DC Velocity - June 2018

neered standards, 41. 5 percent said they set labor standards “we think are fair,” and 11. 7 percent had no labor standards whatsoever. Companies also varied in their ability to document the feedback they gave employees, with 51. 1 percent saying the feedback is not consistently recorded.

4 Continuous improvement. Sometimes known as Lean or Kaizen initiatives, continuous improvement programs are ongoing efforts to streamline workflows and eliminate inefficiencies. They typically follow a four-step process, where teams identify opportunities, plan improvements, execute changes, and review their impact—then start over again.

While the practice is common in corporate America, our survey found that it is applied sporadically in warehouse logistics. When we asked respondents how many of their floor-level employees engaged in continuous improvement projects, the answers were all over the map. At the high end of the range were the 27 percent who said more than 20 percent of their employees participated in this type of program. At the other end of the spectrum, 25. 3 percent reported that less than 5 percent of their workers were involved in continuous improvement efforts, and 13. 5 percent said they didn’t practice continuous improvement at all. (See Exhibit 5.)

The results of the 2018 ARC and DCV labor management survey provide a yardstick on how the industry is applying common management practices in the face of growing labor recruitment and retention challenges.

The study documented specific management practices
and provided a measure of where logistics industry leaders
are applying them well and where they could use improve-
ment. The results revealed that some practices—such as
the 360-degree review and training managers on proper
coaching techniques—are widely followed, while other
techniques—including developing objective performance
standards and continuous improvement—are deployed
only occasionally. Further study will be required to track
the impact of these trends on companies’ success in reduc-
ing turnover.

The “Best Practices in Warehouse Labor Management” survey was conducted by ARC Advisory Group in conjunction with DC VELOCITY. Steve Banker, vice president of supply chain services at ARC, oversaw the research and compiled the results. The study was conducted via an online poll in January and February of 2018, with a total of 134 industry executives completing the

21-question survey.

Of those respondents, 54 percent had a title of director, vice president, or higher.

The majority were from North America. The warehouses
profiled in the study were operated by businesses in a
variety of industries, with more than half coming from
the retail, third-party logistics, or distribution sectors.