In my work, I visit different companies every month. These companies do everything from manufacturing, food, banking, textiles and of course, PVF distribution.
Whilst visiting, I am impressed with the front office. The conference rooms are well appointed, the sales guys are equipped with smart looking iPhones, Tablets and the like. The brochures are slick, the Web sites are informative and user friendly. The customer databases are comprehensive and detailed — these companies know the order patterns, sales volumes, and the product preferences for their top customers. They instantly know if a loyal customer’s spending drops off.
And then I visit the warehouse. YIKES! I feel like I have fallen into a time machine and popped out in some 19th century Dickensian horror. I fully expect to see Bob Cratchit appear at any moment, asking for more coal.
These warehouses are poorly lit and dirty. There are boxes of materials (and materials not in boxes) all over the place, cluttering up the aisles. Returned materials are shoved off into corners or on top of other materials. Looking around, I ask myself: Just how many of those defective parts and pieces get restocked, by accident? Overstock material is stuck anywhere there’s space, these materials aren’t stored where someone can find them. Partial orders and returns clog up the shipping area.
I know, I know — you’re already muttering to yourself, “PVF isn’t Austrian crystal. And this ain’t Tiffany’s. These materials aren’t delicate or perishable. They don’t need to be handled with extreme care. Besides, the customer never sees the warehouse.” Agreed – yet I am here to tell you that an organized, clean, well-lit warehouse will eliminate so many problems you currently think are inevitable, just part of doing PVF business.
Well-lit / Clean:
Let’s start with the obvious. In a clean, brightly lit warehouse, it is a hell of a lot easier for the order picker to:
· find parts as he can read the label and see the part!
· distinguish between (very) similar parts.
· notice that a part is defective.
And customers prefer to receiving clean parts.
Imagine – shipping fewer wrong or bad parts to customers!!