Top 5 reasons using a digital camera isn’t a good work around in the warehouse:
5. “Anybody seen the camera?”
4. “Darn, the batteries are dead.”
3. “Does anyone know how to plug this into the PC?”
2. “Jimmy! Didn’t know you drove a Harley! Sweet! Get a shot of me on it!”
And the # 1 reason a digital camera isn’t a good workaround in the warehouse?
“Does anyone remember which pictures go with which shipment?”
Is there a better way to get images of damaged freight?
You bet there is: On-line and in real-time with Fontana IMS from A3 Technologies.
To learn more, call A3 Technologies at 888-461-4222,
e-mail us at sales@a3-tech.com,
or visit our website at http://www.a3-tech.com/.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
COMMITMENT TO QUALITY
WHAT FEDEX CAN TEACH INVENTORY MANAGERS
COMMITMENT TO QUALITY
It’s funny, but many companies treat quality as a given. “We deliver quality.” “Our products are the ¬highest quality.” “Quality is our only job.”
Even in their “mission statement” has the obligatory commitment to quality. “We strive to deliver products and services that set new standards for quality.” “Our mission is to raise the bar in quality products and services.” “We are committed to the highest quality standards.”
An east Tennessee friend calls statements like these “Chin Music.”
It’s not a complement.
Quality is not “chin music” at FedEx. FedEx is obsessed with delivering quality at every level.
One FedEx poster says it all: “IF we are satisfied with delivering just 99.9% of our packages on-time every day, 8 million packages a year won’t get there when we said they would.”
Getting it right 99.9% of the time is unacceptable.
Quality improves performance. Did you know that FedEx couriers have a set procedure for entering and exiting their trucks? It is the most efficient way to get in or out of a vehicle and it also is the safest. The reason is simple: Drivers who are injured cannot deliver packages. Drivers who do not lock their doors have their packages stolen.
FedEx drivers seldom get injured and they don’t get their packages stolen. They follow the procedure without fail. And they practice it in competitions.
Over the years FedEx has spent millions of dollars and man-hours developing and implementing LEAN and Six Sigma improvements. The result is a level of quality from one end of the organization to the other. What’s startling is that the process of improving quality never stops. Employees are encouraged to develop new and better ways to get their job done. They are driven to eliminate wasted time, wasted motion, wasted effort. Everything is documented, reviewed, tested and analyzed before it’s put into the operations manual.
Is your inventory management system designed around delivering quality?
How are orders for raw materials generated? Entered? Verified? Routed? Received? What causes a received item to be flagged for Quality Inspection? How is it tracked from receiving, to quality and into stock? Is item put away developed so the operator is routed to the correct location? Does your system automatically cycle count inventory locations at put away or at picking? Is your warehouse organized so the highest volume inventory, whether for customer orders or manufacturing are located at the point nearest where they will be used?
Going back to the previous article on Custodial Possession, do your warehouse employees feel a sense of ownership and obligation in completing their tasks and delivering the highest possible quality result?
Coming up next: TOTAL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: THE MOTOROLA REVOLUTION
COMMITMENT TO QUALITY
It’s funny, but many companies treat quality as a given. “We deliver quality.” “Our products are the ¬highest quality.” “Quality is our only job.”
Even in their “mission statement” has the obligatory commitment to quality. “We strive to deliver products and services that set new standards for quality.” “Our mission is to raise the bar in quality products and services.” “We are committed to the highest quality standards.”
An east Tennessee friend calls statements like these “Chin Music.”
It’s not a complement.
Quality is not “chin music” at FedEx. FedEx is obsessed with delivering quality at every level.
One FedEx poster says it all: “IF we are satisfied with delivering just 99.9% of our packages on-time every day, 8 million packages a year won’t get there when we said they would.”
Getting it right 99.9% of the time is unacceptable.
Quality improves performance. Did you know that FedEx couriers have a set procedure for entering and exiting their trucks? It is the most efficient way to get in or out of a vehicle and it also is the safest. The reason is simple: Drivers who are injured cannot deliver packages. Drivers who do not lock their doors have their packages stolen.
FedEx drivers seldom get injured and they don’t get their packages stolen. They follow the procedure without fail. And they practice it in competitions.
Over the years FedEx has spent millions of dollars and man-hours developing and implementing LEAN and Six Sigma improvements. The result is a level of quality from one end of the organization to the other. What’s startling is that the process of improving quality never stops. Employees are encouraged to develop new and better ways to get their job done. They are driven to eliminate wasted time, wasted motion, wasted effort. Everything is documented, reviewed, tested and analyzed before it’s put into the operations manual.
Is your inventory management system designed around delivering quality?
How are orders for raw materials generated? Entered? Verified? Routed? Received? What causes a received item to be flagged for Quality Inspection? How is it tracked from receiving, to quality and into stock? Is item put away developed so the operator is routed to the correct location? Does your system automatically cycle count inventory locations at put away or at picking? Is your warehouse organized so the highest volume inventory, whether for customer orders or manufacturing are located at the point nearest where they will be used?
