Challenges and bottlenecks of the implementation

According to SM, it was expected that the major challenges in the implementation would be supplier cooperation, the workload of the end-users, and motivation of logistics users to learn to use a system that does would not work perfectly at the beginning of the project. It was known that the system would not be free of deficiencies initially, but it would then be further developed and customized during the first months of the implementation, also based on the feedback received from the users. However, the end-users either had not received the information that the system would not be completely ready or had not fully understood it.

Interviewees LF1 and LF2 commented that before the implementation phase started, they had expected the system to be ready to use and well tested. Their expectations had been based on the communication received from the deployment team and the fact that there had been a pilot phase in place. Both expressed that they had been disappointed and frustrated at the beginning of the implementation when it turned out that the system still had many bugs and errors.

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Less efficient than the old way Similarly efficient to he old way More efficient than the old way

The efficiency of the new approach compared to the old approach (n=7)

Other countries Finland

A summary of the main challenges and bottlenecks experienced by the interviewees can be seen in Figure 12. There had been many different kinds of challenges during the implementation, most of them being related either to the workload, dissatisfaction with the training, communication, and co-operation both with the internal stakeholders and the company's suppliers. Interviewee LF2 stated that the implementation should have been done in co-operation with project procurement. For instance, LF2 had experienced that in some cases, the procurement employees had sent the old packing list template to the suppliers as an attachment to the purchase order, or they had otherwise given wrong instructions to the suppliers related to supplying the packing information. The suppliers have sometimes been resistant to fill the new template as they thought it had not been part of the scope agreed in the purchase order.

Figure 12. Bottlenecks and challenges of the logistics management software implementation according to the interviewees.

The interviewees also commented that getting more out of the system would require especially better co-operation with the suppliers. As long as the suppliers are not filling the requested packing information template so that it could be uploaded directly to the system, much manual work is still needed. Overall, the issues with suppliers came up in many

Time and workload

Limited/deficient training

Too complex manual

Co-opeation and communication with suppliers

Co-operation and communication with internal stakeholders

interviews. Many interviewees mentioned that it had been difficult to get suppliers to fill the template. Interviewee LF1 mentioned that in the beginning, it was difficult to give instructions for the suppliers on how to fill the packaging list mailer template as the logistics users themselves did not know how it actually works. Interviewee LF4, in turn, stated that the biggest issue is that Excel is still needed, for instance, for creating the logistics plan.

Thereby, it still not possible to perform all operational logistics tasks within the SMM system.

Many interviewees felt that they had been left alone in the supplier communication during the change process, and they had needed to “fight” with the suppliers. The issues with suppliers were not just technical or practical challenges but also affected the employees' motivation to adopt the new way of working and their commitment to the change. The interviewees commented that this issue could have been avoided if the operational employees would have been better supported in supplier communication. Interviewees LF1, LF2, and LF4 stated that an official letter should have been prepared for the suppliers. The letter should have notified of the new system and what the change requires from the suppliers. Interviewee LF1 pointed out that it would have been great also to have ready-made instructions for the suppliers. At the beginning of the implementation, it was difficult for the logistics users to instruct the suppliers as they did not know any better how the template works. LF1 also gave an example that one supplier had received five different instructions from different logistics employees, and the supplier was thereby quite confused about what is expected from them.

A few interviewees also mentioned technical issues they had faced during the implementation as a challenge or a bottleneck. At least once, a failed system update had prevented the packing list mailer template upload to the system. Interviewee LF3 reported that this failure caused many hours of additional manual work to fix the issues in a project he/she had worked on. They had just received a packing list mailer template that included hundreds of rows of information, and they needed to copy and paste all the information manually to fix the issue. According to the interviewed end-users, they did not know about the upcoming software update beforehand, and therefore, they could not have prepared for

it, for instance, by preparing the documents for the most critical shipments before the update.

Luckily, there were no major consequences reported this time due to this failed update at the beginning of the implementation. Interviewee LO3 had instead experienced some technical issues with the system that remained unsolved; for instance, at least information had just disappeared from the system. However, these kinds of technical issues had been quite rare during the implementation, and most of the interviewees did not report any major technical issues.

Some interviewees also came up with ideas on how the pilot phase would have been better implemented. Of course, there will be no more zero-level deployment for this program in this company. Still, comments like this are mostly general by nature, and the case company could use this kind of feedback in other change projects or if there would be significant changes to this system that would require establishing a pilot group again to test the functionalities. If this kind of pilot were organized again, it would be more efficient to divide the tasks between the people participating in the testing process. Thereby, the functionalities could have been tested in a more organized way, and it could have been secured that all functionalities will be covered. Having common workshops would also have been great during the pilot phase to enable better communication between the participants.