Archive for Labor

Today, more than ever before, companies are looking for ways to implement Lean manufacturing concepts into their distribution and warehousing network as a way to control costs and improve operational performance. This research often leads to the purchase of new technology or equipment. But while investment in these tools might create incremental savings, there’s a far more effective resource that’s often overlooked: employees.

The successful implementation of Lean in… Continue reading

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Categories : Guest Commentary, Labor, Warehousing
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Temperatures are supposed to reach 100F in Boston today, and other parts of the country are going through a heat wave too. It seems like only yesterday that several feet of snow covered my driveway, lawn, and every inch of the city, which is why this card says it all today:

someecards.com - I've been waiting all winter to start complaining about the summer heat

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Last year, I wrote about how DSC Logistics implemented a labor management system (LMS) and how it helped the company improve labor productivity at its warehouses. Regular readers of Logistics Viewpoints know that I am a big fan of LMS because of its robust ROI. DSC Logistics got a 20 percent improvement in warehouse labor productivity, which is not uncommon. But at RedPrairie’s RedShift 2011 User Conference (DSC… Continue reading

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Categories : Labor, Warehousing
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If you want this, then you can’t have that…at least not for the same price or level of service. We’re quick to point out tradeoffs as sellers, and we’re often quick to accept them as buyers, sometimes without question.

But questioning tradeoffs, negating them, proving them false—finding the AND in the EITHER/OR—is a path to competitive differentiation.

This was one of my key takeaways from last week’s “… Continue reading

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As the speed and agility of supply chains evolves, the way in which labor resources are optimized also needs to evolve in order to keep pace with the changing buying behaviors of consumers. When retailers add the ability to change where and how products are fulfilled, they also need the ability to flex resources up or down to ensure they have the right number of people to support the real-time… Continue reading

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Categories : Guest Commentary, Labor, Retail
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