You Might Have a Bad Warehouse If…A Salesperson Is Loading Appliances!

We all know about the necessity of multi-tasking in today’s business environment, but asking salespeople to pull double duty on the warehouse floor makes for a bad, and unsafe, warehouse in this situation related by guest writer Philip J. Reed, on behalf of HP Spartacote. (HP Spartacote manufactures high-quality, high-performance and eco-friendly industrial floor coatings.)

Philip writes that larger warehouses tend to belong to larger companies, and larger companies tend to have a “more rigid delineation” of employee duties. “Small businesses though, depending upon their nature, will sometimes have their own warehouses. And if there’s one thing we know about small businesses, it’s that a few people taking vacation time or sick leave can have a big impact on those left behind, who now have to pull double duty to get the job done.”

That’s the nature of business, and “it’s something we’ve come to accept,” he says. “But when “pulling double duty” involves a salesperson lifting and moving large appliances alone, unassisted, and without proper training, there’s a much bigger problem afoot.”

He knows of one particular business – which shall remain nameless – that not only allows this to happen, but implicitly requires it. Philip writes:

“The unfortunate person in question is a sales person for an appliance store, and if his warehouse crew is out of the building, it is up to him to pull the appliance out of the on-site warehouse, uncrate it, and often load it into the customer’s vehicle unassisted. If he doesn’t do these things, he doesn’t make the sale.

“Your mind should be reeling with the problems inherent in this situation. Without proper training, nobody should be in the warehouse at all, let alone lifting and relocating heavy items.  Even with proper training, nobody should be doing this unassisted. The potential for injury, damage to the goods in question, and, of course, liability should the customer attempt to assist the salesperson are enormous.”

As Philip concludes, “There’s no practice discussed above that shouldn’t be discontinued immediately!”

No matter the size of the warehouse, this flies in the face of WERC’s Best Practices Guide on housekeeping, training, safety, space utilization and warehouse management. For instance, I shudder to think about an untrained salesperson operating a forklift. A warehouse may look like a big space with stuff in it, but it is way more complex than that.

Philip says, “There are various ways to handle workforce situations that don’t involve salespeople endangering themselves for the sake of a sale.” For one thing, warehouse staff should be qualified, knowledgeable, and, above all, present during times of operation.

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).”

You Might Have A Bad Warehouse If…The Invoices Are Hanging Out

Is it really possible that loose paper invoices could flap around a warehouse in the twenty-first century?

Well Tom Napier, Sr. Account Manager, Automation Division at PSI Engineering tells us that it is not only possible, it actually happened.

Tom recently wrote that on a site tour he noticed that there was a “large backlog of cartons at each of the 22 pack stations, so much so that extra personnel were stacking cartons upon cartons after a case taper, just before they reached the operators.”

When he wandered over to take a closer look at this procedure he also saw that for each of the full cartons, one per order, an operator was “taking the packing slip from the printer, folding it in half on the short edge, then stuffing it under the already taped flap, leaving a little bit hanging out, so the consignee could see that their INVOICE was in that carton.”

Later, Tom asked the distribution manager conducting the tour if they ever had any issues with their documents getting lost. As Tom relates, the answer was pretty much what you might expect: “He made a funny face and admitted that was a problem and sometimes caused delays in payment as the paperwork didn’t always reach its destination.” Tom adds, “I didn’t want to ask him if their customers minded that just about anyone handling their shipments could see what each of their customers was paying for the product.”

That’s not only a case of a highly questionable invoicing system it also takes the idea of transparency a bit too far for comfort.

The WERC Best Practices Guide notes the benefits of proper product labeling and identification, but the invoice itself should definitely not be a part of this process!

The guide says: “Good and Best Practice companies use electronic downloading and generation of shipping documents from the system of record. All documents and labels are produced by the system, including all export documents, shipping documents and labels based on customer specific requirements and governmental regulations.” Shipping documentation commonly includes the bill of lading, the commercial invoice, shippers export declaration, export packing list, certificate of origin, NAFTA certificate, and the export license. The idea that hardcopies of these documents would be taped to a shipping carton is almost unimaginable.

Thankfully, there is a happy ending to the story.

Tom noted that after his visit, “We ended up with a nice automation order about nine months later.”

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).”