In any industry, there’s bound to be some changes. Processes evolve and adapt, previously adopted methods of doing business suddenly become outdated, and any business who wants to keep up in the market has to learn how to keep up with the times.

This goes for the warehouse and product distribution business the same way it goes for anything else. Particularly in these days of ecommerce, new processes and methods of distributing, storing, and tracking products are being developed near daily and any warehouse who wants to maintain their standing in the industry is going to have to learn to be a bit more flexible than usual.

Of course, the word “change” is always going to cause some alarm. For various reasons, anyone trying to implement process development or change is going to run into some pushback from other team members, management staff, or maybe just anyone who thinks they have a better idea than the one being suggested. If you’re encountering some issues and delays in trying to get changes implemented in your warehouse, here’s a few suggestions to keep things rolling smoothly and get those changes implemented:

• Make a strong case. In any industry, the first step to getting a change pushed through is to make sure everyone understands the idea as well as you do. If you’ve spent hours analyzing why you need to expand into a new warehouse, why you need to invest more in pallet racks or wire shelving, why you need to change logistics providers, or whatever you’re suggesting, don’t keep that information to yourself. Get your information together and make sure everyone who needs to see it sees it and understands why it’s so important to you – and why it needs to be important to the whole company.
• Expect some resistance. Unfortunately, even all the data and charts in the world can’t convince everyone. Find the points of resistance you’re expecting to encounter (or the people you’re expecting to resist the idea) and learn how to understand their fears about your new way of working. It’s the only way you can address their concerns.
• Talk to everyone who this affects. Process change and refinement can have a lot of intended (or unintended) effects all throughout your warehouse, and it’s best to keep everyone involved apprised and informed of these changes. If you’ve got a new stocking method that will save time and energy, make sure to tell your workers on the floor as well as the managers that need to approve the change – and make sure they know not to worry.
• Plan for the unexpected. Not every process transition will go as smoothly as you’d like, and it’s alway good to give yourself a little breathing room in the event of an issue. Schedule all process changes with some slack time to accommodate for any unexpected little snag or hangup you might run into, and be flexible. Not every project can be completed exactly as projected, but just because you had to delay your launch doesn’t mean it’s a failure by any means.
• Keep communicating. Finally, the biggest thing to keep in mind during any kind of major process transition is just to keep the lines of communication open. If something isn’t working even after it’s been rolled out, or if something is creating a lot more trouble than it was going to solve, make sure to get feedback and stay flexible to get things changed for the better. After all, isn’t that why you tried implementing these changes in the first place?