Few in logistics have suffered as much under the laws of Isaac Newton and Robert Merton as those who apply software. Newton taught us that for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. Merton popularized the Law of Unintended Consequences, which teaches that almost all human actions lead to a result nobody saw coming.

Unintended consequences can be chalked up to the world's inherent complexity and, more embarrassingly, to ignorance, self-deception—or plain old biases. The world of logistics is certainly complex, especially when you are managing the inventory flowing through it. That's why the availability of a software “package,” said to simplify your system implementation challenges, must be examined with all potential consequences in mind, or today's problems will become tomorrow's legacies.

This month's feature on WMS upgrades includes several success stories; but success usually comes from the lessons learned by dealing with unintended consequences. Earl Wilson, director of distribution for Robert Bosch Tool Corp. in West Memphis, Ark. isn't in the article. He's making a guest appearance in this column because he survived the unintended consequences that came along with his WMS upgrade.

In addition to implementing the software, Wilson's vendor was responsible for modifying the package as new versions were introduced. It was those new versions that made life difficult for Wilson.

“When we would upgrade something we'd lose some productivity gains made earlier, simply because of the upgrade,” he told me. “That's why I can't envision someone using software out of a can. Everyone has their unique requirements.”

Wilson's problem with the package was that it had features he didn't need, therefore it was doing things he didn't need it to do. This slowed the program down. He and his staff didn't know this was the cause of the slowdown, however, and because his team's time was being spent on more urgent matters, the problem went unresolved for almost two years.

Finally, the itch became too irritating not to scratch, and Wilson and his team conducted an in-depth workshop with the vendor to pinpoint the irritant. They found that the hang-up involved replenishment and how quickly (or slowly) the software would release orders.

When the software saw that part on an order needed to be replenished, it kept the rest of the order from being released for picking. When the system came back to check on that part's status, instead of checking for that one part, it would check the entire inventory for each part on that order. In turn, it was tying itself up in knots looking at everything.

This wasn't a difficult fix, but to fix something you have to allot the time.

“They fixed it and all of a sudden our people were a lot more productive,” Wilson testified. However, what's notable is which people saw the productivity boost. “The change was transparent to the people in receiving, picking, packing, and shipping,” he told me, “but for the clerical person in replenishment who was working with the system electronically, it was like a 100 percent improvement.”

By remembering the law of unintended consequences and Newton's laws of physics, you can get a bigger bang for your buck by gauging the reaction of everyone affected by your WMS upgrade, both directly and indirectly.