During my last couple years working, I was considered a Logistics Manager. My duties were to visit and review each center. Occasionally I went to a center with specific instructions to review a particular practice or situation. Most often I went to a center with no specific area or situation to review. This was a good for me as I could take my time and observe various activities.
I took photos to show situations to the Center General Manager and to the logistics people in the home office. I intentionally did not take photos of people, as I assumed that most people did not want to be in a report or power point for others to see.
As a side note; after I left the company I received a comment from a person in the home office who said, “I recently reviewed one of those power points that you sent us, and those power points had a lot of good information in them”. I thought, they could have used that information when I was sending it to them.
During most of my visits to Centers, I was looked at as a pain in their neck, and not as an outsider offering a different view of their operation and procedures. During a visit to the center in Mesquite Nevada, I was approached by a supervisor who asked, “How do you do what you do, how do you find the things that we don’t see?”
I explained that it is simple. I am not in a hurry! I went on to say, “Most visitors have an agenda and want to visit with as many staff as possible, and or make presentations to all staff”. I, on the other hand, am not trying to visit as many staff as possible, and I am not here to make presentations.
He asked if I would show him how I do what I do. I said to this supervisor who is now known as a department manager, “You pick an aisle and we will together look for problems”. He picked an aisle and we walked into it.
I always look for general cleanliness, has the area been swept, is there litter on the floor?
We stopped and looked at the home locations for empty bins, mixed bins, dirty or damaged product, empty boxes left in the location.
Thinking of safety, we considered the product and was there anything located improperly. Could staff properly access the product, in other words lift it properly and safely.
Then we looked above the bins at overstock locations. Is the product stacked properly, were the pallets secured, was there anything overhead that appears as being unsafe? I often looked between the racks to see if there was any product that had fallen, or was there litter (trash) between the racks.
In doing this type of inspection, one should never get in a hurry. Often you will see something that don’t seem right, and if you look at it from a different angle you may see something that needs to be corrected. Example; at a different center I saw a large roll of what appeared to be AstroTurf, unsecured on a pallet, on the top rack approximately 20 feet high.
Another thing I would do was to look in places that most people would avoid. In between racks, in corners, behind things, in closets and especially in the areas where damaged product is stored. Returned goods area is often very telling of the overall operation.
If you want to inspect something properly, take your time, stand and observe, do not hurry, do not assume. I would often ask staff why something was that way, and I often received interesting information.
Also, when I was reviewing locations for safety, I was also observing my surroundings. Even though I seem to be focused on one thing, I can still observe other things.
Example: I was at a center and I was observing how the orders from the bin section were being placed on carts. The product was coming from the lower and upper bin sections. The product needed to be consolidated and then loaded onto carts which were used to transport the product to shipping. It happened to be winter and staff were dressed appropriately. I observed the person using a tugger to take the carts to shipping. He had a hooded sweat shirt on, with the hood up, his peripheral vision was obstructed. I saw the hoody as a safety concern! Operating equipment and not having a full field of vision is a safety concern.
The hoody situation was reported to the center’s General Manager who said, “It was not a problem”. It was then reported to the corporate office who viewed it, and decided it was a safety concern.
Inspectors should take their time and observe everything.
Don Ford
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