You Might Have A Bad Warehouse…If There Are Bats In The Belfry

This bad warehouse story is brought to us by Lance Jordan, formerly with Weber Distribution and now senior manager, project management with Crown Bolt.

Lance suggests that sometimes your project plan for taking over a new warehouse might need to be “get an exterminator.”  Lance reveals his batty story in this short video.

 

 

 

Yes, getting rid of bats—and any other extraneous critters—is a good idea before installing a Warehouse Management System. In fact it’s a necessary inspection practice, especially for older buildings.

As the WERC Best Practices Guide notes, a WMS is software that manages and optimizes business processes and activities such as receiving, putaway, picking, shipping and inventory. The WMS menu definitely does not contemplate handling or processing the activities of bats residing in the upper reaches of a warehouse.

A WMS also will include support for radio frequency communication and real-time data transfer between the system and warehouse. Somehow I don’t think combining RFID functions with the sonar capabilities of a colony of bats would work well at all.

So Lance was very wise to call the exterminator first!

I really love your feedback - and love your contributions to share those bad warehouse stories to help educate the profession on what NOT to do, and maybe what to do if you’re not doing it.

If you've got an example of a bad warehouse practice, send me your story and photo(s) to [email protected]. If I feature your example in one of my blogs, WERC will send you a free copy of the WERC Warehousing & Fulfillment Process Benchmark & Best Practices Guide (a $160 value).

Your submission can be anonymous if you like so you don't get your boss or company in trouble! I'll be collecting examples all year and the winner will receive a free WERC Warehouse Certification Assessment by Supply Chain Visions, a $10,000 value. The runner up will win a free conference registration to the WERC conference (a $1,375 value).”