Inventory control and WMS implementation
Requirements, vendor selection, data mapping and migration, cutover, SOPs and training. For 3PLs, warehouses, and distributors that have outgrown what they’re running on.
We keep problems off the owner’s desk.
Operations projects for owner-run businesses that build, move, and fix things.
Every project starts with a Floor Walk, so you know what you are buying before you buy it.
01 When to call
Something has to get done, and there is nobody to hand it to.
A project. The date is real, the operation does not stop for it, and the person who would normally own it is already running the business.
- You landed a customer you cannot house.
- Inventory still runs on spreadsheets and memory.
- A new line has to be in by a date that will not move.
- The system went live and never got implemented.
- You are two years from selling and the operating data is not ready.
- An acquisition closed and the sites are still running two ways.
02 How it works
The Floor Walk, then the project.
The work comes in projects. Every one starts with a Floor Walk: a few days on your floor, at the dock, in the cab, looking at the one problem you called about.
You come out of it with three things: what is actually breaking and what it costs, the scope and sequence to fix it, and the number. Then you decide. Run it yourself with the plan in hand, give it to someone inside, or have us run it.
- Walk it. On the floor, at the dock, in the cab. How the work actually moves.
- Name it. What is breaking, what it is costing, and what it costs downstream if it keeps going.
- Scope it. A scope with a sequence, an owner for every piece, and a number that holds unless the scope changes.
- Run it. If we run the project, we run it to steady state.
- Hand it over. SOPs, training, and a named owner inside the business before we leave.
03 What we run
Four projects.
These are the ones we have done ourselves, inside a plant, so they lead the list. We also take Integrator seats and projects that are not on this page. Ask.
Facility standup or expansion
Site evaluation, lease input, layout and process design, equipment, staffing, day-one operations. For a carrier, 3PL, or distributor that landed a customer it cannot house.
Capex project delivery
Owner’s rep from the start. Vendor vetting, contract negotiation, permitting, site readiness, commissioning, and SOPs to steady state. For manufacturers and packagers adding a line or a system.
Sale readiness and post-sale integration
Sale side: operating data room, KPI build, diligence prep. Buy side: interim integration lead, WMS and IT cutover, site communications, stabilization. For owners planning a sale inside two years, and PE-backed platforms doing add-ons.
04 How we operate
Five things we hold to.
Finish the Ugly Work
Anyone can diagnose it. We stay for the unglamorous part that actually fixes it.
Hand Over the Keys
Built to run without us. We document it, transfer it, and go.
Where the Metal Meets the Meat
On the floor, at the dock, in the cab. Operations get fixed where they happen.
Mind the Wake
Every decision leaves one. We account for what it does downstream, not just whether it floats today.
Say What No One Else Will
Your people usually can’t and your vendors usually won’t. We will.
05 The work
Four times this was the job.
Inventory control and WMS
First barcode systemThe company had a WMS it had outgrown and no barcode scanning anywhere. Replacing it was a team effort: the company selected a system built for our industry and put it in across the network. I owned the RF equipment across the company, the integration with our production equipment, and the location design and scanning at the sites I ran. It was the first barcode system the company had ever used.
Facility standup
110,000 sq ftA customer showed up with more freight than the building could hold, and the date they needed it by was not negotiable. I found the space, got the lease done, and stood up a 110,000 square foot overflow warehouse in about 90 days. That covered tenant improvements, equipment selection, the process design for how product would move through it, and the shift staffing to run it. It opened as a working building.
Capex project delivery
$5M lineA $5 million automated packaging line had to go in during the worst of the pandemic, when vendors, permits, and labor were all unreliable. I vetted and selected the vendors and contractors, negotiated the contracts, and ran permitting and site readiness, then wrote the SOPs and ran the training to get it to steady state. It reached six to eight railcars a shift on eighteen rail spots and eleven dock doors, and matched or beat the output of larger, purpose built facilities.
Post-sale integration
Multi site cutoverThe company sold, and I reported to the buyer’s executive who owned the acquisition, running the integration across a multi site East Coast warehousing and trucking network. I ran the issue and decision tracking and the weekly status so both sides knew where things stood. IT, operations, and finance stayed coordinated through cutover. Site training and handoffs landed with minimal disruption to customers through the transition year.
06 Who you get
Chuck Giroux
I ran Southeast operations for a family logistics business for five years. Trucks, warehouses, railcars, and port drayage, with better than 100 trucks on the road. The company sold to a private equity buyer, and I stayed a year to run the integration before starting Giroux Technologies. I have an MBA from Babson. What I do has not changed: find what is actually broken, build the control around it, and make sure someone owns every piece before I leave.
07 Start
Tell me what has to get done.
Book a call, or send a note with the business, the problem, and the date it has to be done by. The first conversation is short and free. If it’s a fit, the next step is a Floor Walk. If it’s outside what we should run, I will tell you that and point you somewhere else.