DC Velocity - August 2009

their union reps in developing, testing, and validating the standards. That collaborative approach raises the chances that employees or union engineers will find any problems or mistakes so they can be corrected. “The goal is to have a productivity target that’s right and fair,” Zosel says. “If they find something that’s not right, we need to get it fixed. They understand that we want them to find things that are not right.”

Even when all parties are working well together, managers may encounter some resistance. Borger has found that the more variable the task, the more difficult it is to gain acceptance for the associated standard. For example, it has not been easy to develop standards for receiving VWR’s tens of thousands of items, which arrive in some 90 different units of measure in a wide range of pallet configurations and product mixes.

A common source of tension is applying identical standards and measurements to every site. There are a lot of subtleties when engineered standards are involved, Borger says. “Don’t assume that the people will react the same way or the process will be better because it’s your second or third [standards implementation],” he warns. “Start new at each location.”

Zosel cautions against making assumptions about what will work simply on the basis of whether the work force is unionized or not. He cites the example of posting performance results: Do you do that publicly on a bulletin board, or do you report performance privately to each employee? “Some union and non-union facilities don’t post, and some union and non-union sites do. It’s more a matter of the company culture or the union culture,” he says.

Clarity and consistency

Although engineered labor standards may initially be greeted with skepticism, a well-designed system will produce benefits for both labor and management. “One of the biggest benefits of fair and accurate standards is that they not only define what management can expect of labor, they also define what workers can expect of management,” says Zosel.

That approach has paid off for VWR, which reports 25- to 30-percent productiv-

ity improvements in the DCs where the company applies engineered labor standards. Borger sees more opportunities for improvement, thanks to the information he now has about the labor costs associated with particular products. He expects the union will continue to work with

VWR to find further efficiencies. “Unions have the same issues as management in terms of performance,” he says. “When you agree and align around what’s expected, you get clarity and consistency. You get both sides on the same page, and you take a lot of ‘noise’ out of the system.” ;

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