DC Velocity - June 2013

ple one would suffice) as warehousing-related wastes they try to avoid.

In addition, lean management is appro-
priate for any kind of process that
includes a lot of steps—and warehousing
and distribution certainly fits that profile,
says Charlie Jacobs, director of global
process management for APL Logistics
(APLL). “When you apply Lean, you iden-
tify what adds value and what doesn’t,” he
says. “In most cases, you’re lucky if you
can truly say that 15 to 20 percent of the
steps add value.”
Ultimately, lean management aims to
create a culture of continuous improve-
ment that engages employees at all lev-
els—especially those who perform the
work processes—in identifying waste and
developing and implementing remedies.
But it’s also applicable to the warehouse at
a tactical level, says Robert Martichenko,
CEO of LeanCor, a 3PL that manages
dedicated warehouses and consults on
lean deployments for other companies.
“One of the core elements of lean man-
agement is to establish a continuous flow
from the time an order is received to the
time it’s fulfilled,” he explains. “Lean is a
strategy that can create velocity inside a
warehouse.”

THE LINK WITH LABOR

In a warehouse, every type of waste has an impact on labor in one way or another, says Mike Wilusz, director of warehouse operations for Menlo Worldwide Logistics. If everyone in a facility can develop “the eyes to see waste” and identify ways to eliminate it, it will have an immediate and direct impact on labor costs, he says.

Waiting is one of the biggest labor-related wastes inside a warehouse. “Typically, either people are waiting on orders or orders are waiting on people,” Martichenko says. Both are costly: If people are waiting for orders, you have labor that’s not being utilized or being productive, and if orders are waiting for people, those workers will have to work harder and faster, and thus become stressed and overburdened—or they will have to work overtime—in order to catch up, he explains. The lean principle that can address that kind of waste is work level-

ing; that is, controlling the flow and timing of activity to create level, unvarying demand during the available work time.

Here’s an example of how work
leveling can improve warehouse
labor efficiency: At one LeanCor
customer’s facility, the 3PL works
with suppliers and trucking compa-
nies to schedule inbound deliveries
so that an approximately equal num-
ber of pallets are delivered each hour
during the two shifts. Standardized
work processes—another lean
tool—ensure that everyone does a
particular task in the most efficient

We could do a lot more

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