Independent warehouse automation consultancy

Otsle advises Australian and New Zealand operators on warehouse and distribution centre automation. We define the requirement, build and screen the vendor field, evaluate shortlisted suppliers on one comparable basis, verify the Australian compliance position, and hand over a costed business case your board can approve.

We do not sell the equipment. That distinction is the point of the service, and it is worth being precise about.

What an assessment covers

• Requirements definition. Time on site with your operations team, capturing and documenting what the facility actually needs. This becomes the specification every vendor responds to.
• Operational analysis. Process, volume, product and storage analysis from goods receipt through to picking, validated on the floor rather than from a spreadsheet.
• Storage capacity. What can be recovered from unused height inside your existing footprint — high-density shuttle and comparable approaches — before anyone proposes a bigger building.
• Handling and transfer. Automation options for consolidating and transferring between container, pallet and product types, including fragile and glass-packaged goods.
• Vendor field. A longlist built against your documented requirements, screened on published criteria, with the reasoning recorded for every inclusion and exclusion.
• Evaluation. Shortlisted suppliers assessed on one comparable basis, scored against a task matrix built from your requirements rather than their sales material.
• Compliance. Written verification that each shortlisted solution can be approved for use in Australia and can satisfy applicable work health and safety obligations.
• Systems integration. Assessment of the interface between each solution and your warehouse management system, issued as a documented interface position.
• Implementation approach. A staged sequence designed so the site keeps trading, with acceptance criteria and a fallback at each stage.
• Business case. A costed case, one recommendation with documented reasoning, and a roadmap in a form suitable for group or board approval.

What we do not do

Stating the boundary is part of the service. An assessment from Otsle does not include:

• Warehouse floor plan redesign, building extension or new build.
• Detailed engineering design, structural certification or professional engineering sign-off.
• Legal advice, contract drafting or negotiation with vendors.
• Procurement execution, or the holding of any vendor contract by Otsle.
• Implementation, installation or commissioning.

Where any of these is needed, we say so and help you appoint someone who does it properly.

Joint Solution Design

Joint Solution Design is Otsle’s own method and collaborative platform for running a vendor assessment. It is the reason our evaluations are comparable and our recommendations traceable.

• Vendor responses are standardised. Every supplier works in the same space, with their own controlled access, answering the same documented set of requirements.
• You have visibility every week. Requirements are tracked against status, so you can see what has been captured, what is outstanding and what has changed, instead of waiting for a final report.
• Every recommendation is traceable. Each one links back to a requirement you explicitly approved. Nothing enters the business case that you did not ask for.
• Vendors are held to your question. Where a supplier answers a different question or proposes unrequested scope, the gap is visible and they are asked to explain it.
• The output outlives the engagement. The documented requirement set stays useful long after the assessment closes, and you own it.

How an engagement runs

A single-site assessment typically runs about twelve weeks and produces six deliverables, each issued to your nominated sponsor and each signed off before the next phase begins. You have ten business days to accept a deliverable or tell us in writing where it falls short of the agreed scope; where it does, we correct and reissue at no charge.

• Requirements and solution design — documented on site and signed off before any vendor work starts.
• Vendor longlist and screening report — the field, and the reasoning behind every inclusion and exclusion.
• Interim capital envelope — an indicative capacity gain and capital range at the mid-point, in time for budget to be reserved.
• Vendor evaluation and compliance report — shortlisted suppliers on one basis, with the regulatory position verified for each.
• Capacity and throughput model — positions and throughput per option within the existing footprint, modelled at normal and stressed holding.
• Business case, recommendation and roadmap — presented in person.

How our fees work

• Fixed, and quoted before work begins. Programme risk sits with us. If the engagement runs long, the fee does not change.
• Paid against accepted deliverables, not against elapsed time.
• Half the assessment fee is credited against the delivery fee if you appoint us to manage the delivery programme within six months of the final deliverable. The work product is yours either way.
• Disclosed in a signed scope. One source of revenue, visible to your finance team and to any auditor who asks.

Talk to us

If you are weighing an automation programme and want the vendor field assessed by someone with nothing to sell you, that is the conversation to have. Contact the Otsle team in Melbourne, or read our notes on automation and logistics.