Fix Kit #4/6: The Joke is On Us
That Time We Fixed SAP by Saying Something Stupid.
The brainstorm didn’t unlock the solution. The joke did.
It starts in the war room at InHouse Secure. And today, the cast is full:
- Callum Nair, our ever-optimistic production planner, still defending the noon freeze like it’s sacred.
- Joe Mensah, the warehouse lead, less a man of words and more a wall of quiet logistics judgement.
- Priya Desai, our master data specialist, the one who notices the missing link while everyone else argues over the chain.
- Darren Hughes, business analyst, fluent in SAP logs and perfectly timed eyebrow raises.
- Charlotte Ibrahim, the CFO, who doesn’t speak often, but makes budget sound like final judgement.
- And yours truly, Tom Sayer, production manager, sceptic-in-chief, and one eye on the floor at all times.
We’d already done the usual. Process flow review. Assumption audit. A stand-up that was just a sit-down with more shrugging. The whiteboard? Same as last year’s, only with dryer pens and more desperation.
The triangle was there — Callum the planner, Joe the warehouse lead, and me, Tom Sayer, the production manager who’d rather be back on the floor than stuck in another alignment death spiral.
But this time, the room’s bigger. Wider cast. Supervisors. Data analysts. Business support. Even someone from procurement who’s clearly wondering what sins landed them here.
And the CFO. Which means we’ve got 20 minutes to do something before it turns into a cost justification.
We’re meant to “unblock the design.” But we’re not designing. We’re re-enacting.
Round and Round Again
Callum kicks us off. Still hopeful. “We need the schedule frozen by noon. Otherwise, the warehouse can’t pick.”
Joe nods once. “If it moves after lunch, we’re staging blind.”
I cross my arms. “We don’t live in a spreadsheet. If a part fails or a machine chokes, I’ll pick the job that gets us moving again. With or without the plan.”
That one hits. Like it always does. Not loud. Just final. Then silence. The kind that doesn’t wait to be filled. It dares you to make it worse.
Enter Guy. Again.
He stands up. Doesn’t reframe. Doesn’t escalate. He wipes the whiteboard clean and says:
“Let’s stop. No more whiteboarding. Let’s try something absurd.”
A few eyebrows raise. One cough tries to hide a laugh.
Then he writes three rules:
- Yes, and… everything.
- No shooting down ideas.
- AI gets a seat at the table — but doesn’t run it.
Then he says: “This isn’t brainstorming. It’s improv. Logistics edition.”
And nobody leaves.
What Improv Looks Like (When You’ve Got Forklifts Outside)
At first? It’s awkward. We’re not performers. We’re operations. We like plans and control and floor markings.
But improv doesn’t ask for control. It asks for momentum.
Someone throws out an idea: “We colour-code the supermarket racks by urgency.”
“Yes, and the robot refuses to deliver yellow pallets after 4 p.m.”
“Yes, and Joe finally gets a button that zaps anyone who stages early.”
It gets silly. Exaggerated. Half-familiar. But under the laughter? There’s truth. Because it’s already happening. Just with more plausible deniability.
Then Something Shifts
Not a joke. Not loud. Just a voice from the far end of the table.
Priya. Master data. Quiet. Sharp. Criminally underutilised.
She says: “Yes, and… what if we stop trying to make ECC work and look at S/4 instead?”
Silence. Not resistance. Shock.
We’ve been neck-deep in Classic WM tweaks. No one’s dared touch the S/4 question.
Guy doesn’t blink. He turns to the AI console and types:
Prompt: “How would supermarket replenishment with multiple fixed bins per material work in SAP S/4?”
AI reply: “SAP S/4HANA with Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) does not enforce the ‘one fixed bin per material’ restriction found in Classic WM. EWM supports multiple bin assignments, slotting strategies, and real-time location control — making it ideal for dynamic staging and decentralised buffers.”
Then Darren, our business analyst, leans forward. “We could rent an S/4 system. Try it out. See if it holds up.”
And the CFO — calm, deadpan, dangerous with a spreadsheet — says: “Yes, and we’ve got the budget. Better than guessing.”
That breaks it. Not the silence. The cycle.
The Joke That Wasn’t
No roadmap. No pitch. No alignment matrix. Just one idea, said out loud, at the wrong time — which turned out to be exactly the right one.
Guy closes his laptop. “I can spin it up. I’ll need test data and staging logic from three or four of you.”
No resistance. Just nods. Then, CFO again: “Approved. Make it happen.”
From improv to implementation in under ten minutes. No slide deck. No drama. Just permission.
Why It Worked (When Nothing Else Did)
Improv doesn’t give you the answer. It makes space for the answer to land.
No rebuttals. No corrections. No committees.
Just one idea, yes-and-ed into clarity.
And once you hear it? You can’t unhear it.
The Loop Broke Before the Config Did
Nobody announced a decision. Nobody wrote a Jira ticket.
But the energy shifted. We weren’t pretending anymore. We were admitting it didn’t fit.
And instead of blaming ourselves for not fitting the system… We gave ourselves permission to try something else.
What Most Brainstorms Miss
They chase realism. They ask for consensus. They wrap fear in post-it notes.
Improv doesn’t need you to agree. It just needs you to build. And if the room’s ready? Someone walks through the door you didn’t know was locked.
This time, they did.
That Joke? It Wasn’t a Joke
It was oxygen.
And maybe — finally — a fix that fits us, not just the config.
It wasn’t elegant. It was honest. And that’s rarer.
Afterwards, I Ask Guy
“Did you know? That EWM could solve our ECC mess?”
He doesn’t lie. “I had a suspicion. I held it back. I wanted the room to land it first. Priya nudged the door. AI confirmed. That’s better than me saying it.”
He smiles. “If it hadn’t? I’d have said it. But it’s more powerful when it comes from the people who live it.”
He’s right. We didn’t whiteboard a fix. We made space for one to surface.
P.S. The smartest idea in that room? It wasn’t in the plan. It was the one that made us laugh first. Then build.
