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Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career, the Podcast about Operations, by Operations men and women. We try and bring you a little information each week about warehousing and transportation, 2 fields within our industry that you won’t find a more passionate group of people to connect with than our WAOC group! I’m Marty and I appreciate you listening in with us today. We grabbed the mobile equipment and headed over to the Distribution Training Center in Oak Cliff Texas today to answer a few questions and talk about a couple of warehouse positions, some of them being those how do I get my foot in the door type positions too. We may hear a little warehouse noise and some horn honking in the background as there’s a couple of 29cfr1910.178 classes going on just on the other side of the office wall here.
So, each year about this time we hear from several listeners regarding breaking into the field or what’s my next step, maybe a few where should I go from here kind of questions. What better place to discuss those topics than over at the DTC. We’ve mentioned the distribution training center a couple of times last year but I think this is the first time we’ve recorded from here. The distribution training center is owned by Belmar Integrated Logistics, a national sourcing company, they use it for a lot of their PIT or powered industrial truck certification instruction and many different training courses. I’ve been instructing one such class here the last two weeks. I’ve really enjoyed working with all the new talent and discussing so many Op’s topics with them!
Before I get too far off topic to rein myself back in let’s get to a few of those questions, WAOC, how would you suggest I get a job in the warehouse? Well, with that being a bit of a broad question I thought we’d talk about a few positions they instruct over here and I’ll point out a few of my favorite get a foot in the door type tasks!
Let’s start with the freight coming in the door and see how far we can get today, maybe we’ll make it all the way through to the shipping positions and transportation!
Taking that path, Unloading or Lumping would be our first topic. I think this is a great get our foot in the door job. It’s the first step in the supply chain, regarding bringing product into a distribution center or DC, requiring very little if any experience. If you are willing to work hard and learn not only how to move cases but learn to read purchase orders and break down sheets you’ll have the opportunity to work with ti/hi’s and be around pallet runners, receivers and maybe even forklift drivers. A P.O. or purchase order is what your merchandising department has ordered. The breakdown sheet will tell you how many sku’s or items are on the trailer and how to break them down and how many finished pallets you’ll end up with. You’ll identify and separate those items, stacking them on pallets with the proper TI, or how many cases are on each layer and the HI, meaning how many of those layers you place on the pallet so it can fit into its designated slot for picking or storage. We’ll want to alternate each layer so the configuration tie’s or locks the freight onto the pallet. That way the pallet of freight is built sturdy & stable, otherwise, if we just column stacked everything it’d just fall over when we moved it! The work is hard, but the pay can be very much worthwhile. A lot of our larger corporate companies will contract out the unloading to a third party. One of the incentives to unloading or lumping is piece pay. We’re paid by the piece we unload and maybe there’s an additional pay piece for finished pallets too. Meaning the quicker we unload one trailer, the sooner we can start another one and so on. That money can add up quickly and before you know it, we’re all wrapped up and done for the day! Some days can be long, but some can be short. Now, I consider this position a skilled task, many will tell you it’s a general labor position. I laugh at those individuals. I challenge anyone to learn to read a breakdown sheet, learn every pallet configuration in your warehouse, and make it happen all day long and then say it’s a general labor position! There is quite a bit of turnover in unloaders, but there’s a lot of promotions too. Unloading’s work closely with the pallet runners and forklift drivers, quite a bit with the receivers too. Those positions are kind of the progression path for a good unloader, someone that’s applied themselves and learned a little about all those positions that touches there’s. That’s the WAOC way, right?
Next in our little supply chain would be the receiver position. He or she will count the product the unloaders have broken down and staged, enter it into inventory, tagged it for the pallet runners and forklift operators to haul off and place it in the pick slot or reserve locations. This is a job with a lot of responsibility! Receiving the product by signing the bill of laden, that a commerce legal document stating what’s been delivered by the carrier, is just like signing a check for the entire purchase order. If any product was shorted or damaged, and as a receiver we fail to notate it on the bol, well, we just purchased it anyway. Try and explaining that to your boss. I loved receiving but it does carry a lot of weight or responsibility with it. It’s a great precursor to a lead or supervisor position too. We’ll be working closely with our merchandising department and of course our warehouse management teams. There quite a bit of regulatory rules we’ll need to follow too depending what industry we’re in. Not really a get our foot in the door job but a solid steppingstone towards our career goals sometimes.
