Ben Ames has spent 20 years as a journalist since starting out as a daily newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania in 1995. From 1999 forward, he has focused on business and technology reporting for a number of trade journals, beginning when he joined Design News and Modern Materials Handling magazines. Ames is author of the trail guide "Hiking Massachusetts" and is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.
The next time you're at an industry trade show, ask the logistics executives in the buffet line next to you to list their biggest headaches in running a warehouse.
Some might mention the surge in e-commerce parcel volume or the painful evolution to omnichannel order fulfillment, but chances are you won't have to wait long before someone brings up warehouse labor turnover. Labor is the biggest operational cost in most DCs, and the expenses associated with high turnover—like recruiting, hiring, and training new workers—only add to the pain.
The industry's continuing struggle with employee turnover was underscored by a recent survey of warehouse performance conducted by DC Velocity in conjunction with the Dedham, Mass.-based consultancy ARC Advisory Group. Among other findings, the study showed that the respondents' track record in controlling turnover lagged well behind their performance in other critical areas, like safety and productivity.
The survey's scope went well beyond labor retention, however. The overall purpose of the study, which was part of an ongoing series of research projects by DCV and ARC, was to identify best practices in warehouse management—that is, to determine what high-performing warehouses are doing that is different from other distribution operations.
As a framework for the analysis, the research team chose a "balanced scorecard" approach that looked at a variety of performance dimensions. Based on previous research, ARC selected the following four measures as the basis for its assessments: productivity, safety, customer service, and people. "A well-run warehouse is productive, [is] safe, contributes to high customer service, and develops the skills of its purpose," wrote survey author Steve Banker, vice president of supply chain services at ARC, in his report.
As for how the respondents stacked up against those criteria, the results were decidedly mixed. While the majority managed to earn high scores in at least one of the four areas, very few (less than 17 percent) performed well across all of the dimensions studied. (See Exhibit 1.) Overall, the respondents did best when it came to safety, with a full 87.6 percent earning high marks in this area. At the other end of the scale was their performance in what ARC called the "people" dimension (their treatment of employees). Only 39.2 percent excelled against this metric—defined for purposes of the study as having a turnover rate of less than 10 percent per year.
THE SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
Given the drag that high turnover can have on a warehouse operation, the research team decided to take a closer look at the problem, and what they found was dismal indeed. When respondents were asked about their operation's turnover rate, the majority of the answers were in the double digits. Nearly one-third (29.5 percent) reported turnover of between 10 and 25 percent, and an almost equal proportion (29 percent) reported turnover of between 25 and 100 percent. At the bottom of the scale, 2.3 percent reported turnover of over 100 percent per year. (See Exhibit 2.)
The picture was even gloomier when it came to turnover among temporary workers (temps are considered to have "turned over" if they decide to leave before the end of the full period they could have worked). When asked about their temporary labor "churn," fewer than 30 percent of respondents reported turnover rates of under 10 percent. Some 37 percent reported turnover of between 10 and 50 percent, and 22.5 percent reported turnover of between 50 and 100 percent. And that wasn't even the bottom of the scale: More than 10 percent of respondents reported that turnover among temporary workers exceeded 100 percent per year. (See Exhibit 3.)
The survey also offered some insight into the productivity loss associated with that turnover. When asked how long it took to bring a new employee up to speed, only 28.5 percent of respondents said they could do it in under a month. Another 43 percent said it took one to two months of training, while 20.9 percent said it took two to three months. The remainder said the process required more than three months. (See Exhibit 4.)
It's worth noting that the big DCs have a harder time retaining workers than their smaller counterparts do. Among companies with over 200 employees, only 28 percent of respondents reported employee turnover of less than 10 percent. Among companies with less than 25 employees, by contrast, nearly half of the respondents (46 percent) reported a sub-10-percent turnover rate.
That raises the question of what these "stickier" warehouses are doing that leads to better retention. In an attempt to get some answers, the ARC team examined more than 20 factors that could logically be linked to retention. But that proved to be an unrewarding exercise. Of all the attributes studied, just one turned out to have what the researchers termed "strong explanatory value," or a solid statistical correlation to retention: providing a clean warehouse environment.
The researchers had slightly better luck when they narrowed their focus to temp workers only, finding three factors that correlated with retention. They were: operating a small warehouse (fewer than 25 employees), having a high proportion of full-time employees (more than 90 percent of the total work force), and—counter-intuitively—avoiding employment agencies that specialize in warehousing.
NINE PRACTICES OF TOP PERFORMERS
Although the survey failed to deliver a roadmap to boosting labor retention, the results did provide useful insights into practices that contribute to overall excellence in warehouse operations—in other words, what top-performing operations are doing differently from the rest of the pack.
To identify those practices, the research team homed in on the top-tier operations—the 16.5 percent of respondents whose operations performed well across all four dimensions studied (safety, productivity, customer service, and people). Specifically, the team looked at 45 factors that could possibly help explain that high performance. Of those factors, the researchers found nine practices that were common to high-performing warehouses. They are as follows:
Maintaining a well-lit warehouse
Maintaining a clean warehouse
Paying at least 50 percent more than minimum wage
Offering non-financial remuneration (food, time off, etc.) for high performance
Using high-speed conveyors and sortation equipment
Having managers frequently monitor individuals as they do their jobs and provide on-the-spot positive reinforcement
Conducting "360-degree" reviews of managers, which include feedback from the manager's subordinates as well as from his/her peers and supervisor
Training managers in providing effective feedback
Monitoring workers at least once a month to make sure standard operating procedures and best practices are being followed.
While none of these business strategies had a high statistical correlation with a specific dimension of warehouse performance—such as customer service or safety—they were all standard practice at the top one-sixth of warehouses that demonstrated excellence across the board.
As for the practices themselves, Banker noted that there was one common thread among them: top-quality management.
"Management matters! More than half the practices that contribute to excellence are related to management techniques," Banker wrote in the report. "Good management is something that can be learned," he added. "Being trained in giving effective feedback helps. And 360-degree reviews where managers see what their subordinates say about them help managers learn what is working and what is not."
In addition to adopting the nine best practices listed above, Banker noted that there was one other simple thing companies could do to up their game: encourage their managers to be diligent. "Diligence counts," he wrote. "A good warehouse manager is not sitting in his office; he is out on the floor observing and interacting with people."
About the study
The "Best Practices for Achieving Excellence in Warehouse Operations" survey was conducted by ARC Advisory Group in conjunction with DC Velocity. Steve Banker, vice president of supply chain services at ARC, oversaw the research and compiled the results. The study was conducted via an online poll in the first quarter of 2017, with a total of 176 industry executives completing the 32-question survey. Of those respondents, more than half (51 percent) had a title of director or higher. The majority were from North America.
As for the warehouses profiled in the study, the operations ran the gamut when it came to size. Some 22.3 percent of respondents worked in operations with fewer than 25 employees. At the other end of the spectrum, 21.7 percent said their operations employed more than 200. (See Exhibit 5.)
When asked how orders are picked in their facilities, the majority (50.6 percent) said each-picking was the most common type of picking performed on-site. That was followed by case picking (20.2 percent) and building mixed-case pallets (12.2 percent). (See Exhibit 6.)
When it came to the technologies used in these warehouse operations, forklifts were far and away the most common choice, cited by 97.5 percent of respondents. Other frequently used technologies included bar-code scanners (90.6 percent) and warehouse management systems (84.4 percent). (See Exhibit 7.)
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.