How Hard Is It to Count Inventory Correctly? (Part 1: People)

Let’s start with the uncomfortable truth: most inventory systems don’t fail because of software. They fail because people never bought into the process.

In retail and supply chain operations, people are either your greatest asset or your biggest vulnerability. And when it comes to inventory management, they’re often both.

Let’s take a real-world contrast:

Failure Example: A mid-sized apparel brand invested in a state-of-the-art inventory solution with RFID scanning and automated replenishment. But no one told the floor managers how their roles would change. No one trained the warehouse teams on exception handling. The software flagged issues that no one knew how to resolve. Three months in, they were back to Excel.

Success Example: A regional grocery chain rolling out a new WMS brought in department heads early. They ran simulations, documented SOPs, assigned ownership to data entry roles, and let teams trial the system in parallel with legacy tools. When go-live came, it wasn’t perfect—but adoption was strong, errors were minimal, and ROI hit faster than forecast.

What made the difference? Not the software. Not even the budget. Just clear roles, early engagement, and actual accountability. 

If you’re heading into peak season with temporary labor, shifting inventories, and new system rollouts—you need more than licenses and labels. You need buy-in. At Full Sail, we help align the humans behind your systems so you don’t end up flying blind when demand hits.