42 DC VELOCITY MAY 2014 www.dcvelocity.com
specialreport
WHILE THE ECONOMY CONTINUES TO HOBble along, distribution professionals are taking
advantage of the lull to work out any kinks in their
DC operations. That much was clear from the results
of our 11th annual metrics survey, which showed
continuous year-over-year improvements in performance across a majority of measures. What was
interesting this year was that it wasn’t necessarily the
top-performing organizations that were making the
big gains. In many cases, it was the lowest-performing operations that recorded the greatest strides.
The annual research, launched via an online
survey in early January, was conducted among DC
VELOCITY readers and members of the Warehousing
Education and Research Council (WERC).
Respondents were asked what metrics they use and
how well their organizations performed against 47
key DC and warehousing metrics in 2013. (For purposes of analysis, the measures have been grouped
into five categories: customer, operational, financial,
capacity/quality, and employee/safety.) More than
400 respondents participated in the study, which is
jointly sponsored by DC VELOCITY and WERC with
support from Kronos and Kenco Group.
The survey aims not only to determine which
metrics are important to DC and warehousing
professionals, but also to understand the underlying trends and changes in performance from year
to year. In addition, the study provides valuable
benchmarks against which managers can more
accurately gauge their facility’s performance within the company and against their competitors. (A
report containing the full results of the study is
available at www.werc.org.)
Closing
the gap
BY JOSEPH TILLMAN, KARL MANRODT, AND DONNIE WILLIAMS
11TH ANNUAL METRICS STUDY
Our 11th annual study
of distribution center
metrics shows that
where performance
gains are concerned,
the lowest achievers
outshone their “
best-in-class” peers this year.
