4170 Stillwater Drive, Duluth, Georgia 30096 | 678.576.0562 | carlos@cavazquez.com | cavazquez.com TMS I mplementation P itfalls: How to S teer C lear Bringing a Transportation Management System (TMS) online is arduous enough. Here are additional issues that can make the process even more difficult , and how to put them in the rear - view mirror. Bringing a TMS into the world is hard work Making changes is always tricky. However, the nature of a TMS makes its implementation particularly challenging. A TMS brings together a lot of data, customer information, and orders from your enterprise resource planning system (ERP) and other places. Not all of it is correct or trustworthy. Then there’s the golden nugget — inside “tribal” knowledge that’s never written down and ignored at one’s peril. Once the tough work is done, there’s “go - live fever” to contend with. The pressure to launch an undercooked TMS rises as companies anxiously await the benefits. Implementing a TMS: how it usually goes down A TMS starts with a natural process. Basic workflows and integrations are identified — ERP, your order management system ( OMS ) , and warehouse management system ( WMS ) , for example. As you might imagine, vendors and system integrators are good at this sort of thing. The “create” transactions are the starting point. Orders go from the ERP/OMS into the TMS as they are put together. Things start happening when milestones like “payment” occur. This is the TMS “Happy Path.” It’s a conventional method of testing that yields consistent results. “Update and delete” transactions usually come after the happy path is set. Here the real difficulties begin. 4170 Stillwater Drive, Duluth, Georgia 30096 | 678.576.0562 | carlos@cavazquez.com | cavazquez.com The “Happy Path” is often a road to ruin A H appy P ath assumes orders will be entered correctly, with all details complete and unchanging. But if things do change — and all these events need correcting with manual workarounds — the most significant benefits of a TMS will be lost The information in the TMS must be consistent with all other systems. If a carrier needs to be changed, the TMS must reflect that change without it being seen as some aberration. These kinds of things happen all the time in a fast - moving fulfillment proces s. If every deviation from the “path” is handled as an exception and not just as another event in order execution, that’ll become the Achilles’ heel of the TMS. Solutions to potential Happy Path downsides Start with the people who place and process the orders. These are the keepers of the “tribal” knowledge. They’re the ones who depend on the TMS and are best equipped to identify the issues the system will need to deal with. They’ll know what capabilities are required to handle the all - too - regular “deviations” that slow things down. Get them involved in the design process and do it early. Make sure that testing and debugging will cover not just a pre - determined H appy P ath, but all of the potential use cases. Th ose discussed in the paragraph above are your best sources for what those use cases will be . Th ese will help find the pain points that need to be tackled if the TMS is to live up to its cost - effective, labor - saving potential. Working with skilled consultant s wh o work to improve the logistics of some of the biggest companies around the world can make a big difference. Let Chainalytics help take the kinks out of your fulfillment process and realize your company’s potential.