Today is labor day and hopefully many of you are enjoying the day off. Being in the warehousing industry it is particularly important to recognize the labor that plays a significant role in getting all of the things we enjoy on a daily basis. Look around you and pretty much everything you see has passed through a warehouse at some point. Unfortunately in many organizations the ones doing the physical labor within the four walls often get overlooked. I guarantee there are many warehouse...
25 days ago • 3 min read
It's hard to believe summer is already coming to an end. My son is back to school on Thursday and I'm back on the road next Thursday for some great events. Speaking of great events, last week was a logistics paradise in NYC with three great events over the span of Monday and Tuesday. Monday evening was the kick off where Matt Hertz of Third Person hosted a dinner for 60 folks from the e-commerce world at Keen's. Amazing steak and a real who's who of the e-comm world. It was great eating with...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
It feels good to almost take a full week off from the regular day to day. Last week I spent some time down in Florida with my son who just turned 13 yesterday! We hit Universal for Super Nintendo World, some Pokemon shops and spent time at Grandma's down in the Fort Myers area. One thing we did that was incredibly interesting and also related to supply chain (can't get away from it!) was visiting a local orange juice producer. We went to Sun Harvest Citrus to see how they make OJ because my...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
What a week last week! In both a good way and a bad way. Haha. I had an amazing time out in the Midwest visiting Toyota Material Handling's North America HQ in Columbus, Indiana where they just opened their brand new manufacturing facility. There is a lot of talk about the Toyota Production System but to see it in action is pretty incredible and inspiring. Not only from the production processes but to the culture that is evident throughout the entire campus. We also hosted a Warehousing After...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
The spectrum of services, technology and years in business is incredibly wide when it comes to 3PLs. Some have been in business for multiple generations and some were born out of the pandemic e-commerce boom. No matter where the 3PL is on that spectrum there is one thing for certain, DTC fulfilment is increasingly becoming a need to have service offering. As we head into the IWLA Fulfillment Forum next week, I'm hosting a panel tomorrow to discuss 3 of the top things you need to nail in order...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Last week I got the chance to reminisce about some of my first experiences of working in a distribution center. I was discussing my role as an inventory control specialist back in 2012 with a start up who is trying to solve for data gaps in warehouse systems (lots of gaps to solve there!). We specifically started diving into the inventory discrepancies that I was responsible for solving between the ERP system and the WMS. While it could be a maddening task some days, this experience is what...
2 months ago • 3 min read
How fun is 5S and continuous improvement? I have to be honest I've been missing the little projects and the little tweaks that come up on a daily basis being in the warehouse regularly. I got the bug this weekend and did some garage clean out and organizing. Didn't tape the floors but did get some better space utilization out of it. Not fully optimized but much better than it was before. When I think about continuous improvement, especially when it comes to waste reduction, I like to think of...
2 months ago • 2 min read
I had an interesting customer experience this week and while it was not in a warehouse environment, the root cause was something that can be a takeaway for any warehouse. The root cause was preventive maintenance. On Sunday I was flying out of EWR and everything seemed to be on time with no issues. Pre-boarding happened, zones 1 and 2 were called to board, then our zone was called. We got into the line and then a couple minutes passed and we seemed to be stalled. Then it came, the dreaded...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Hope you had a great weekend and were able to have some fun! It feels like we are dodging either scorching hot temperatures or severe thunderstorms here in New Jersey. Honestly feels more like Florida than NJ right now! During these heat waves it's important to remember those that are working on the warehouse floor which more often than not have no air conditioning. Product keeps moving and people still need to move it. For those that are on the floor, be sure to add extra breaks, provide...
3 months ago • 3 min read