The Parking Lot - A Vital Link In The Supply Chain

Meeting facilitators have apparently all been trained to list items they'd rather not deal with at the moment on a flip chart titled, "Parking Lot Issues."  Whether anything actually happens in the parking lot is a matter for speculation, often involving parties to an office romance.  But, enough of that.  My own hypothesis is that the flip chart self-destructs on a random timetable, vaporizing the issues captured there.

The subject rises because of recent publicity in our very fine local business journal, Columbus' Business First.  The Ohio State University is in the process of awarding a 50-year lease to its parking operations for an up-front price tag approaching - hold on to your hats - a cool $500 million.  The item was categorized as falling into the Logistics and Transportation category.  At first, I snickered, then deteriorated into full out guffaws.

But, I had failed to consider the criticality of parking in supply chain and logistics operations.  Parking can be an overlooked key to success in supply chain execution.  To begin with, working associates need to have adequate places to park, including allowances for shift overlap.  Failure in this area leads to lost productivity and facility throughput.

Further, there needs to be enough space to handle any influx of seasonal workforce build-ups, with the risk, again, being a loss of cost-effective performance in facility operations.  The problem has elements of building a church for the most holy days, which is considerably larger than the everyday norm in attendance.  But, most of all in peak seasons, performance cannot be put at risk.

The concept of "idle" space goes even farther.  Any distribution facility needs to have adequate square footage to handle easy flows of both inbound and outbound transportation.  In high volume operations, plenty of land for drop and hook locations for trailers can be critical in maintaining the flow of goods

 One of the more depressing days of my life was spent in watching a major retail grocer attempt distribution out one of its private label manufacturing facilities, which was located in an urban residential neighborhood.  Trucks could not get in; neither could they get out.  And, the neighbors were trapped in their homes.

Even inside a facility's four walls, "parking" space is highly desirable.  For openers, to stage and organize inbound products and materials, and even more important, to stage loads to fill customer orders.

So, don't forget "parking lots" of several types in the design of suply chain operations.  You will be glad you did not scrimp on space, for either people or goods.