Project Recovery: Product Recall and Withdrawal
The client is a major Australian retailer with operations nationwide. With hundreds of stores, the organisation is committed to consumer safety and maintaining the highest standards for product quality and recall processes.
Business Challenge
The initiative to replace this legacy system with a streamlined, semi-autonomous, and future-proofed SaaS-based solution had undergone multiple unsuccessful attempts due to its complex integration across the ecosystem, including the Point of Sale (POS). At the time, it was the department’s most significant program.
This impacted the integrity of the executing recalls and withdrawals across the enterprise, resulting in an increased risk to public health and safety, as well as damage to the brand's reputation.
The initiative to replace this legacy system with a streamlined, semi-autonomous, and future-proofed SaaS-based solution had undergone multiple unsuccessful attempts due to its complex integration across the ecosystem, including the Point of Sale (POS). At the time, it was the department’s most significant program.
Solution
Having previously delivered successful projects within the organisation, Protegic was engaged to take over the product recall and withdrawal program of work.
- Clarified the project scope and stakeholder landscape through detailed assessment, enabling accurate estimates, realistic timelines, and achievable budgets.
- Secured additional funding and resources via a comprehensive business case, including restructuring of the engineering function.
- Delivered the project using an agile methodology with sprints, cross-functional teams, and seamless integration of all technical components.
- Established strong governance with steering committee oversight and C-Suite sponsorship to ensure executive support and visibility.
- Maintained adaptability to shifting requirements while upholding project discipline, achieving all time, cost, quality, and benefit targets.
Outcomes Achieved
The successful implementation delivered immediate and measurable improvements.
- Enabled the Safety business unit to measure, for the first time, the lifecycle of a product alert once issues were identified across the Safety and SCP ecosystems.
- Provided clear oversight of several thousand product-related records across lanes, stores, and states, uncovering long-standing integrity issues that had gone unmanaged for months.
- Leveraged a technology platform that became an enabler of ongoing value rather than a barrier to progress.
- Improved collaboration between previously siloed departments, fostering a delivery approach that supported future initiatives.
- Demonstrated how clear project scopes, effective stakeholder management, and strong governance can transform a failing initiative into a successful delivery. Ask ChatGPT
The successful rescue of this critical project demonstrated Protegic's capability and reliability. Immediately following completion, the client assigned Protegic to their next most extensive program. This vote of confidence led to additional project management and business analysis resources being allocated, signalling the client's growing trust in Protegic's delivery capabilities.
