Warehouse Strategy · Project Rescue
WMS Implementation Rescue & Recovery
When a warehouse management system go-live keeps slipping, or the building has not recovered since cutover, you need an independent read fast. SIS diagnoses what is really wrong, realigns the team, and gets the program back on a date everyone believes.
- Independent project health check
- Platform-agnostic
- 13 fulfillment centers recovered
Troubled WMS projects rarely fail on software. They fail on alignment, testing, and readiness.
By the time a WMS implementation is in trouble, everyone has a theory. The vendor points at requirements. Operations points at configuration. IT points at data and integrations. Meanwhile the go-live date has moved, the budget is draining, and the people who have to run the building have stopped believing the plan.
In our experience the root causes are consistent: configuration that reflects design documents instead of how the floor works, testing that only proves the happy path, integration and data issues discovered late, and no shared definition of what ready means. These are recoverable problems, but they need someone without a stake in the original decisions to call them clearly.
SIS steps in as that independent party. We work with your team, your system integrator, and your software vendor, whether the platform is Manhattan, Infor, or another WMS, to restore a credible plan and see it through go-live and stabilization.
Signs your WMS implementation needs a rescue.
The go-live date has moved more than once
Each new date comes with the same open issues, and confidence drops every time.
Operations will not sign off
Floor leaders do not trust the configuration or the training, and they are probably right to worry.
Defects keep reappearing
Testing finds the same categories of problems release after release because exceptions were never designed for.
Productivity crashed after cutover
Units per hour and on-time shipping are still below the old system weeks after go-live.
Integrations are the critical path
ERP, order management, carrier, or automation interfaces are late or unreliable.
Budget is burning with no end in sight
Change orders pile up, and nobody can say with confidence what it will take to finish.
What a recovery engagement delivers.
Project health check
A rapid, independent assessment of configuration, data, integrations, testing, training, and cutover readiness, with a clear go or no-go view.
Root-cause findings
Plain-language findings on why the program is stuck, separating platform limitations from design, process, and execution issues.
Recovery plan and realistic date
A re-baselined plan with scope decisions, owners, and readiness criteria that operations and IT both accept.
Configuration and process realignment
Design changes that make the system match how the warehouse needs to run, not the other way around.
Exception-driven testing
Scenario-based test scripts that cover the edge cases behind most go-live failures, executed before cutover.
Go-live and stabilization support
On-floor hypercare, daily issue triage, and KPI tracking until performance returns to or beats the prior baseline.
How we turn a troubled WMS project around.
- 01 · Weeks 1-2
Triage
Interview stakeholders, review the system and artifacts, and deliver the health-check findings.
- 02 · Weeks 2-4
Re-plan
Agree on scope, readiness criteria, and a re-baselined schedule with every party at the table.
- 03
Fix and prove
Realign configuration, close integration gaps, and run exception-heavy testing and cutover rehearsals.
- 04
Go live and stabilize
Execute cutover with on-floor support and stay through stabilization.
MAWM implementation recovery, 13 fulfillment centers delivered
$36B medical supplier. Recovering a stalled Manhattan Active Warehouse Management rollout and turning it into a scalable, multi-site deployment engine.
The client had postponed its go-live twice. SIS aligned operations and IT, revised configuration, and built thousands of exception-focused test scripts. Customers were back at pre-implementation performance within a week of go-live, and productivity exceeded the prior baseline within a month.
Read the case study- Fulfillment centers
- 13Fulfillment centers
- Peak site cycle
- 30dPeak site cycle
- From WMOS
- MAWMFrom WMOS
An independent party with skin in the outcome.
No sunk-cost bias
We did not make the original design decisions, so we can call what is working and what is not.
Operators at the table
Consultants who have run warehouses earn the trust of floor leaders, which is usually what a stalled project has lost.
We stay through stabilization
A recovery plan only matters if the go-live holds. We stay until the KPIs prove it.
Headquartered in the Columbus, Ohio metro and working on-site with clients across the United States. Where we work
WMS project recovery questions
Why do WMS implementations fail?
The most common causes are misalignment between operations and IT, configuration that does not reflect real warehouse processes, testing that misses exceptions, late integration and data issues, and insufficient training and cutover planning. The software itself is rarely the main problem.
What is a WMS project health check?
A short, independent assessment of a WMS implementation's configuration, data, integrations, testing, training, and cutover plan. It ends with clear findings, a readiness view, and recommendations for getting the project back on track.
Can you step into a project another firm is implementing?
Yes. We regularly work alongside software vendors and system integrators. Our role is to give you an independent view and help the whole team execute a credible recovery plan.
Which WMS platforms do you recover?
Recovery work is largely platform-agnostic. SIS has recovered a Manhattan Active Warehouse Management program, is an Infor WMS implementation partner, and has integrated WMS platforms with robotics and IBM i based ERP systems.
Our WMS is live but productivity dropped. Is that a rescue?
It can be. Post-go-live underperformance usually traces to configuration, slotting, training, or exception handling. We diagnose the cause and work the fixes until performance returns to or exceeds the prior baseline.
Get an independent read on your WMS project.
Tell us where the implementation stands and what keeps slipping. A senior SIS consultant will follow up within one business day, confidentially.