ABOUT RONA
RONA, a major Canadian home improvement retailer, operates a complex supply chain and distribution network. The company relies heavily on its Blue Yonder Warehouse Management System (BY WMS) to drive operational efficiency across its multiple distribution centers. With the help of SLMCON, a Cycle Labs and Blue Yonder implementation partner, RONA has taken a proactive approach to test automation, ensuring system reliability and continuous improvement.
RONA'S CHALLENGES
Over the course of several years, RONA faced a series of high-stakes system initiatives—including navigating structural business changes, optimizing infrastructure costs, and upgrading distribution center software. Each initiative carried significant risk if system stability and performance were compromised. Whether managing organizational transitions, scaling down hardware, or upgrading to a new BY WMS version, RONA needed a reliable and repeatable way to ensure system integrity.
The company’s logistics and IT teams required a scalable testing approach to:
- Validate the impact of major changes to their BY WMS environments
- Identify defects early in the development lifecycle
- Avoid service disruptions that could impact customer satisfaction and incur financial penalties
- Build toward a future-proof continuous testing model
SOLUTION
To address these challenges, RONA—working closely with SLMCON—implemented a multi-faceted testing strategy using Cycle Labs’ test automation platform. Leveraging Cycle’s base BY WMS test library, the teams were able to quickly and easily implement a wide range of test scenarios, accelerating the setup process. This foundation supported robust regression testing, volume testing, and continuous testing capabilities.
- Regression Testing: A comprehensive BY WMS regression library was developed using Cycle®, enabling RONA to validate system functionality with broad test coverage and high reliability. These automated tests uncovered numerous defects that often go undetected in manual testing—especially edge cases that appear normal but behave unexpectedly in execution.
- Volume Testing: RONA relies on Cycle to conduct volume testing that ensures the stability and scalability of its WMS systems and infrastructure. Throughout their implementation lifecycle, the team has performed multiple rounds of high-throughput testing to simulate peak demand scenarios and validate system changes—such as hardware modifications—without performance degradation. Volume testing remains an ongoing part of RONA’s quality assurance strategy.
- Continuous Testing: To move toward faster, more proactive QA cycles, a continuous testing pipeline was developed using GitLab—demonstrating Cycle’s ability to integrate with non-native CI/CD tools. This pipeline lays the groundwork for scalable, automated testing aligned with DevOps workflows.
SLMCON’s certified Cycle experts rapidly deployed the BY WMS test library and tailored it to RONA’s complex environment.
This enabled:
- Rapid time-to-value with out-of-the-box BY WMS test coverage
- Flexible customization to support RONA’s unique business processes
- Scalability to accommodate a large and evolving supply chain
RESULTS
RONA realized measurable improvements in testing efficiency, risk mitigation, and team productivity:
- Cycle automation identified 30% more defects than manual testing—many in previously tested areas, helping RONA uncover and resolve critical configuration issues early.
- Improved confidence and speed during system changes—including past BY WMS upgrades, hardware changes, and ongoing regression testing efforts for future custom solutions.
- A future-ready CI/CD pipeline—built on GitLab—that demonstrates how Cycle supports seamless integration with non-native toolchains for continuous testing.
By using Cycle—implemented with expert support from SLMCON—RONA reduced costs, ensured system stability, and established a framework for continuous improvement in software quality.
RONA’s success with Cycle and SLMCON continues to shape a forward-looking QA strategy—focused on innovation, speed, and scalability.
Cycle helped us validate complex scenarios across multiple environments. With automated regression and volume testing in place, we can trust our systems to perform under pressure.
SHWETA RAUT
Manager, Technology | RONA