That brings us to the Pallet Runner. This position can be our first step from the unloading and lumper position. In the larger facilities we’ll usually be using an electric rider jack, maybe a double or triple jack to haul the received product from the docks to the aisles for the lift drivers. That’s about all there is to the job description, but try it! Again, navigating the docks with people and equipment operating all around you and setting up the aisles like several different fork drivers want their pallets staged can be quite the challenge. Not usually a starting position unless you have a lot of equipment experience. Usually pallet runners are pulled from unloading or the sanitation departments, I think.
Then we’ll move to the Put away task. That’s a forklift position. It’s called put away because that’s exactly what we’re doing, placing the received pallets into the pick slots or the reserve locations. It’s our job to store everything properly. Generally, our WMS or warehouse management systems will direct us where that product goes. Remember that tag our receiver placed on the pallet when they received it? Well that barcode will track the pallet all the way thru the storage process right along it journeys until its delivered to the customer! This position carries quite a lot of responsibility as well. As with all our warehouse positions Safety will have to be our number 1 goal.
Let’s see, what’s next in the chain, Awe, Order Selecting. Order Selecting is not typically going to be a get our foot in the door positions. These are generally a skilled position, a productivity driven job. Many times, our pay will be based on a by the case program or an incentive program. The more we pull or select the more we will earn. I feel one of the downfalls of this position, well, it’s not really associated with the position but in your typical order selectors eyes there is not much of a Team mentality. Your pay is based on what you do, and that’s a great thing, yet it just can’t be all about ourselves. Facilities that encourage more of a team approach are much more successful. Another thing us as order selectors have to recognize is that if we have other plans, things like management, inventory control, transportation, or any other operations duty we need to let our Supervisors know about our goals. Being one of the high producers, as I’m sure we will be, is going to get us noticed alright. Our supervisor isn’t ever going to think about us moving on. He or she is going to like our productivity numbers, and want to keep us there, with them, adding to their metrics, right? If we’ve shared our goals and plan with them though, we’ll still be an asset to them. They will need someone to take their place before they can move to another position. If our name is one the tip of their tongue when their boss asks, do you have someone ready to take your place, bam, everyone looks good! An order Selector carries a lot of responsibility. Errors are extremely costly. Selection damages are avoidable, Safety again is our #1 priority. Chances are we’ll be working with a selection device. Either a wrist mount and scanner or a speech to select unit of some type. Order Selecting is one of the highest earning positions in our warehouse. It’s hard work and brings a lot of responsibility with it. It touches only a few other positions directly. We’ll punch in, pick up our pallet jack, perform our pre-trip, grab our selection unit, pick up or download our 1st batch, run the warehouse aisles selecting our product, wrap the pallet and stage it on the front dock for loading on the truck for delivery. We’ll do that a dozen times, punch out and go home. It pays really well, it’s hard work, and we’ll need to enjoy the job if we’re going to be successful at it. I loved order selecting. Have a plan though if your goal is another position and include your supervisor!
Let’s see, next would be the Replenishment forklift position. Pretty much the exact same job description as our put away driver, just in reverse. This is the man or woman that’s going to keep the pick slots filled for the order selectors. A little more pressure maybe than its counterpart due to the additional traffic on the docks and in the aisles. They’ll need to really be safe, aware of their surroundings. Selectors are in the aisles with them, loaders and sanitation people are up on the docks, people & equipment are everywhere. Definitely a safety-first position! As with any equipment operator position, we’ll need experience or be promoted to the task. We’ll need training, certification and experience to make our mark! Now this is a great steppingstone position too. We’ll be working closely with several other tasks and our management teams. I think replenishment is a great position!
And we’ll wrap up with loading. Now this is another great get our foot in the door position. Not a general labor job, we’ll need to learn to read a load map, or a sheet that tells us where to place the pallets and in what order. We’ll be working closely with the management team, the outbound drivers, we’ll be talking with the selectors and our transportation departments. Just about any of the positions we’ve spoke about today could be our next move. As a loader we will learn every item carried in our warehouse, by sight, and probably know where its slotted. Again, hard work. Loaders can be paid by the hour, by the piece or by the pallet loaded. I’ve seen it structured several different ways. I enjoyed loading when I was doing it & it led me to other positions within the industry.
Well, I veered off the topic a little. I hope I answered the question of how do I get started in the industry or the where do I go from here thought. If not please send us an email to host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com and I’ll try and be a little more specific with our reply. I wanted to interview one of the trainers, there having a busy day today, I’ll come back over here again though and we’ll get one of them to sit down with us for a bit! Until next week, work with your planning and goals a bit, what’s your next step? And as always please be safe out there, our family members are going to be excited to see us when we get home!