Opportunistic cross-dock

Higher throughput, lower labor cost.

Enterprise UX | Supply Chain
‍June - July 2025

Overview

My Role - Lead UX Designer (Inventory Movement Team)

The “Opportunistic Cross-Dock” enhancement for warehousing modified an existing flow to redirect inbound pallets to outbound when the same SKUs are received & shipped the same day — eliminating redundant labor tasks in putaway, replenishment, and picking.

Impact
📈 $1.2M Annual Labor Savings through reduced touches and increased CPH (projected)

⏳ Decreased time on task by 10 minutes for Stocking DC’s & 45 seconds for Flatbed DC’s

Team

PM, IT Lead, +4 Engineers
3 Dependent Internal Teams
DC Engineering & Stakeholders

Devices

Zebra TC8300 / Zebra MC9400
Desktop (1920x1065)

Users

General Warehouse Associates
Operations Managers & Supervisors
49+ Distribution Centers

Tools

Figma
Miro
CoPilot

App Context

This project supported an Enterprise Warehouse Management System (WMS) used by internal Home Depot associates across 3 distinct distribution platforms (~9000 Monthly Active Users)

  • Expand supply chain capabilities to maximize delivery speeds while minimizing operating costs

  • Reduce overhead costs from using 3rd party WMS solutions

  • Deliver a best-in-class experience for distribution center associates

Product Goals

  • Software that tracks & optimizes the flow of goods within a warehouse

  • Features span receiving, inventory tracking, order fulfillment, and more

  • Supports directed tasking flows to guide users through daily operations

WMS Explained

The business case was simple; flowing pallets directly to the outbound dock when the same product is received & shipped the same day would capture $1.2M Annual Labor Savings by eliminating redundant tasks in putaway, replenishment, and picking.

From an experience standpoint it was straightforward to design because the core flows already existed – we just needed a minor change to the putaway flow to inform users when there’s a cross-dock* opportunity, then direct them to the appropriate staging location. From a systems perspective…it’s another story. Cancelling systemic tasks, allocating inventory, and modifying customer orders were actions managed by separate teams in different corners of the database that somehow needed to integrate.

*Cross-dock: Warehousing process where products are quickly transferred from incoming trucks to outbound carriers to minimize/eliminate storage time and help goods reach final destinations much faster

Problem: money on the table

Cross-team design sessions were at an impasse with endless talks going nowhere fast. The project had been paused after initial work months prior but was not well documented, so every decision had to be rehashed. Without any design documentation or user insights left from my predecessor, I needed the technical requirements solidified to avoid potential UX rework.

To get our teams past the constant back-and-forth, I partnered with Engineering to connect my vision of the user flow to system touchpoints and create a service blueprint. Grounding ongoing meetings around this visual brought structure to our collaboration by flagging open questions and providing a living document to capture decisions in real time.

wait, what are we building?

Key Decisions:

  • Users can’t opt out once an opportunity is identified, securing intended business objectives

  • Cross-dock moves don’t have systemic tasks associated, avoiding excessive architecture work

  • Orders must have a dock door assigned to be eligible, ensuring the system has a location to direct users to

With clarified requirements, I iterated ways to display the new message called for in the device UI. Pop-up overlays were a commonly used pattern in our app, but forcing users to dismiss messages risked needlessly interrupting the workflow. Instead, an informational snackbar message behaving as a notification could provide helpful context without being intrusive.

The feature married flows from 3 different teams with oversight from Principal Engineering

Presenting the flow to Supply Chain Directors and Operational teams at 5 DCs for feedback surfaced a primary pain point to be addressed; Although users understood the notification concept, temporary callouts could be easily missed during repetitive scanning workflows.

A persistent visual indicator to recognize cross-dock opportunities was easily iterated, but ultimately not feasible for MVP because it required component changes we didn’t have time to wait for. As a compromise,I pivoted to the overlay message design to intentionally add friction and stop the info from being missed. Stakeholders were satisfied, so handoff & development began.

