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Hello all, I’m Marty with you here at warehouse and operations as a career and today I’d like to talk about our Start up meetings for a bit. Last week we’d ask for some thoughts about those daily shift get together and I loved a lot of the things that were sent in to us. We also talked about the Clamp and Slip Sheet attachments and I was lucky enough to hear from Lavoil, he’s called into the show today from Illinois. Lavoil is a Lumping or Unloading Supervisor for a Distribution center in the Chicago are, he wears several hats throughout the shift and today he’ll be sharing some of his experiences with us. Maybe we can get him to share his secrets regarding the equipment and a little on his start up meetings! I have a gentleman named Nelson on the phone as well, Nelson is a Supervisor overseeing the Unloading, Selection and Utility Shifts for a large Foodservice DC in Texas. He’ll bring some insite as to why our Safety and Start-up meetings are so important!
Personally, I didn’t really experience much in the way of a Start-up meeting through my first few warehouse positions. When I went to work for a National Corporation, really a huge facility and everyone was gathering over by the receiving office on my first night I didn’t know how to react honestly. I listened of course, and to be honest not much was really said. Our Lead or Supervisor, I don’t remember which but I think it was the lead Selector went over the case count, how many trucks we had or would be loaded and the estimated time we could wrap things up if we got hot at it! That was about it, everyone went to work and myself and 4 other new hires that were starting that night were assigned our trainers and we went our own ways! At the end of my first week I attended a weekly Safety meeting that went about the same way, this particular company was very safety conscience but the organized or weekly meeting was brief and its content was pretty much the same week to week.
I’m excited to see pretty much across the board these days that the Shift Start-up’s are much more informative, and the employees are not only encouraged to participate but are so interested in the subjects that their leading the meetings in many instances and providing the topics as well! Today I’m seeing a lot of different exercises and stretching exercises being performed by the entire crew, being led by a lead or maybe even a safety committee member! I believe these changes and focus on both information and safety have been brought on by a career interested and self-educated workforce! It’s so exciting to see enthusiasm of today’s young leaders. Let’s all have that energy and lead ourselves and our peers in that direction, we’ll be noticed, and I guarantee we’ll help someone else with their career as well!
We had asked our group for a few topics from ya’ll’s start-up meetings and we had some great one’s sent in:
An individual from a production facility, I guess it was a processing place mentioned:
Today we were reminded to wash all utensils and stainless tables between cuttings with the proper solutions for the inspection.
Another member stated We covered Blade Safety, always use our sheaths
Dispose of dull or old razor blades properly
Change blades only when wearing the Safety Glove
Another member said they reviewed the Equipment Sign out sheet, I think that’s what they call the pre-trip inspection maybe
I loved hearing from several stating they were reminded to not use any equipment they weren’t trained on, and that was a big one.
Oh, and we heard a lot about pallets too, don’t stack them to high and be sure to separate the good from the bad or broken wood. Several mentioned not to stand pallets on their end or upright and to never place product on the floor.
We had several general warehousing 101 reminders like never jump out a dock door, use horns when entering the front docks and never block exit way’s or doors.
We noticed many facilities reviewed their GMP’s or general maintenance practices a few covered or brought up their SOP’s or standard operating procedures and job duties or descriptions. It’s great to hear so many places are taking the time needed to review and remind us as associates to work as a team!
As I mentioned I have Lavoil and Nelson on the phone with us today and willing to share their expertise and experience with us, You gentlemen doing alright today?
Well let’s dive right in with a couple of questions:
So Lavoil could you share a bit of your work history with us Sir, how’d you land in the Operations world?
Nelson, share a little about yourself Sir and how did you get started in the Industry?
Lavoil I understand you’re a pro with the slip sheet and clamp attachments, we’ve had several questions on how to use them and really how to get started with them. How’d you get all that experience?
Any challenges or tips you could share with our group on their use Sir?
Nelson, I know in your role today you have a huge impact with individual’s careers, their training and their career thoughts really. How do plan your start up meetings or the planning process, where do the topics come from each shift?
Lavoil, you have a startup each day as well, I know you have to prepare also, Do you think differently about pre shift meetings today than you did as an Associate?
Nelson with Safety being such an important aspect of our jobs, and our responsibility as leaders how do you create and instill that strong Safety Culture in others?
Could you share any advice or wisdom to any of us yearning to operate any specialized equipment like the clamp or slip sheet Lavoil?
And Nelson we’ll wrap up with you Sir, do you have any thoughts you could share with our group regarding Operations as a Career?
I really enjoyed visiting with the both of you today and us here at WAOC would like to pick your brains about some other topics sometime, any chance we could get you both back for another episode?
And as always a sincere thank you to our listeners for listening in with us, I hope you found value with us today and come back next week! Remember we retweet as many job postings across the nation as we can each week, and you can find us on twitter as @whseandops and we’d love a Like to our facebook page as well if you have the time! If you’re an equipment operator check out a New Facebook Group called Warehouse Equipment Operators Community, a place for those in the warehouse world to talk about our day with others! Until next week, be Safe and let’s get noticed this week at our Start up meetings, show our Supervisors and teammates we’re striving for more!