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For many growing businesses, digital transformation starts with new software.
For Link 2 Link Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., it started with a more fundamental question: How well do we understand the way work moves through our business today?
Established in 2003, Link 2 Link distributes quality and innovative pet products and accessories through B2B wholesale and B2C e-commerce channels. Its operations span more than 650 B2B retail accounts, over 1,000 products and more than 30 brands, supported by Oracle NetSuite as its enterprise resource planning platform.
As an Oracle NetSuite client, Link 2 Link was introduced to the Institute for Adult Learning (IAL) by Oracle NetSuite. The introduction opened a conversation about how workplace learning could help Link 2 Link strengthen its operational foundations before taking the next step in digital transformation.
When Growth Exposes the Gaps
Over time, Link 2 Link had built a network of workarounds to keep orders moving across warehouse operations, logistics, sales, finance, and e-commerce. While each workaround solved an immediate need, together they created delays, duplicated effort, and reduced visibility across the end-to-end fulfilment process.
Warehouse staff manually keyed in sales order numbers to generate picking lists. Delivery routes were planned using handwritten schedules. E-commerce orders required repeated downloading, reformatting, and uploading into NetSuite, while finance teams manually adjusted promotions and discounts before orders could be released for picking.
These were not isolated inefficiencies. A bottleneck in one function could ripple across the entire fulfilment chain, affecting warehouse preparation, delivery scheduling, customer responsiveness, and on-time fulfilment. Link 2 Link recognised that implementing new technology without first redesigning the underlying processes would simply digitise existing inefficiencies rather than eliminate them.
Taking a Step Back Before Moving Forward
Through the NACE@IAL Starter Programme, Link 2 Link partnered IAL to examine how work flowed across the organisation. The project involved interviews, focus groups, workplace observations and Gemba Walks across warehouse operations, logistics, sales, finance and e-commerce.
The team mapped current B2B and B2C order-to-fulfilment processes, identified operational waste and developed clear future-state process maps. This gave employees and management a shared view of where bottlenecks occurred, how different functions affected one another, and which improvements could be implemented immediately or explored through future automation.
The engagement focused on three priorities: improving B2B and B2C fulfilment processes, building continuous improvement capability within the warehouse and logistics team, and creating a digital and people transformation roadmap for future warehouse and fulfilment needs.
Building Continuous Improvement Capability
Capability transfer sat at the heart of the project. Link 2 Link's operational leaders were trained in practical Lean techniques, including waste identification, 5S workplace organisation, visual management, process mapping, spaghetti diagramming, and mistake-proofing.
Learning was embedded in the workplace, not confined to the classroom. During a Kaizen Blitz, the warehouse team applied 5S and safety principles to identify risks, improve housekeeping, streamline work areas, and establish clearer operating practices. The Project Champion subsequently led these improvement efforts alongside the warehouse and logistics teams, demonstrating the capability to drive change from within.
By learning how to observe work, uncover waste, and redesign processes, the team gained practical improvement tools that could be applied long after the consultancy had ended.
Small Changes, Meaningful Efficiency Gains
The project also produced immediate operational improvements.
- Picking-list preparation was improved by sorting sales orders sequentially before they were entered into NetSuite, reducing visual fatigue and lowering the risk of input errors.
- A digital delivery scheduling approach replaced handwritten route sheets, helping to reduce the morning planning bottleneck by about 30 minutes and enabling drivers to begin loading sooner.
- Warehouse safety and organisation were strengthened through clearer floor markings, housekeeping practices, visual controls and defined storage arrangements.
- Future-state process maps surfaced wider opportunities for route optimisation, scan-to-confirm picking, e-commerce order automation, real-time sales notifications and stronger inventory visibility.
The process maps were positively validated by the Finance, Sales and Warehouse teams. More importantly, they gave the organisation a shared language for discussing efficiency, technology and change across functions.
Creating a Roadmap for Digital and People Transformation
What started as a readiness assessment for a Warehouse Management System evolved into a broader rethink of Link 2 Link's digital future. As AI capabilities matured during the project, the company shifted from evaluating off-the-shelf solutions to exploring AI-enabled automation and customised in-house systems better suited to its needs.
The roadmap that emerged prioritised practical improvements today while creating options for tomorrow, from warehouse optimisation and route planning to e-commerce automation and ERP integration. More than identifying technology opportunities, the project equipped Link 2 Link with the capability, clarity, and confidence to make better transformation decisions and build a smarter, more scalable fulfilment operation.
Looking Ahead
For Link 2 Link, workplace learning was not about stepping away from operations to attend a course. It was about helping people examine their own work, test improvements and build the confidence to lead change from within.
The company now has a clearer view of how work moves across its fulfilment chain, where technology can add value, and what employees will need as roles and processes evolve. Future AI, automation or warehouse initiatives can build on a stronger operational foundation rather than starting with assumptions.
Before investing in new technology, does your organisation have a clear picture of how work actually happens today?
Link 2 Link’s experience shows that successful digital transformation starts with people, processes and practical workplace learning. Whether your organisation is exploring operational improvement, Lean transformation, AI adoption, job redesign or digitalisation, IAL’s consultancy programmes can help build the internal capability needed to make change sustainable.
Connect with IAL to explore how workplace learning can support your organisation’s next phase of growth.