bigpicture
Peter Bradley
Editorial Director
peter@dcvelocity.com
Karen Bachrach
Executive Editor
karen@dcvelocity.com
Toby Gooley
Managing Editor
tgooley@dcvelocity.com
David Maloney
Senior Editor, Special Projects & eContent
dmaloney@dcvelocity.com
Mark Solomon
Senior Editor
mark@dcvelocity.com
Susan Lacefield
Associate Managing Editor
slacefield@dcvelocity.com
James Cooke
Editor at Large
jcooke@dcvelocity.com
Steve Geary
Editor at Large
sgeary@dcvelocity.com
George Weimer
Editor at Large
gweimer@dcvelocity.com
Erica E. Mac Donald
Assistant Editor
Keisha Capitola
Director of Creative Services
keisha@dcvelocity.com
Jeff Thacker
Director of eMedia
jeff@dcvelocity.com
Columnists:
Clifford F. Lynch
Don Jacobson
Shelly Safian
Kenneth B. Ackerman
Art Van Bodegraven
Barry Brandman
Getting soft
Gary Master
Publisher
gmaster@dcvelocity.com
Mitch Mac Donald
Group Editorial Director
mitch@dcvelocity.com
Jim Indelicato
Group Publisher
jindelicato@dcvelocity.com
EDITORIAL OFFICE
Tower Square, Number 4
500 East Washington Street
North Attleboro, MA 02760
Subscribe at
www.dcvelocity.com
or call (630) 739-0900
SHORTLY AFTER WE LAUNCHED DC VELOCITY IN JANUARY 2003,
we initiated our first important research effort, one that looked at the performance metrics used in the nation’s distribution centers. Our goal was
twofold: to compile data that would offer readers benchmarks for evaluating the performance of their own operations and to begin to build a data-base that would show how performance improved (we assumed) over time.
Since that beginning, the research has evolved and expanded. In addition
to our original partner, Karl Manrodt of Georgia Southern University, who
first proposed the idea, our partners now include the Warehousing
Education and Research Council (WERC) and the consulting firm Supply
Chain Visions. Watch our website for the latest survey report.
The metrics report has become one of the highlights of WERC’s annual conference, and we expect it will be so again when
the group meets in Atlanta next month. But over time,
we’ve begun to understand that something was missing from those measures, something that underlies
how success in improving performance actually
occurs. And that’s what we might call the “soft side” of
logistics.
Now, don’t misunderstand. This isn’t some throw-
back to 1960s encounter groups. It is an argument to
look beyond such “hard” measures as on-time ship-
ments or order picking accuracy to factors that are per-
haps tougher to quantify but equally important. As the
report’s authors write, “Simply put, the interpersonal
skills that promote and nurture strong relationships—
the ability to communicate well, interact effectively
with others, make mutually beneficial decisions, solve problems jointly,
and collaborate—can have as direct an impact on warehouse and DC
performance as do the operational aspects of a business.”
As it happens, our Thought Leader this month, Tracy Maylett, CEO of
the consulting firm DecisionWise, is one of the leading proponents of
managing the “soft side” of logistics performance. He and Kate Vitasek,
founder of Supply Chain Visions and University of Tennessee faculty
member, recently penned a more extensive look at the importance of this
soft side for our sister publication, CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly.
In an interview in this issue, Maylett discusses why focusing strictly on
what got done in a DC without consideration of how it got done can
potentially damage supply chains in a number of ways. He explains that
the soft metrics include such things as customer retention, employee
retention, and employee engagement—the sorts of things that are crucial
to long-term success. Looking at and managing the soft side of logistics,
it seems to me, are as crucial to developing sustainable supply chains as
energy conservation and waste reduction.
