SUCCESS STORIES
School Specialty, a leading provider of educational products and services to over 100,000 schools across North America, partnered with Alpine Supply Chain Solutions to implement a new Warehouse Management System (WMS) at its Mansfield, Ohio facility. This project was part of a broader, multi-year fulfillment operations upgrade aimed at increasing efficiency, consistency, and inventory visibility across four major distribution centers. As the highest-producing location in the company's network, Mansfield was selected as the pilot site for the initiative. To ensure a smooth rollout, School Specialty reached out to Alpine Supply Chain Solutions for support.
Modernizing the Mansfield facility required replacing outdated manual processes with a new WMS without disrupting peak-season operations or missing productivity targets. Limited time and resources made it difficult to collect accurate dimension and stack pattern data, forcing the team to rely on generic data in some areas to maintain momentum. At the same time, warehouse associates accustomed to legacy workflows needed to quickly adapt to new systems, making effective training, communication, and change management essential to a successful transition.
Alpine implemented a structured, people-first approach that combined technical execution with enhanced documentation, training, and change management. SOPs were refined to provide clear, contextual guidance, improving version control and usability for supervisors and new hires. Training was redesigned to scale across the full facility, increasing trainer-to-associate ratios, introducing web-based content, and focusing on core WMS concepts. A five-person “Tiger Team” was also established to act as internal champions, supporting peers and reinforcing adoption throughout the rollout.
The WMS implementation exceeded expectations, achieving strong user adoption with minimal disruption to operations. Associates quickly gained confidence in the new system, accelerating post-launch productivity while improving process efficiency and inventory accuracy. The enhanced SOP framework and Tiger Team model created sustainable internal support structures, ensuring continuous optimization and positioning Mansfield as a blueprint for future network-wide implementations.
