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Staffing, employee retention, and productivity are hot topics during an economy with a low unemployment rate of 3.7%. In August we shared the benefits of Big Ass Fans, and in July we shared how to reduce employee turnover and improve productivity.

Last month, we published Part I of this article, where we talked about making that transition from “freewheeling inventor” to “process-driven listener”. Basically, it is about being more systematic in how you collect the data and insights that lead to more relevance in your new products. This is hardest for the business which was started from a single brilliant idea that succeeded, because it is not uncommon for the small manufacturer to not really understand WHY their initial product succeeded. Play-Doh, the ubiquitous colorful molding clay of everyone’s youth, was originally created in the 1930’s as a wallpaper cleaner. Success is great, but if you started out intending to be an innovator in the cleaning products business but all of your customers are under five years old, where do you go next?

Over the years you’ve seen a lot of material coming from us about using “Lean” Manufacturing and using Lean techniques in other areas like distribution and logistics. As a manufacturer ourselves, we have always strived to take our own advice, but like many of you, we also learned in the process that while the reward is great, the work to get there can be HARD.

If you’re like many small manufacturers, you started your business in one of the following ways:

1. You saw a gap and had an inspired idea that you turned into a successful product
2. You worked for another manufacturer and saw a better opportunity to become their supplier.
3. You cashed out of your first career success to fund your dream startup.

And if you are a 2^nd or 3^rd generation business owner, then your family likely started one of those ways too, and they did well enough to make it successful for over a full generation.

Regardless of how you started and what you started with, everyone has the same problem:

In our annual customer satisfaction survey, “Space” and “People” continued their five-year run as the top two issues that keep facility managers up at night. But what specifically is it about these issues that weigh so heavily on the minds of every type of customer we have – big, small, high-tech, simple, etc. An annual survey by FLEXE, a warehouse services group that runs a marketplace of over 800 warehouses provides some insights into the specific aspects of space management that are a concern for so many customers.

Receiving in a manufacturing environment is an overlooked process area that can be the start of numerous bottlenecks, accuracy errors and wasted motion. A few simple tools that have transformed receiving in the logistics world can be leveraged in a manufacturing environment to radically change the outcomes and improve your metrics in this critical process area while achieving a positive ROI in less than 12 months.

Despite low unemployment and a long-term economic growth streak with record profits now approaching a full decade, distribution centers and warehouses have continued to experience trouble retaining skilled or experienced staff. The problem lies more in how management values the contribution of their people in those facilities – which also makes it somewhat easier to resolve. Today we look into the problem with the help of some great research from ProLogistix through the WERC organization.

The average U.S. warehouse wastes 6.9 weeks a year on unnecessary motion—costing the industry $4.3 billion, or 265 million hours of labor annually, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Unnecessary motion is often difficult to comprehend and recognize. It’s ingrained in our habits, and many times it’s hard to understand how it indicates a larger problem on the floor. For example, walking to a fixed computer or printer is an activity warehouse staff have been doing for years. For many, it may not be viewed as waste of time, just simply a part of the job.

The annual DC Metrics study has been published and while the entirety of the report is worth studying as an excellent source of industry benchmarks and trends, we wanted to share and dive into a few of the highlights that jumped out at us as significant this year.

The Real Meaning of “Future” - One thing that everyone hates to admit about “future articles” is that the reality of what they talk about is already here. The rest of us are behind the curve trying to catch up!  While we are assigning these innovations to the “future” - perhaps to give us more time to budget for them – it certainly doesn’t hurt to invest our time into learning our options and planning ahead for the opportunity to take the leap with something new.