How an implementation works
Replacing a warehouse and logistics system is a business project, not an installation. The operation has to keep delivering while the changeover is made, and on the day the new system goes live the stock figures have to be right. We therefore work in four stages, each of which ends in something that can be checked before the next begins.
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Mapping
We start in the operation, not in the system. What does the article structure look like, which units are bought and sold in, where do the discrepancies arise today, and which steps are business-critical in a way that the process description does not reveal?
Mapping also covers the outward interfaces: which partners exchange EDI messages today, which labelling and freight systems are in use, and which reports have to keep the shape they have because somebody else builds on them.
The result is a description of the target flow with the points where it departs from current practice clearly marked. Those points are what determine how much training and how much configuration will be needed.
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Configuration
Epix is configured against the mapped flow. Locations are defined with their actual dimensions and weight capacities, velocity zones are set up, hazardous goods restrictions are entered, and distance calculation is configured against the real layout of the facility.
On the commercial side, price lists, customer agreements and — for third-party operations — the logistics agreements with their fee structures are set up. Where invoicing is activity-based, this is where the link between work performed and billing is built.
Integrations are set up in parallel: EDI messages to trading partners, connections to finance systems, carriers and any automation equipment. Each integration is tested against the counterparty before it counts as finished.
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Migration
Article records, customer and supplier records, agreements and open orders are carried across. Stock is the delicate part: what the old system holds rarely matches what is on the floor exactly, and the difference has to be found before go-live rather than after.
Stock is therefore counted and reconciled against the new structure, using Epix's built-in reconciliation between the commercial ledger and the physical record as the check. Discrepancies found here are cheap; the same discrepancies found in live operation become missed deliveries.
The migration is always run at least once as a rehearsal before it is run for real, so that both the time it takes and the result are known in advance.
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Go-live
Go-live is planned around the operation, not the other way round. Which weekend, which quiet season, which orders must be out beforehand and which are taken in the new system — that is decided in advance and written down.
We are present through the first days, when questions arrive at the rate only real operation produces. The first days after go-live are also when configuration typically needs adjusting in detail: a picking run that came out longer than expected, a replenishment level set too low.
That a changeover can be done with the operation running is not a theoretical exercise for us. At Jotun in Sandefjord we rebuilt an existing high-bay warehouse with new PLC control and a new supervisory data system while it stayed in operation — the warehouse kept shipping throughout.
What we need from you
The single most important condition is that somebody in the business with the authority to decide is available throughout the project. Most questions that come up during an implementation are business questions rather than technical ones: how an article should be structured, what counts as a billable activity, which discrepancy should stop a flow and which should merely be logged.
Beyond that we need access to existing data in a readable form, contact routes to the partners we are to integrate with, and time set aside for the people to be trained.
Want to know what it would look like for you?
The shortest way forward is a conversation about your current situation. We go through the flow and are straightforward about what Epix suits and what it does not.