There is a common occurrence in the warehouse environment which adds time and money. Follow me for a moment… In 1768, the British Government noticed that westbound mail ships took weeks longer to reach the colonies than it took eastbound mail ships to reach London. Their complaint reached the US Deputy Postmaster General at the time, Benjamin Franklin, who began to gather data on wind, current water temperatures, etc., to investigate what the real problem was. He spoke with whalers, captains, navigators, and scientists and he interpreted the data to develop a map of the Gulf Stream. In sum, he used a defined process to gather facts and then developed it into solid information. He published his map in 1770 and he is still given credit today for properly defining the Gulf Stream.
How is this story relevant today? We have seen many organizations struggle to successfully solve their problems because they make the big mistake of...Read more »
Lately one of the biggest hazards I’ve seen in warehouses is the false sense of security about safety. Some managers have fallen into the trap of thinking that just because they haven’t had an “incident” they are okay. But in reality, if you're not making safety a priority in your operations, you're setting the stage for potential costly disaster.
One of the best ways to ensure that safety is a main concern in your facility is to have a safety team. Our team includes four members and meets monthly to review policies, update training procedures, review issues and gather feedback.
The mission of the team is to encourage employee involvement in the safety program, examine worksites to determine potential hazards, develop procedures that ensure that all current and potential hazards are corrected in a timely manner, safe work practices are understood and followed by all workers, provide training to make sure that all employees understand the hazards to which they may be exposed and how to prevent harm to themselves and others.
I spoke with Jim Schreiner who is the Manufacturing & Field Installation Supervisor here....Read more »
One of the questions we hear a lot from potential or brand new clients
is "What's so different about Retrotech, how will you assure us that
all potential benefits have been explored, and the business results on
which this investment is based will be achieved?
At Retrotech we employ a multi-step process developed by the International Council on System Engineering (INCOSE - http://www.incose.org/practice/fellowsconsensus.aspx)
with the acronym SIMILAR. This process was developed to guide the
execution of complex, multi-discipline projects specifically by focusing
on a thorough examination of the problem and potential solutions before
committing to construction. Read more »
Warehouse automation is a complex and vast topic. There is no one
technology or process that will guarantee success. As you now
understand, the decision to automate a warehouse should be made only
after a careful and comprehensive business process review and evaluation
is completed. This process can take a long time. But it’s worth it. The
optimization of warehousing activities can lead to drastic reductions
in structural costs that can propel your firm’s distribution center
front and center as a potential key to organizational success. Read more »
Now, it's time to gain consensus and financial support for your automation project. We won't cover a step-by-step account of how to sell your solution, but we want to give you the right framework to approach your executive team.
First, don't forget strategy. Always start there. Demonstrate that your eye is on the same ball as theirs...... Read more »
You will not be able to solve every aspect of every problem that
stakeholders want solved. So, how do you choose what to cut and what to
fix? This is where understanding the corporate strategy comes in handy.
Use it as a yardstick. If a problem can be directly tied to a strategic
initiative, then you need to fix it if you can. If it's something that
is not easily tied to delivering on a strategic goal and you can't
easily solve it, then it's a good candidate for being left by the
wayside. The nice thing about this approach is you can easily defend
your choices. You're making decisions based on the company's commitment to its strategic initiatives. Read more »
Now that you have defined the problem, it’s time to develop a solution
By
now you should have explored the following: a universal problem
statement, a corporate strategy, any new strategic challenges,
operational pressures and distribution- specific challenges. You now
have a great perspective of the macro goals and issues facing the
company, as well as department- specific issues. You
have defined the issues that pertain to distribution and you can view
everything in the context of the company’s strategic initiatives. It’s
now time to innovate solutions – solutions that bridge the gap between
operational reality and strategic intent.
Your goal here is to
get as close as possible to solving all the problems you’ve identified.
Gather a team of content experts.This option is often overlooked or
skipped because the assumption is it’s your job to figure this out on
your own. But, the truth is, it’s your job to manage the process of
figuring this out. Read more »
The next step is to outline issues specific to distribution. These are things that you are regularly trying to deal with that present challenges beyond the daily routine of loading trucks and shipping goods. It’s likely that one or all of the following five issues pushed you to consider automation
Rising Costs
All distribution center managers dealwith rising costs. These costs come from a number of places, such as labor, insurance,power, maintenance, breakage, errors and downtime, to list a few. These costs are not static and often are not controllable by you, yet they always trend upwards.
Environmental Impact
Another area of operational pressure is the impact your distribution
center has on the environment. Companies all over the world are
increasingly being held more accountable for how they impact the
environment. This pressure can come from inside and outside your
organization. Read more »
It will become clear, as you talk to stakeholders, how important it is to understand corporate strategy.
What’s the Corporate Strategy?
It
will become clear, as you talk to stakeholders,how important it is to
understand corporate strategy. Your company’s strategic plan should
outline organizational goals and describe where resources have been
allocated over the next three to five years. In a publicly traded
company this information is often part of the CEO Letter to Shareholders
in the Annual Report. However, many companies may keep that information
restricted or not documented in a plan, but there are multiple ways to
discover strategic initiatives including discussions with the executive
team. Discussions with the executive team will also reveal variations in
how each one sees and interprets the company strategy. Documenting this
in a gap analysis will help you prepare a proposal that’s more likely
to win funding. Understanding corporate strategy will help develop
solutions that meet organizational needs, align departmental efforts,
and deploy resources more efficiently.
Identify New Strategic Challenges
A
key step at this time is to identify any new or emerging strategic
challenges. These would be things that have created a challenge for your
company strategically and that are not addressed in your company’s
plan. For instance, maybe the last six months has seen a major shift in
technology usage. Or, maybe a competitor has come out with a new
capability to out-flank your company, allowing it to steal away
accounts. Make sure you’ve identified these issues. They don’t
necessarily show up in corporate strategy, but you can bet they are high
on your company’s list of urgent issues to deal with. Read more »
First we should quantify the cost of problems facing
distribution by bridging the gap between strategic intent and operational
reality. That means take the “reality” of distribution, all its operational
issues, and align them with the strategic needs of your company. On one hand
you have quicker turns, environmental impact, increased SKUs, increased order
complexity and rising costs. On the other hand you have a corporate strategy
focused on top-line growth and increased competitive advantage. When we explore
the gap between these two realities, so distribution contributes to corporate
strategy, we begin to solve a key problem that increases the likelihood of
corporate support and financing.
"Before solving a problem, we need to understand it" Read more »
You
have defined the issues that pertain to distribution and you can view
everything in the context of the company’s strategic initiatives. It’s
now time to innovate solutions – solutions that bridge the gap between
operational reality and strategic intent. 
