Hey hey all, you found Marty and Warehouse and Operations as a Career here again. Here we are in week 50 of 2024. I just realized we haven’t talked about our 2025 goals or plans yet. Maybe we can get that in over the next few weeks. I’m big on goals and planning, and I’m pretty much right on target for the year. Anyway, before I get started running down that path, I’ll get back to today’s bullet points!

I’ve been talking about the workforce out there right now and how we’re seeing people exploring new industries and changing their career goals over the last several weeks. I was asked by a listener if I could talk about warehouse positions, at distribution facilities in particular. She wanted to know how to get started and how do you get into a management position. Speaking with her I found that her work history, although she hasn’t been in the workforce but for about 4 or nearly 5 years I guess, she’s had about 18 months in a production type facility, doing a little picking and packing for assembly parts. I’m not sure what they built though. Her only other jobs had been with 2 restaurants and 3 retail stores. She states she so enjoys the physical aspects of the job and the warehouse environment overall.

One of the comments she made was that, in the restaurant industry, you could be trained as a manager after being there for like 3 months. There was a lot more responsibility given to you and the pay was pretty good, but the hours we’re never set. They we’re different week to week. She was wondering if she could be a supervisor in a few months?

OK, there’s a lot to unpack there. She has a friend working in the distribution world, she’s spoke with them regarding the pay, and I think that’s where we landed on the distribution industry.

So, let’s talk about distribution and delivery!

I thought we’d walk a case of product through the building. We’ll start with that case being purchased. I know a merchandiser or procurement department isn’t actually a warehouse position, however they do interact with the warehouse more than any other office position, and we’ll talk about that more in a bit.

Our merchandiser understands how valuable the real-estate is in our warehouse. Space is at a premium, square footage is expensive, and it has to be utilized to maximize our efficiencies on the floor! So, quantities are purchased with days on hand in mind.

Pick slots are assigned to facilitate that products movement. Meaning how many times a week does our selector stop in front of that slot and how many cases does the warehouse select and ship in a week. Once we know that, we’ll calculate the amount of space needed to store, or slot, that number of cases so we don’t have to move pallets around more times than absolutely necessary. The merchandiser will purchase in that pallet quantity, hopefully, and where possible, even the correct ti and hi configuration for our slot size. Ti meaning how many cases on a layer and hi being how many layers criss crossed or reversed stacked on the pallet.

So, the company has purchased the product, it’s on a trailer and on the way to us!

First the load will need to be scheduled to arrive and be unloaded. Let’s say we’re working at a large facility, with an inbound trailer or container count of, oh, let’s say around 60 loads a day. The first position we’ll discuss is the Inbound scheduler.

In my humble opinion, this is one of the hardest jobs in the warehouse. I didn’t like it and to be honest I never was very good at it! This individual works closely with merchandising and our logistics department scheduling the loads for each day. They are usually working about 2 weeks out. Setting up appointments through freight brokers and over the road operators for date and times to unload. It’s a tough job. Everyone wants the appointment to work with their schedule! This person has to be patient, be able to deescalate many situations a day, handle multiple phone calls a day and deal with people that may have been lied to regarding an appointment already. With all that being said, our case has arrived and the load is given a door to back into!

Now the driver or operator may utilize a lumper or unloading service to remove the product from his or her trailer, segregate each item-by-item number, stack it in the correct pallet configuration using a breakdown sheet, and stage it on the dock for our receiver to work with it.

The lumper position or unloader job is a great get your foot in the door job, an entry level position that can take us on to most any position in the warehouse. We’ll learn every item in the building, by sight. That ability can certainly take us places.

The next position or person to see our case will be the receiver. Now this is a very important job. Typically, a very experienced person will have this position. They are responsible for receiving or verifying the item is what was ordered, the correct quantity, with nothing damaged, and entering it into our inventory. Once received; by accepting the delivery, the receiver is basically writing a check for the product right then and there. He or she works off of a p.o. or purchase order to see what is being delivered, or what should be delivered! They will then tag the pallet as received. At our large dc that tag will have a barcode which states the quantity on the pallet, the item, and any information our WMS, or warehouse management system has been given for it, maybe something like fifo or first in first out, the pick slot location or the reserve location to store the pallet in.

The next position would be the pallet runner position. This person will work from a single, double, or maybe even a triple electric rider platform pallet jack, hauling the received pallets from the dock to the assigned aisles and staging them for the forklift operators to place in the reserve slots or the pick locations as instructed by the information on the barcoded pallet tags. This position may be filled from the lumper position, or off the streets with a person with like 1 + years of electric rider jack experience. It’s referred to as a skilled position, but I feel it still falls in that gaining experience category. It is a PIT position, so we’ll have completed the classroom portion of OSHA’s 1910.178 standard and had the machines operation demonstrated to us and us observed on the equipment in our working environment. A great growth position in my humble opinion.

From here the put away forklift operator takes over. He or she will scan the receiving tag and place the pallet in the proper location, possibly a reserve slot or the pick slot. This position requires quite a bit of experience. Typically, this individual will have several years of warehouse experience and at least 3 years of forklift experience. Your placing pallets many feet into the air, working around others and different types of equipment. This is a job with more responsibilities than most. For all those reasons, and the importance of safety with the task, it usually pays pretty well.

Awe were at the order selector task now. This is considered by many to be the golden ticket in the distribution arena. In our large facility it pays very well. The work is hard, the pace can be unbelievable. We could be paid by the piece and our productivity, so we are focused and moving! Our errors have to all but nonexistent, and safety has to be on the forefront of our minds and actions at all times. Yes, this position pays well but I encourage everyone to have an exit strategy. This is not a job we’ll want to do for 10 years, its rough on our bodies! Many order selectors move on to inventory control, or becoming forklift operators, maybe even receivers. With this position we’ll learn every item in our building and where its located! Again, having that item knowledge give us a leg up on others.

Ask Me Anything: Distribution