DC Velocity - June 2013

inbound

In the winners circle … again
Speed derby—Dutch style

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARS NEDERLAND AND HJ HEINZ

Forget speed skating—the Dutch have come up with a new contest to determine who can move the fastest. To be precise, a group of companies in the Netherlands have started a “speed derby” to find out which shipper is the best at turning a truck around at a distribution center.

According to Walther Ploos van Amstel, associate professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the contest got under way in 2011 between HJ Heinz and Mars Nederland B.V. and has since expanded. In 2012, 15 companies in the Netherlands took part in the speed derby. Van Amstel, who spoke at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’ Europe 2013 conference in Amsterdam, said more companies, including some from Belgium, are expected to participate in the contest this year.

Contestants are measured when their trucks pass through the facility gate, dock at the warehouse, and then depart the DC. Onboard computers, smartphones, and GPS systems capture the times. The ultimate goal of the contest is to demonstrate how truck utilization, transport reliability, and service to consumers could be improved with the same or less manpower, according to a paper written by Van Amstel and logistics managers from three of the participating companies.

The Dutch retailer Jumbo’s Veghel distribution center won the Dutch Speed Docking Championship last year. Van Amstel, who supervised the contest, said Jumbo had an average turnaround time of 50 minutes, a significant improvement over the 1 hour and 14 minutes clocked by the previous year’s winner, Plus Retail from Haaksbergen. ;

Since its launch in 2003, DC VELOCITY has been known for an approach to design that sets it apart from other publications in the logistics and warehousing arena. For the past decade, moreover, our unique “look” has earned us numerous awards from graphic design and publishing organizations.

We’re proud to say that our winning streak remains intact. Director of Creative Services Keisha Capitola recently was honored with three awards from Graphic Design USA, a publication for graphic design professionals. Capitola received a gold American Graphic Design Award for DC VELOCITY’S December 2011 issue and a silver American Web Design Award for DC VELOCITY’S “Tip Sheet 2012” digital special issue. The third award, a gold American Graphic Design Award, was for the 2011 special “State of Logistics” issue of our sister publication, CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly. ;

There’s room for improvement in every warehouse and DC, no matter how efficient. But those opportunities may not be readily apparent, in part because people often rely too much on theory (what they think is happening) and not enough on reality (what actually is happening). Lean management tries to prevent that through the use of genchi gembutsu, a technique that involves direct observation of actual conditions.

Here’s an interesting—and possibly entertaining—take
on genchi gembutsu in a warehouse environment: “Be the
package.” In other words, walk the path an inbound or out-
bound order or package actually follows in your facility.
“Act like you’re the product,” suggests Timothy Sroka, sen-
ior manager-lean operations for Menlo Worldwide
Logistics. “If you’re being delivered and they unload you to
a staging lane, that should prompt you to ask why you’re in
staging when you’re supposed to go directly to putaway. If
somebody comes by and ‘verifies’ you, that’s a non-value-
added activity.”
By walking through each step, you’ll get a clearer picture
of what actually happens and will be able to map out what
may prove to be an unnecessarily complex and lengthy
process, Sroka says. If you have to actually stand around
somewhere for four hours as a package would, or you are
“picked,” then audited and prepped for shipping only to
wait on a dock for a lengthy period, you’ll quickly see all the
waste that’s built into your handling process, he says. ;