Shortly after the Annual Meeting in Anaheim, we found ourselves in a bit of a bind at headquarters. Our shipping backlog was growing at an alarming rate. Courses and seminars were in jeopardy as SEO’s anxiously called to check on the status of their orders.
How could this happen?
As a starting point, the warehouse workload always increases before and after a national meeting. Equipment, flags, banners, seat packets, and Ship’s Store must be packed and shipped before the meeting. After the meeting, many of the materials are returned to headquarters and must be unpacked and stored. Just to make things interesting, district conferences follow closely on the heels of the national meetings and the warehouse must pack and ship the district Ship’s Store. If we add to this the orders for spring courses and seminars, we have the makings of a big backlog.
As you may be aware, headquarters has been operating with reduced staff and the warehouse is bare bones. Oh yeah, we are in the middle of a recession and everyone is working to reduce expenses, so we reduced the headquarters hours. Needless to say, this did not help the situation.
What was done?
Given the fact that we are moving from a dues based organization to a marketing based organization, shipping our product is very important. The Chief declared that our top priority was shipping those orders. Mary Catherine Berube, headquarters director, responded by rallying the troops at headquarters and everyone pitched in and helped in the warehouse. Much was learned in this process. Shipping an order can be quite complicated. It’s not as simple as it sounds. While the backlog was reduced under the all hands assault, it was finally brought under control by increasing warehouse hours.
While studying the situation, we have added email notification when orders are entered into the system and when they are shipped. We have also begun tracking our performance. The headquarters team has compiled a list of steps we to simplify and enhance productivity in the warehouse.
In addition to expediting shipments, C/C Maynard brought in an expert in the warehouse business,
P/V/C Robert Baldridge, to lead a group charged with studying our current system, setting shipping objectives, and developing a plan to achieve them. The group met in Raleigh and reviewed current practices and even shipped a few orders. Robert is summarizing the groups work which will be presented to the board of directors in June.
We recognize that the timely shipment of courses and materials is essential to our success and we intend to make continuous improvements.
How could this happen?
As a starting point, the warehouse workload always increases before and after a national meeting. Equipment, flags, banners, seat packets, and Ship’s Store must be packed and shipped before the meeting. After the meeting, many of the materials are returned to headquarters and must be unpacked and stored. Just to make things interesting, district conferences follow closely on the heels of the national meetings and the warehouse must pack and ship the district Ship’s Store. If we add to this the orders for spring courses and seminars, we have the makings of a big backlog.
As you may be aware, headquarters has been operating with reduced staff and the warehouse is bare bones. Oh yeah, we are in the middle of a recession and everyone is working to reduce expenses, so we reduced the headquarters hours. Needless to say, this did not help the situation.
What was done?
Given the fact that we are moving from a dues based organization to a marketing based organization, shipping our product is very important. The Chief declared that our top priority was shipping those orders. Mary Catherine Berube, headquarters director, responded by rallying the troops at headquarters and everyone pitched in and helped in the warehouse. Much was learned in this process. Shipping an order can be quite complicated. It’s not as simple as it sounds. While the backlog was reduced under the all hands assault, it was finally brought under control by increasing warehouse hours.
While studying the situation, we have added email notification when orders are entered into the system and when they are shipped. We have also begun tracking our performance. The headquarters team has compiled a list of steps we to simplify and enhance productivity in the warehouse.
In addition to expediting shipments, C/C Maynard brought in an expert in the warehouse business,
P/V/C Robert Baldridge, to lead a group charged with studying our current system, setting shipping objectives, and developing a plan to achieve them. The group met in Raleigh and reviewed current practices and even shipped a few orders. Robert is summarizing the groups work which will be presented to the board of directors in June.We recognize that the timely shipment of courses and materials is essential to our success and we intend to make continuous improvements.
Dave Hinders
National Secretary