Simple frontend design masks complex backend and operational changes

A misplaced assumption made to speed delivery times threatened to unravel the entire feature. There was an explicit technical requirement designed to prevent the system from cross-docking pallets too far in advance of shipment loading — “Orders must have a dock door assigned to be eligible, ensuring the system has a location to direct users to.” This was strongly validated during user sessions as they knew from past failed implementations in Legacy WMS that without this rule the feature would cause congestion throughout the warehouse, negating intended productivity benefits.

The team responsible for building this part of the functionality had quietly pivoted based on an assumption — “if they’re following SOP, it shouldn’t be needed.” To shave a few days off development, they fell back on implicit expectations of how users sequence and release systemic work tasks rather than hard logic.

This opened the experience up to error scenarios that I never designed for, and we ran into issues during QA. Despite my warnings that this gap risked the success of the feature, my PM did not want to delay the pilot.

when reducing complexity backfires

Unsurprisingly, associates at our pilot DC were not following expected SOPs. I designed a flow where the system always had a guaranteed destination to direct users to after scanning a pallet, reality played out differently. Users were left confused about where to move freight after seeing the new info message, leading to time consuming troubleshooting, often assuming a system error rather than a new feature. A DC Engineer supporting the pilot summed it up best:“If the associate doesn’t know where to bring the pallet, we lose the benefit. It actually creates more labor.”

turning the ship around

I mapped out experience gaps to identify and prioritize fast follow solutions

We worked with DC Engineering and Operations to fix the process — it was possible to get the flow working as intended if the right conditions were set up in advance. Utilizing an excel based tool to identify potential cross-docks, Supervisors were better able to line up opportunities by coordinating inbound and outbound processes. With effort, we started seeing successes once the conditions originally outlined in the technical design were met. DC Engineering planned to coach teams on proper SOPs as part of the rollout plan to streamline feature adoption in other buildings.

UX still needed to solve for the inevitability of what happens when the system doesn’t have a specific location to send a cross-dock pallet. Without an intentionally designed flow, the UI was displaying an unhelpful and generic “No Location Found” message.

  • Option A: Resolve the missing backend requirement that got us here

  • Option B: Provide better context, replacing the “No Location Found” message with something more explanatory

Option A was clean, but would have had unintended consequences. We learned that inbound and outbound operations were typically happening at different times of day, so this option would significantly reduce the number of cross-docks. Ensuring that the flow always has a staging location to direct users to would effectively slash opportunities to zero.

In contrast — Option B wouldn’t limit potential returns, wasn’t reliant on another feature team, and could be developed quickly before pilot testing at a second site. DC stakeholders standardized a new “outbound flex” staging location for cross-dock pallets with no home, and the new warning message was refined through on-site collaboration.

Manual planning and cross-department coordination drove eventual success

The final experience automatically detects cross-dock opportunities upon pallet scan and directs associates to carry out moves within their usual Putaway function, with minimal desktop visibility for Supervisors. In the event of an opportunity, users receive an overlay message explaining the change and are directed to pallet staging locations while backend services cancel redundant systemic tasks. If the pallet doesn’t have a specific assigned location, a warning message directs users to general staging.

final design: callout and redirect

Targeted context resolves prior user confusion

Searchable "LPN Crossdock" cancel reasons enable leaders to track swap activity

Early user feedback indicated the flow was easy to follow when working under optimal conditions, but confusing when not, so key pain points were addressed prior to continued testing at a second pilot site. Despite friction in feature implementation, the pilots recorded labor savings of ~10 minutes per pallet in Stocking DC’s, and ~45 seconds per pallet in Flatbed DC’s compared to prior processes.

These time savings were a stunning proof of concept towards the projected $1.2M Annual Labor Savings. Operational feedback on how to maximize outcomes focused on increasing proactive visibility to opportunities to better direct labor.

Value Drivers

  • Reduction in total touches required from receipt to shipping

    • Eliminates 2 labor tasks per cross-docked pallet

  • Increased outbound CPH via more picking tasks completed per shift

growing pains see output gains