CHAPTER 1
How citizen developers are reshaping warehouse agility
What is citizen development and how can it drive warehouse optimization?
Warehouse operations move fast, but software doesn’t always keep up. While your team spots workflow inefficiencies daily, getting IT resources to address them can take months — if it happens at all. Citizen development changes this dynamic by enabling warehouse managers and operations staff to build or customize their own solutions using low-code and no-code platforms.
Here, we explore how citizen development can transform your warehouse operations, reduce IT bottlenecks and put problem-solving power directly in the hands of the people who know your processes best.
Exploring the problem: The challenges of traditional development
The bottleneck in IT resources
Custom applications are essential for addressing specific organizational needs, especially in warehouse management where processes and workflows are unique and evolve over time. Yet, developing these solutions traditionally requires skilled developers and significant time —resources that many IT departments simply don’t have. This bottleneck slows innovation, frustrates end-users and creates a dependency on external vendors.
Misalignment between business needs and IT
Non-technical teams, such as warehouse managers or supply chain analysts, often have a deep understanding of the pain points and inefficiencies in their operations; however, they may struggle to communicate these nuances effectively to IT teams. The result: solutions that miss the mark or require multiple iterations, leading to wasted time and resources.
Understanding citizen development
Citizen development refers to the practice of enabling non-technical employees to create or customize applications using low-code or no-code platforms. These platforms provide intuitive interfaces, drop-down menus and pre-built templates, making it easier for business users to adapt existing functionality or extend what the software can do without altering the source code.
How it works
Low-code/no-code platforms
Tools like Tecsys’ Itopia® platform allow users to customize screens, extend the data model, connect data sources and modify or automate warehouse processes or workflows.
Governance
IT teams establish guardrails and best practices to ensure security, compliance and scalability while empowering citizen developers to operate autonomously within these parameters.
Collaboration
Business users and IT work together to align on objectives, ensuring that the solutions are both technically sound and operationally relevant.
Practical examples
Inventory accuracy
Receive an email notification when an operator overrides the putaway location directed by the warehouse management system (WMS).
UI customization
Customize picking workflows for pickers using different scanning devices or make a wholesale change to your scanning devices (e.g. handheld to tablet on a cart).
Data integrity
Streamline the data transfer process and ensure standardization and product accuracy when importing product data from an external source.
Custom dashboards
Build interactive dashboards to monitor KPIs, providing actionable insights at a glance.
Strategic implications: The business case for citizen development
ROI and efficiency gains
By reducing reliance on IT for software customizations, organizations can lower development costs and bring new solutions to market faster. This also frees up IT teams to focus on more strategic, high-impact initiatives.
Transformation in WMS
For warehouse management systems, citizen development can:
- Improve decision-making: Provide real-time data insights directly to frontline workers.
- Streamline processes: Automate repetitive tasks, increase accuracy, reduce errors and improve throughput.
- Empower non-technical teams: Democratize innovation and foster a culture of ownership by enabling those closest to the problem to create solutions.
Unlocking the potential of citizen development
By equipping warehouse teams with the tools to build their own solutions, organizations can overcome resource bottlenecks, accelerate innovation and respond quickly to changing business needs. For supply chain leaders, this approach offers a practical path to solving today’s pressing challenges while building the agility needed for tomorrow’s success.
But not all low-code is created equal — and the approach you choose can determine whether you scale with speed or get stuck in complexity.
