Information Technology at Leroy Merlin

2024

Lemana Missile Defense began using robots in its warehouses. PHOTO

In September 2024, the Lehman Missile trading network began using robots in its warehouses as part of a strategic agreement with Yandex. One of the main implementation objects was the Severnaya Zvezda warehouse in Zaramenye, where an artificial intelligence depaletizer robot developed by Yandex Market was launched to automate processes. This is the first such robot used in Russia for retail, which is able to disassemble pallets with boxes of different shapes, sizes and weights and carefully move them to the conveyor. Read more here

Nikolay Knysh, technology director of Leroy Merlin - about the "rake" of digital transformation, on which there is a risk of stepping

Nikolay Knysh, technology director of Leroy Merlin, speaking at TAdviser SummIT on May 28, shared his perspective on drivers and threats to digital transformation.

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TAdviser

Transformation in an organization often begins with changes in organizational processes, new role models, and how decisions are made and powers reallocated. In this sense, what is called enterprise gravity is very important. Many enterprises stumble about this, notes Nikolai Knysh. For example, a product team was launched, but it still works in old processes, which sooner or later will drag it into the old mode in which the entire organization worked.

The second important point in transformation is learning. When employees are told that they should do something in a new way, they need to be trained in this. For example, when the team switches to iterative development from waterfall. And a separate story is culture:

If you think that there is no culture in your company, in fact, it is, and it is often much stronger than you want to think. Working with culture is an important focus of the company's transformation to match what we want to get.

We must not forget about transformation and communications. It is necessary to explain a lot and in detail to the company what exactly is being done, what the target result is, why this or that is changing. For employees, changes are always stressful, and you need to be able to answer the question of why all this is being done.

Speaking about specific cases from practice, the technology director of Leroy Merlin gave an example that people often find themselves gurus in some area. For example, there is a great specialist in the Kanban method, and they want to invite him to their organization, expecting that he will charge everyone with his influence, and the transformation will happen on its own.

We tried this: we once brought David Anderson, the man who invented the Kanban method. This is a hype, everyone really liked it: they pasted almost the entire office with stickers, made boards. But as a result, two months later, all these stickers flew around, and people continued to live as they lived. Somewhere in 2-3 places it took root, but at the level of organization of influence it did not have, - said Nikolai Knysh.

The takeaway: Understand what you're engaging a guru for, and that it can't be the only way to trigger a transformation. But to maintain attention and communication, this is suitable.

Another story is the coaches. Nikolai Knysh also calls her a "rake" from the experience. There is a hypothesis that the involvement of external coaches will transform teams, and then the entire organization, that coaches, helping to solve daily tasks and challenges, will help teams change. In reality, coaches are strong in training sales, and not in changing processes, in the organization they will not change anything. In addition, there are few truly professional coaches on the market.

Nikolai Knysh calls the third practical case "Selected." It is based on the hypothesis that transformation can only be carried out in part of the organization. Gather thinking, loyal, progressive employees, create privileged conditions for them, better than for the rest of the organization, carry out a transformation there, and then extend it to the whole company. There is a possibility that in part of the company it will not be possible to implement the plan, and the whole idea of ​ ​ transformation will be undermined. But even if in part of the company it was possible to build a "blooming garden," then everyone around will not like it. And then everyone is faced with the problem of how now this "garden" is integrated into a working organization.

A separate question to answer: who is the customer of the transformation? And you need to distinguish between the concepts of initiator, customer and transformation leader. From his experience, Nikolai Knysh believes that the customer of transformation at the level of the entire organization should be the CEO or the board - that is, those who have enough power to change processes and make unpopular decisions. And if this is a transformation at the department level, then the customer should be the head of this department. In other cases, transformations are most often broken.

The factor of "personality in history" is also important. Transformation is a process stretched over time. It happens that some of the company's top managers can change in the process, and the new manager will most often lead to reactionary changes in his field. Therefore, when hiring, it is important to pay attention to the culture and similarity of the candidate's values ​ ​ with what the company is trying to build. CEOs and board colleagues are the insurance and balancing factor to protect transformation.

Summit Photo Gallery

Шаблон:Галерея2024

О TAdviser SummIT

TAdviser SummIT, held on May 28, became the largest in the history of its holding: in total, more than 1.5 thousand delegates attended the conference, and more than 50 stands of IT products and services suppliers were deployed in the exhibition area. Nine thematic sessions were held as part of the event - more than last time. About 150 people made reports in the plenary part and thematic sessions. TAdviser SummIT was supported by Ministry of Digital Development. It was attended by the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maksut Shadayev, who in the format of an interview on stage answered sharp questions from participants in the IT industry.

2022: Creation of the IT company "Leroy Merlin Digital Technologies"

In October 2022, Leroy Merlin Digital Technologies was formed, the main activity of which is software development. It creates an IT infrastructure that improves customer experience and makes it seamless. Read more here.

2019: Victor Nastenko, Leroy Merlin: We are building a platform company, and this places huge demands on IT

Viktor Nastenko, Head of the IT Platform Department of the DOMI Directorate, Leroy Merlin, in an interview with TAdviser in March 2019, spoke about the peculiarities of modernizing the company's IT infrastructure and the reasons for choosing hyper-converged systems. Read more here.

IT passport of Leroy Merlin projects

{{# ITProj: Le Monlid (formerly Leroy Merlin East)}}