Going back to the previous article on Custodial Possession, do your warehouse employees feel a sense of ownership and obligation in completing their tasks and delivering the highest possible quality result?
Coming up next: TOTAL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: THE MOTOROLA REVOLUTION
Thursday, July 1, 2010
WHAT FEDEX CAN TEACH INVENTORY MANAGERS - A SENSE OF URGENCY
Have you ever sat in line at the drive-in waiting for someone, anyone, to ask you for your order? Look at what is happening: The reason you’re in the drive-in line is you’re in a hurry. You don’t have time to park your car, go in, wait for a waiter to bring you a menu, look at the menu, wait for the waiter to come back, order your meal, wait for it, eat it, wait for the check, pay for it and leave.
No, you’re in a hurry, yet there you sit, waiting for someone to ask “May I take your order?” You have a sense of urgency. The person on the other end of the intercom? Not so much.
Just about everywhere you go these days there seems doesn’t seem to be a sense of urgency. Maybe the reason for that goes something like this: “I get paid for being here 8 hours, not for how much work I do.” Another one goes like this: “I’m busy. They can wait.”
To make matters worse the places where you find a lack of a sense of urgency part of the reason is that it’s communicated to employees by their managers. You ask to see the manager to complain and ten minutes later he or she appears. You, and by extrapolation, other customers, are not a priority, therefore no sense of urgency to respond.
Not at FedEx.
The first day I met the Director of Courier Operations at FedEx I noticed a sign on his desk: “If we don’t do our job today, we’ll be out of business tomorrow.” And he believed it. Fail to pick up and deliver packages on time, especially when your motto is “It’s there by 10:30 or it’s free” and you quite possibly could be out of business in a day.
It wasn’t the only place I saw that sign. It was everywhere.
There is no company I know of that is more clock conscious than FedEx, and there is just one clock: The digital clock in every building, in every office, on every wall, counting down in hours, minutes and seconds, the time left before aircraft must be in the air to deliver their packages on time the next day.
That clock does more than let everyone know how much time is left to do their job. It creates a sustained sense of urgency because without it FedEx could never achieve their goal: Deliver those packages by 10:30 AM tomorrow. No one at FedEx puts it off until tomorrow.
Does your order entry, receiving, put away, picking, ship staging and shipping pulse with a sense of urgency? Are orders routed and prioritized for efficient picking? Do order pickers move swiftly and surely through the warehouse as they pick inventory for shipment? Is your inventory mapped so the most frequently ordered items and most urgent items are closest to shipping? Do your employees and managers share a sense of urgency?
That sense of urgency at FedEx creates an environment for building teamwork: Everyone knows what they have to do and they know they can’t do it all themselves. The only way to succeed every day is to not just work together, but find better ways to work together.
If you want to gain a unique competitive advantage over your rivals, nothing beats a sense of urgency and making it part of your culture.
Next up: COMMITMENT TO QUALITY
No, you’re in a hurry, yet there you sit, waiting for someone to ask “May I take your order?” You have a sense of urgency. The person on the other end of the intercom? Not so much.
Just about everywhere you go these days there seems doesn’t seem to be a sense of urgency. Maybe the reason for that goes something like this: “I get paid for being here 8 hours, not for how much work I do.” Another one goes like this: “I’m busy. They can wait.”
To make matters worse the places where you find a lack of a sense of urgency part of the reason is that it’s communicated to employees by their managers. You ask to see the manager to complain and ten minutes later he or she appears. You, and by extrapolation, other customers, are not a priority, therefore no sense of urgency to respond.
Not at FedEx.
The first day I met the Director of Courier Operations at FedEx I noticed a sign on his desk: “If we don’t do our job today, we’ll be out of business tomorrow.” And he believed it. Fail to pick up and deliver packages on time, especially when your motto is “It’s there by 10:30 or it’s free” and you quite possibly could be out of business in a day.
It wasn’t the only place I saw that sign. It was everywhere.
There is no company I know of that is more clock conscious than FedEx, and there is just one clock: The digital clock in every building, in every office, on every wall, counting down in hours, minutes and seconds, the time left before aircraft must be in the air to deliver their packages on time the next day.
That clock does more than let everyone know how much time is left to do their job. It creates a sustained sense of urgency because without it FedEx could never achieve their goal: Deliver those packages by 10:30 AM tomorrow. No one at FedEx puts it off until tomorrow.
Does your order entry, receiving, put away, picking, ship staging and shipping pulse with a sense of urgency? Are orders routed and prioritized for efficient picking? Do order pickers move swiftly and surely through the warehouse as they pick inventory for shipment? Is your inventory mapped so the most frequently ordered items and most urgent items are closest to shipping? Do your employees and managers share a sense of urgency?
That sense of urgency at FedEx creates an environment for building teamwork: Everyone knows what they have to do and they know they can’t do it all themselves. The only way to succeed every day is to not just work together, but find better ways to work together.
If you want to gain a unique competitive advantage over your rivals, nothing beats a sense of urgency and making it part of your culture.
Next up: COMMITMENT TO QUALITY
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)