Stackers – Speaking Up – Productivity Pay – 1st QTR Goals

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It’s Thursday again, I’m Marty and we’ve reached the last week of the 1^st quarter.  Time’s flying by and we’re having a blast talking about Operations each week with you, keep those questions, comments and topic suggestions coming in, we have a lot of fun putting each episode together with you.  So, today let’s talk about some of those questions and topics here at Warehouse and Operations as a Career.

One of the questions I’ve enjoyed looking into was about the series of equipment, commonly referred to as Stackers, at least around here. The question was What are they? Stackers, typically are used in very narrow aisle situations, short aisled warehouses where the need for heavy productivity or product movement isn’t really necessary.  Think of a Walkie Electric Jack that can raise a pallet to the 3^rd or even the 4^th level of your storage system or racking.  Very maneuverable in tight spaces or on uneven surfaces, great for the smaller operations.  There’s several manufacturers and many different models, some of them are really cool machines.  I’ve seen several different types with different weight capacities, some even use counterbalance weights and I’ve seen some with different outrigger configurations for different pallet types and loads.  Due to them being a Walkie a 29cfr1910.178 certification or training is not required but I suggest them & I strongly urge employees and employer’s to attend or require a class if your using any style of powered equipment to move freight. I feel the same hazards exist, feet, ankles and hands can be injured and of course one needs to be aware of our surroundings, stack height, load distribution, especially on ramps or uneven surfaces.  I’ve seen too many fingers or hands get pinched against uprights when we’re turning or ankle injuries and feet getting pinned against the bottom rails.  Of course any good Safety program and a strong Safety Culture can help keep us aware and on our toes!  Stackers are great machines and their use is pretty versatile, I like them for the environments they can perform well with.  I’ll reach out to a Stacker Rep and see if we can’t hear from the experts about where their selling them, what industries really utilize them well and learn about all the advantages and uses they have.

Last week we spoke about Safety Culture, one of the examples I spoke too was speaking up if you notice a step has been skipped or something that’s written in your procedures or process isn’t being done.  A young gentleman stated he’s pretty uncomfortable pointing out when his team’s start-up meeting is skipped, or their stretches aren’t done.  There’s always going to be the exception, somethings going to come up, a heavy shift, our Supervisor gets tied up in a meeting etc.  Our procedures and processes are written, that’s what makes them important.  If we say we’re doing something, it’s important that we do them and document them.  If an inspector or auditor does come in that’s what their looking for, what we say we’re doing vs what we have documentation for.  I love this train of thought, what a great way to get noticed by our management team.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking charge and giving them a piece of paper, even if it’s just something like “today we talked about being careful on the equipment and lift properly when handling the cases.”  You can do it in such a way that your peers won’t think anything about it, don’t be too official or try being the boss but hey, just start stretching and mention to a few people around you to be careful and let’s not have any injuries today.  Write it on a piece of paper and give it to your boss.  He or She then has documented meeting notes!  You’ll get the Star award that day and more importantly your boss will be impressed you had his or her back!  They may not say so but I honestly believe they’ll be very appreciative!

Let’s see, here’s another comment about productivity.  I work for productivity pay, I’m an Order Selector and when I even drop my standard by just like 3 or 5 cases an hour my money drops for that week.  Is that how productivity pay works, because it doesn’t seem right.  All activity based programs have to be very well defined as their how we get paid.  Let’s think about it for a minute.  If our pay groups are 120 cases an hour to 130 cases an hour pays X dollars an hour, and 131 cases an hour to 140 cases an hour pays us X amount and then 141 cases an hour to 150 cases an hour pays us even more, it’s pretty defined and it has to be.  Things are going to happen, we take a little longer break or lunch or we’re just not feeling 100% one shift but the programs the program and I’m sure we all understand when it comes to how we’re paid things have to be regulated and the program followed, by us and the company.  While we’re talking about productivity pay, and there’s all different types, all kinds of measurements and requirements I’d just like to say, or I feel, it’s really important that we understand the program before we sign on.  I feel any Activity based program is far better than an hourly structure.  I want to be paid for what I can do and what I’m worth and not necessarily be tied to any constraints by slower, newer or less productive associates.  An important thing to remember about productivity pay is we can control so many factors of our pay.  Just by watching our breaks and lunches or talking in the aisles or joking around, being productive when that clocks running, making sure a case is moving at all times makes us money!  My favorite thought is theirs 60 seconds to a minute and 60 minutes in an hour.  We can control our pay rate by just figuring out how to reduce our travel time and how many cases we need to select each minute.  Don’t make any wasted movements or move even a foot farther with our equipment than absolutely necessary.  We spoke with Anthony in episode 19 Warehouse Training Techniques and a visit from a Professional and visited with James with our A few Thoughts and Answers on Order Selection episode, I believe it was our episode 33. They both did a great job explaining how to improve our techniques and capitalize on our productivity, if you missed them I urge you to go give them a listen.  If you have an opportunity to work by the piece or hourly, choose by the piece, you’ll be richer for it if you want to be.  I guess that really makes the difference between them, what do you want to earn!

Oh, last week I mentioned a drawing for a WAOC Coffee Mug, not sure why I just thought of that, as you know it’s hard for me to stay on subject most of the time, but be sure you send us a comment on Safety Culture or one of your Safety Procedures to host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com, we’re going to draw a name and announce the winner next Thursday!

As I mentioned earlier we’re about to wrap up the 1^st quarter of 2018.  How are you coming with those Goals?  I hope we’ve all made our plan for the year by now, remember our 4^th Quarter 2017 – Preparing for a Richer 2018 episode?  If you missed that one, check it out, we discussed all we needed was an additional $2.40 an hour at regular time to earn an additional $5000.00 this year.  A little planning will get us there!

Over the last few weeks we’ve spoken with a couple of individuals that’s done just that, they have their plan, there measuring their progress and are committed to achieving their goals! I’ve spoken with several  order selectors that made a conscience effort to eliminate some travel time and those gossip sessions in the aisles and have increased their pay by quite a bit, oh and a individual new to our industry that was hired on with a sanitation position, worked it for about 2 months and has moved into the maintenance dept with a nice little increase to boot.  And Cory too, Cory visited with us a couple of weeks ago as he’s realizing one of his goals, he was recently promoted from an unloader position to his shifts Leadman.  There all working to surpass their target goal of earning an additional 5,000 dollars this year!

I hope we talked about something that helped you today, maybe gave you something to think about anyway! Keep those thoughts and questions coming in and we’ll get around to all of them.  Don’t forget about our Facebook and Twitter feeds, we’re pretty active there @whseandops and you can look at our past episodes show notes on the website warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com. Don’t forget to send us an email about your Safety Culture or Safety Practice, you could be win the WAOC Coffee Mug next week!  Talk up the Safety Culture at your facility this week & Walk a newbie through a Safety Practice!