SPRING 2022

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THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK
ROBERT FOOTLIK TRUST BUT VERIFY from page 36
If an error is encountered in this initial sample then
pull another sample of finished orders, possibly from
the same person or team in the warehouse. Should
another problem be encountered this is an indication
that a maximum, 100% level of sampling is required and
you might need to stop everything, open every order(!)
and get everyone involved in education and training.
This may sound drastic, but do you really want to deliver
orders that anger your customers?
Fortunately in most situations the sampling results
can be used to develop specific programs for enhancing
the numbers without drama and anxiety. Education is
the key, but you must reinforce this with psychological
incentives (thank team members in public, discipline
in private) for everyone involved and make sure that
both staff and management are fully participating in
the program. Post all statistical sampling information
using graphical charts, initially show the types of errors
with anonymous labels such as “picker,” “packer,”
“office,” “sales,” etc. Use these results for training on
both an individual and group basis without stigmatizing
individuals.
While in theory similar statistics could be gathered
simply by having the checker record and quantify the who,
what and when of any errors that occur, this function will
ultimately be eliminated if 4% sampling is more accurate
than 100% checking. How can this happen? With greater
focus during the verification process and by examining
sealed orders with the same scrutiny as a customer,
errors introduced at every level of the operation (sales,
stocking, picking, packing, shipping) will be noted. If the
customer ordered 100 package of 25, and 10 packs are
shipped you will hear about the error. But what happens
if the order was for 10 and 100 are shipped? Random
checking can catch both physical and logic errors (does a
one man customer shop really want 1,000 of anything?).
Establishing A Base Level Of Output
Start tracking the output of the pickers in context.
Warehouse picking is best measured by the “line” (most
of their time is spent in travel) for cart based operations,
while conveyor picking or other fixed location order
fulfillment is measured by the “piece.” The objective
is for you and everyone else to become comfortable
at about a 97.3% confidence level that what you are
finding in terms of both quality and quantity is “truth”
and accurate.
A good time frame should be at least
two months initially. Shorten the time frame if there are
monthly or seasonal peaks and valleys.
Over an extended period it is also possible to
develop correlations such as time of day, day of week,
individual momentary output, etc. For example, if an
order pick/packer has a significantly higher error rate
in the afternoon this problem can be investigated as to
whether the cause is fatigue or perhaps something they
were drinking at lunch.
Extending Participation
With the current checker/packer also reporting
any discrepancies encountered, including the who,
what and when, it is a simple matter to repurpose this
individual to become the random checker. If everyone
already trusts the checker’s observations, then the new
technique will be easily accepted. Adding more tasks
and responsibilities to this individual’s work day uses
any time saved more effectively and similarly sets the
stage for future progress.
Given that the checker should be conversant with
both checking and packing they may be the ideal individual
for initiating the Pick-Pack techniques. Therefore at
some point it will be necessary to train another individual
to take over the random sampling position. In many
operations this can even become a rotating job so that
everyone has hands on experience with what constitutes
a high quality order…from the customer’s perspective.
This is the time to begin setting goals for moving
the statistics in a positive direction, awarding the people
with incentives such as food, treats, time off, etc.
Acknowledgements for positive behavior will be far more
effective than money.
Introduce and emphasize the new “Perfection
Program” as measured by a “Percent of Perfection.” This
is far better than the more common “error rate” and it
reinforces something that most warehouse people have
never had in their lives. If 70% got them an acceptable
“C” in school then it’s going to take a lot of confidence
building to bring them up to a new standard of straight
“A’s.”. This will require full participation.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 166