Operations Navigator is a configurable workspace that helps leaders understand where their operation needs attention, decide what to do next, and follow through. It brings operational metrics, observation findings, team development information, and actions together to support the decisions leaders make every day:
Supervisors can use Navigator to prioritize time on the floor.
Operations Managers can review how their teams are responding to issues.
Shift and site leaders can identify recurring problems, coordinate support, and assess whether improvement efforts are working.
By bringing this information into daily huddles, weekly reviews, associate conversations, and other leadership routines, Navigator helps teams spend less time assembling information and more time improving their operation.
Start with the outcome you want to improve
A useful Navigator workspace starts with a clear operational question:
Which associates or processes need attention today?
Where are we losing productive time, and what is causing it?
Are leaders reaching their teams and following through on commitments?
Are our actions improving safety, quality, performance, or readiness?
What does the next shift need to know or continue?
Choose the outcome first, then identify the people, information, and routine needed to support it. Navigator can strengthen an existing meeting or help establish a more consistent workflow where one is missing.
For each workflow, establish a repeatable cycle:
Review: Identify a trend, exception, risk, or unmet commitment.
Investigate: Review the supporting information, observe the work, and speak with the people involved.
Act: Agree on the appropriate response, owner, and due date.
Follow up: Review what was completed, what was learned, and whether the result improved.
A metric helps identify where to look. Observations, conversations, and operational context help establish why the issue is happening and what response is appropriate.
How different leaders use Navigator
Each level of leadership needs visibility into the work it can influence. The same operational issue may require a supervisor to investigate, an operations manager to remove a barrier, and a site leader to coordinate a broader change.
Role | Primary focus | How Navigator supports the role |
Frontline supervisor | Individual associates and daily process execution | Identify coaching and observation priorities, review development needs, investigate performance gaps, and follow up on assigned actions. |
Operations manager (OM) | Department performance and supervisor effectiveness | Review operational trends alongside supervisor activity, associate coverage, findings, and action progress. Help supervisors resolve barriers and assess whether their responses are working. |
Assistant general manager (AGM) or shift leader | Shift performance and coordination across departments | Identify recurring constraints, review how OMs are managing follow-through, and coordinate issues that require support across departments. |
General manager (GM) or site leader | Site results and the effectiveness of the leadership team | Review trends across shifts, identify systemic issues, prioritize resources, and assess progress against site improvement priorities. |
Titles and responsibilities vary by organization. Configure views around the decisions each leader owns; one person may cover several of these responsibilities.
Common leadership workflows
The following examples are starting points. Available metrics and workflows depend on your organization's data connections, enabled Smart Access features, and configuration.
1. Daily performance and gap-time review
Outcome: Reduce avoidable losses in productive time and address performance issues earlier.
Participants and cadence: Supervisors review daily, with OMs supporting investigation and escalation as needed.
Review in Navigator: Available productivity, utilization, or gap-time metrics alongside recent observations, associate development progress, and open actions.
Put it into practice:
Identify repeated exceptions or changes that warrant attention.
Check the reporting period and relevant work context before drawing conclusions.
Observe the process and speak with associates to understand contributing factors.
Assign the appropriate response and review subsequent results.
Gap time may reflect equipment availability, work allocation, delays, coding issues, or other conditions. The investigation should determine whether the response involves coaching, training, process changes, or operational support.
Follow-up: Did the loss recur? Was the underlying barrier resolved? Did performance improve while maintaining safety and quality?
2. Weekly operational performance reviews
Outcome: Turn performance discussions into clear commitments and sustained improvement.
Participants and cadence: Supervisors and OMs, with shift or site leadership as appropriate; weekly. Examples include performance roundtables, results meetings, tier meetings, and Ops 360 reviews.
Review in Navigator: Department or shift results, trends, relevant observation findings, and actions from previous reviews. Use a consistent reporting period so participants are discussing the same information.
Put it into practice:
Begin with previous commitments: what was completed, what remains open, and what changed?
Focus discussion on significant gaps and recurring patterns.
Use observation findings and leader feedback to explain the operational context.
Agree on the next action, owner, due date, and evidence to review.
Escalate issues that require support beyond the department.
Follow-up: Are repeated issues declining? Are actions progressing? Does the next review show evidence that the response was effective?
3. Associate coaching and development conversations
Outcome: Make associate conversations more specific, consistent, and useful.
Participants and cadence: Supervisor and associate during regular one-on-ones, development reviews, or follow-ups prompted by a specific need. OMs can use the same context to support supervisors.
Review in Navigator: Available performance trends, observation findings, development progress, and previous actions. Review supporting associate information in Smart Access as needed.
Put it into practice:
Prepare around a specific topic: progress, a recurring difficulty, a process concern, or a development opportunity.
Discuss the associate's experience and any barriers to success.
Recognize effective work and agree on the support or practice needed.
Record the next step and return to it in a subsequent conversation.
Include new hires, established associates, and strong performers in the coaching routine. Performance exceptions help prioritize attention, while coverage helps leaders maintain engagement across the whole team.
