan in place
Because of the multi-disciplinary facets of expertise required to bring a warehouse together, a master plan is rarely in place as an overall reference for guidance. Warehouse development in the hope of improvement occurs on an as needed basis, as a result a high risk of dysfunctional interfaces exists between site management, operator competencies, IT, warehouse layout, transport and other business units.
Symptoms and problems
From experience, one of the most common sources of inefficiency is the interaction between teams. Without this recognition, identifying the root cause of a problem can be difficult. When specific specialist subject matter experts are called in and advice is sought to overcome the issue, the advice given is usually specific to a narrow channel of expertise. Consequently, without a detailed appreciation of the bigger picture, they often treat the symptom and not the root cause.