The Yin and Yang of Omnichannel Fulfillment

Intralogistics Science Meets The Art Of Procrastination

At MSI Automate, we’re of two minds when it comes to the art and science of intralogistics.

On the front end of our omnichannel fulfillment process, we devote enormous resources to making sure critical decisions get made early, while on the back end, we devote equal resources to making sure critical decisions are delayed until the last possible moment. They are completely opposing strategies working in tandem to create success for MSI Automate clients.

Here’s why and how the strategies work:

The Yin

The front end of the MSI Automate process is the place where decisions need to get made early.

It is the stage in which problems get solved. And the sooner problems are solved, the greater the likelihood the client will have a successful system launch with minimal fine tuning needed.

This is the stage for early and proactive defensive thinking that gets ahead of potential issues that could affect performance down the line.

If decisions are delayed in this stage, the quality of the solution suffers, issues that should be solved in advance become problems to be solved in the field, and the client is likely to be saddled with an underperforming operation.

With this in mind, the front end of the MSI Automate process is driven by our intralogistics science team. Along with many other duties, they are charged with the analysis of the client data that is used to guide MSI Automate’s systems design effort. They are also charged with creating the computerized simulations of MSI Automate design concepts that are not only used to provide proof of concept at the systems proposal stage, but to also develop, test, and optimize system algorithms as well.

This means that at the proposal stage we not only provide proof that our design ideas will work as predicted, but that our algorithms will find the sweet spot for systems load balancing as well.

This is all thanks to a strict cultural discipline of making critical decisions as early in the process as possible.

The Yang

The back end of our process is a different story altogether.

At this stage, procrastination is king and the discipline is aligned around ensuring critical decisions are delayed until the last possible moment. The reason here is performance.

The back end of the process is the operational end, where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. At this end, system performance is what matters. And what matters when it comes to system performance in omnichannel fulfillment operations is efficiency and opportunity.

MSI Automate omnichannel fulfillment operations are lean, highly flexible, waveless operations that utilize the constant analysis and algorithmic recalibration of our Automate warehouse software to continuously find the right balance between inventory, labor, and equipment based on both static and dynamic real-time considerations.

Making decisions too early in the fulfillment process precludes the ability to make better, more opportunistic decisions farther down the line. This can translate to lost efficiency.

Holding off to the last possible moment to make critical decisions allows the system to take advantage of processing commonalities across orders from various channels, while also enabling the possibility for processing efficiencies that may not be evident when an order is first pulled into the system.

The dynamic deployment of in-motion inventory and continuous calibration of equipment and labor that can occur as a result of this procrastination discipline provides a strategic advantage to MSI Automate clients.

Accelerated decision making versus delayed decision making: the yin and yang of the MSI Automate process.

To learn more about how our process can help your business, schedule a free consultation with our team today. (This is not one of those times when procrastination works to your advantage, btw. We suggest accellerated decision making here instead.)


Walter High is VP Marketing at MSI Automate, where he has worked since 2012.