Follow-up: Was the agreed support provided? Has the relevant behavior or result improved? Is further practice, observation, or development needed?
4. Leader standard work and follow-through
Outcome: Make leadership routines consistent and ensure they lead to useful action.
Participants and cadence: OMs reviewing supervisor execution, AGMs reviewing OM follow-through, and GMs reviewing broader patterns; daily or weekly depending on the routine.
Review in Navigator: Observation compliance, associate coverage, findings, assigned actions, and the operational results those activities are intended to influence.
Put it into practice:
Identify missed commitments, associates who have not been reached, and overdue follow-ups.
Review whether observations and conversations are identifying useful issues.
Understand what is preventing leaders from completing or following through on their work.
Agree on support, priorities, and corrective steps.
Revisit both activity and results at the next review.
Follow-up: Are leaders reaching the intended associates? Are findings producing appropriate action? Is the operation improving as the leadership routine becomes more consistent?
5. Shift readiness
Outcome: Identify and address readiness gaps before they affect the shift.
Participants and cadence: Supervisors and OMs during shift preparation or startup, with training and other support teams involved where needed.
Review in Navigator: Available skill-build progress, certification status, unresolved actions, and operational metrics relevant to the planned work.
Put it into practice:
Review readiness for the functions the shift needs to perform.
Identify qualification or development gaps that may affect assignments.
Bring relevant constraints into the staffing and startup discussion.
Assign or escalate the preparation, training, or support required.
Follow-up: Were readiness gaps addressed before work began? Which constraints remain, and who is responsible for resolving them?
6. Cross-shift continuity
Outcome: Help the incoming shift continue unresolved work with clear context and ownership.
Participants and cadence: Outgoing and incoming supervisors or OMs at shift transition, with shift leaders involved for broader issues.
Review in Navigator: Relevant operational results, open actions, and supporting notes or inputs configured for the workflow.
Put it into practice:
Review significant deviations, unresolved issues, and actions already taken.
Explain the current condition and what the next shift needs to continue or monitor.
Confirm ownership, timing, and any escalation required.
Revisit recurring issues in the appropriate operational review.
Use this shared view alongside your organization's shift-reporting and handoff process. Where that process relies on spreadsheets or email, work with your Smart Access team to determine which information and follow-up can be brought into the configured workflow.
Follow-up: Did the incoming leader have enough context to act? Did the issue progress toward resolution? Are the same problems repeatedly carrying across shifts?
Connect leadership activity to operational results
Review four types of information together:
Information | Question it answers |
Compliance | Are leaders completing the expected observations or activities? |
Coverage | Are the intended associates being reached within the agreed period? |
Findings and follow-through | What are leaders learning, and what are they doing about it? |
Operational outcomes | Are safety, quality, performance, or readiness improving? |
Completing an action confirms that a step was taken. Reviewing the subsequent result helps determine whether it addressed the issue.
Coaching notes capture the conversation, associate perspective, and agreed support. Structured process observations capture specific behaviors and process steps consistently, making recurring deviations easier to identify. Use both where appropriate to understand the issue and choose the response.
Example: Investigating a recurring picking performance gap
A supervisor notices that several associates are repeatedly below the expected picking performance level. The supervisor reviews recent observation findings and open actions, then observes the work and speaks with the associates.
The investigation identifies delays waiting for replenishment in one area. The supervisor records the finding and agrees on a response with the OM and the team responsible for replenishment. Any separate coaching needs receive their own follow-up.
At the next operational review, the OM checks whether the agreed response was completed and whether delays and picking performance improved, while also reviewing quality. If the issue persists, the leaders investigate further or escalate it.
Navigator supports continuity from the initial performance signal through investigation, ownership, and review of the result.
Configure a focused starting point
Begin with one valuable workflow and expand as the team establishes a useful routine.
Choose an outcome and routine. Identify what you want to improve and where leaders will review it.
Confirm the participants and scope. Decide which teams, departments, shifts, or locations each view should include.
Select a small set of relevant metrics. Combine operational results with the activity and follow-through needed to influence them.
Confirm data availability. Use connected operational data and native Smart Access information where available. Reserve manual inputs for context or information that needs to be captured by a person.
Define the response. Agree on what warrants investigation, who owns follow-up, and when progress will be reviewed.
Review and refine. Check whether the view supports the intended decisions, then extend the approach to additional workflows or teams.
Metric availability and freshness depend on the underlying data source and update schedule. Align reporting periods and thresholds with your operation, and confirm that the right people appear in each view.
Start with manual action assignment where leaders are still learning the workflow. Once thresholds and responses are established, work with your Smart Access team to configure automated action plans where appropriate.
Navigator workspaces are accessed through the web portal. Assigned actions can be received and completed through the Smart Access mobile app, helping leaders carry follow-up into their work on the floor.
Getting started
Bring your Customer Success Manager or Organization Administrator one leadership routine you want to strengthen, the outcome you want to improve, and the information your team currently uses. Together, you can define a focused Navigator workspace and the follow-through needed to make it useful.
For additional configuration guidance: