Turning a $50K/Week Loss Into a High-Performance System
Post-Go-Live Recovery (Jan–Mar 2025)
Re-engaged in January 2025 as Automation Recovery Lead, we were tasked with stabilising the system and restoring commercial confidence.
Under the retailer’s decisive leadership and with strong alignment across both internal and vendor teams, we:
• Re-established the operational baseline using live WMS/WCS data
• Applied a Pareto-led approach to target top causes of downtime and instability
• Led structured daily reviews across vendor, operations, and system stakeholders
• Enforced service compliance under AS4920 while maintaining collaborative engagement
• Rebuilt trust by anchoring all recovery decisions in performance data
• 76% reduction in weekly operating loss
• 165% uplift in system throughput
• 32% increase in weekly processed orderlines (within the same number of operating hours)
All achieved without capex — delivered through structured clarity, consistent leadership, and coordinated execution across vendor and internal teams.
This was not a reset. It was a guided recovery. Although the retailer held every contractual and operational right to escalate or enforce penalties, their leadership chose a different path — one that reflected their deeper values. Rather than default to blame, they insisted on a collaborative approach with their vendor, prioritising long-term partnership over short-term enforcement. Their focus was clear: build trust, solve problems, and get the system working the way it was always intended.
We provided the expertise, structure, the stream control, and the governance to move the program forward — but the client led with trust.
This wasn’t a deployment. It was a recovery. In just 10 weeks, we helped transform an unstable, high-cost system into a stable, high-performing operation — without the need for additional capital spend. But more than that, this recovery was a reflection of the client’s identity as a business: decisive, pragmatic, and partnership-first. The outcome wasn’t just operational uplift — it was proof that when leadership is grounded in values and guided by structure, recovery becomes not just possible, but inevitable.
