More flexibility
More variants, exceptions and system complexity
Supplier-agnostic intralogistics planning from Basel
Basel, Switzerland
Automation has to earn its place.
The first question is not how to automate the warehouse you have. It is what the business must be able to deliver next, how the future operation should work and which investment is economically justified.
Tidira works backward from customer, production and growth requirements to design the future operation, compare viable combinations of people, processes, software and automation, and recommend a direction. Tidira then carries the same operating logic through supplier selection, system architecture, implementation, testing and go-live.
Decision path From business requirement to operating readiness
- 01 Business commitments
What must be delivered, when, in which condition and under which constraints
- 02 Future operation
Target flows, policies, roles, data, exceptions and valuable flexibility
- 03 Investment decision
Variants, staffing, capacity, cost, payback and implementation consequences
- 04 Supplier basis
Reference concept, specification, scope, interfaces and acceptance criteria
- 05 Operating readiness
Building fit, system behaviour, end-to-end tests, acceptance and readiness for go-live
Designing the future operation
The current process is a baseline, not a requirement.
How the operation works today reveals volumes, labour, exceptions, constraints and hidden rules. It does not determine how the next operation should work.
The design begins with what the business must achieve: what needs to leave, when, in what quantity, sequence and condition; which service and quality requirements are binding; which growth and peak scenarios must be covered; and which failures the operation must absorb.
- 01
Preserve
Capabilities that create customer or operating value
- 02
Standardise
Work that must become repeatable before automation
- 03
Change
Processes that prevent the required performance
- 04
Stop
Exceptions or effort without sufficient business value
- 05
Keep flexible
Variation worth retaining deliberately and paying for
Automating the current process without making these choices can preserve its limitations at a much higher cost.
The concessions belong in the decision
Automation is a trade-off, not a wish list.
A project cannot maximise flexibility, automation, low investment and zero process change at the same time.
Higher automation often requires more consistent load units, better master data, stable operating rules, explicit exception paths and clearer responsibility. It may reduce manual work while creating new maintenance, engineering and system-support needs.
These are not details to settle after a technology has been chosen. Tidira makes the concessions visible before they become operating problems.
More automation
More discipline in data, load units and operating rules
Less manual work
New maintenance, engineering and support responsibilities
Higher peak capacity
Different resilience, recovery and staffing requirements
Investment logic
The investment case has to be honest.
For most warehouse-automation projects, labour is central to the business case. Value may come from reducing current manual work, avoiding future hiring as volume grows, increasing throughput per FTE, reducing peak labour or protecting output where people are difficult to recruit and retain.
If a position cannot actually be removed or avoided, it is not an FTE saving. New technical roles, maintenance, software, service contracts, ramp-up and downtime exposure belong in the model as well.
Other benefits can matter in their own right: avoiding or postponing a building expansion, enabling growth, reducing error or damage, improving traceability, or meeting safety and quality requirements that a manual process cannot meet reliably.
The purpose is not to present a menu and ask which option feels right. Tidira recommends a direction, explains the reasoning, states the assumptions and shows what evidence could change it.
Viable variants are compared on the same basis
- 01
Capital and recurring cost
- 02
Staffing requirement and current or avoided FTE
- 03
Capacity and peak performance
- 04
Space and building consequences
- 05
Process and data changes
- 06
Flexibility retained or surrendered
- 07
Implementation dependencies and risk
- 08
Payback and sensitivity to assumptions
Supplier-agnostic planning
Only then should the market be asked for a solution.
A supplier knows its products, software and delivery model. It should receive a defined reference concept and a coherent set of requirements, then be asked how it will meet them. The client's future operation should be defined before any one supplier is asked to shape the need and sell the answer from its own portfolio at the same time.
The client owns the need
Business commitments, operating choices, investment conditions and decisions that remain open
Tidira creates the basis
Reference concept, functional requirements, performance, scope, interfaces and acceptance criteria
Suppliers develop the solution
A deliverable solution, its calculations, included scope, exclusions, price and implementation model
Proposals can then be compared by what is included, excluded, assumed, delivered and priced, not merely by equipment label or headline cost. That is better for the client and fairer to capable suppliers.
From concept to operation
The delivered system must enable the intended operation.
A sound concept can still be compromised during delivery. The building may constrain the layout. Responsibilities can remain unowned between ERP, WMS, WCS, MES, controls and equipment. Master data, load units, labels, quality rules or exceptions may remain unresolved.
Tests can prove that individual components were supplied without proving that the intended end-to-end operation works. Tidira carries the original operating logic into physical planning, system architecture, supplier scope, interface ownership, test cases, acceptance and go-live preparation.
The objective is not simply a completed installation. It is an operation that delivers the capacity, service and control assumed in the investment decision.
- 01Building and layout fit
- 02Equipment, controls and safety interfaces
- 03ERP, WMS, WCS, MES and master data
- 04Normal, peak, exception and recovery tests
- 05Acceptance, cutover and operating readiness
Where Tidira works
One responsibility chain from investment decision to operating readiness.
Tidira can enter before a concept exists, while suppliers are being evaluated, or when an implementation needs experienced project-side control.
01 ↗ 02 ↗ 03 ↗
Define the investment
Design the future operation, develop viable variants, quantify the business case and recommend a direction.
Prepare and evaluate the market
Create the reference concept and tender basis, guide supplier dialogue, and compare technical and commercial scope.
Carry the decision into operation
Connect requirements to the building, system responsibilities, implementation, tests, acceptance and go-live.
These are not three unrelated services. They are different parts of the same responsibility chain.
Direct responsibility
You work directly with Fabian.
Fabian Ecker has worked in intralogistics and warehouse automation since 2012, first in system integration and later inside industrial operations. His work now spans concept and material-flow planning, supplier evaluation, physical and system interfaces, testing, acceptance and go-live.
That range matters because an early recommendation should already account for what will later need to fit the building, connect across systems, be operated by people and be proven in tests.
Fabian leads Tidira's work, meetings and recommendations directly. Tidira provides the method, evidence and continuity that keep requirements and decisions connected from one project phase to the next.
Start with the decision that matters next
A first conversation does not require a finished specification.
Describe what the business needs to achieve, the project phase, the next consequential decision and the information and documents already available. Fabian replies directly and will say whether Tidira can make a useful contribution and what the next piece of work should be.