Driving Labor Efficiencies

In the highly competitive warehouse-logistics sector, keeping customers happy and costs down demands cutting-edge software to optimally direct warehouse workflow.
M&W is a logistics services company with 1 million square feet of warehouse space within four buildings across Atlanta and Tampa. They specialize in processing deliveries from shelf-stable food manufacturers, such as canned goods, and assembling orders for pickup by their customers’ truckers.

The challenge:

M&W needed a more efficient system for managing warehouse workflow.

The SC Codeworks solution:

SC Codeworks’ Labor Planner is software that operates like a world-class conductor of the warehouse-worker orchestra.
“One of our philosophies we try to live by is that we try to get the right information to the right person at the right time,” said M&W president Joe Garger, of how his managers communicate with warehouse team members about what they need to do and when. The Labor Planner, he said, “was going help us do that.”

Customized Software that fits M&W’s needs

Before M&W began reaping the benefits of the most current version of Labor Planner, Garger recalled, he sat down with his CEO in a coffee shop with pens and a sheet of paper. They spent three hours drawing a diagram of their problem.

What they knew already:

• How long it took pull orders
• What time any particular delivery was scheduled for pickup

The missing link:

M&W needed a masterful system that could optimize their warehouse workflow and transform their operations into a well-oiled machine.

Enter: SC Codeworks’ Labor Planner

Coders from SC Codeworks integrated the Labor Planner software into M&W’s existing logistics application, a process that took only about a week to set in place.

How the Labor Planner helps M&W:

Directs warehouse workflow

• Schedules the necessary workers for orders, telling them what items to pick and when
• Frees up managers' time
• Ensures the order is assembled in the correct sequence
• Keeps the workflow humming without constant human interaction
• Allows greater focus on present tasks without worry—or panic! — over whether the team will meet the deadline
• Receives quarterly maintenance to adjust the software to changing needs

“People aren’t having to think. The system takes care of that,” Garger said.

Anticipates staffing needs

• Knows how many warehouse workers will be needed and when
• Anticipates staffing shortages
• If a worker is out, their replacement can easily be swapped in

Garger said the Labor Planner will alert M&W managers: “Hey, at three o’clock this afternoon, you have more work than you have people to complete it.” This prompts an easy fix, since, Garger said, “We have multiple buildings right next to each other. So, we can move people around from building to building.”

Gets the correct order onto the truck

• All the necessary pallets are assembled in sequence and ready to load, right on time for pickup.
• If the carrier arrives early, the Labor Planner can even dynamically respond and swiftly reorder work priorities accordingly.

Before adopting such cutting-edge computer automation, Garger recalled, “It was a lot of: ‘Oh no, that truck was picking up earlier than we knew!’ Things were constantly getting picked out of sequence.”

Provides employees the opportunity to specialize

• The software yielded a key insight: Once the number of pickers per job increased above 3 or 4 workers, order accuracy declined. So M&W has the Labor Planner favor assigning no greater than a small group to cover specific repeat orders.
• Workers gain skills through repetition.
• If one person is especially capable at operating a particular account, they can take responsibility for it.

"The more somebody is able to work on the same thing over and over again, the more pride they take in what they’re doing,” Garger said. “So, if I say John is in charge of Account X, and John can get all the orders for account X, John gets very prideful in the performance of that account."

Generates a healthy return on investment

• Turns the dock more efficiently
• Increases order accuracy
• In a single facility, save 260 hours of labor per month
• Increased productivity by 20%, in part because operators no longer had to waste time searching for their supervisor to give instructions on their next assigned task
• Less idle time for truckers keeps the customer happy

"We're probably 50 percent faster than before," Garger said of how the Labor Planner accelerated M&W's loading dock turnover time.