Page 24 - Logistics News Sept / Oct 2018

Materials Handling

A peek

into the

future

Courtesy Gary Forger, Contributing Editor Modern Materials Handling

How materials handling and other activities within the four walls are changing
right in front of us. John A White III, President and CEO at Fortna, talks about the
impact of change in the DC.

YOU DON’T have to go back more than fi ve or increasingly prominent role in doing all of this in real
seven years to see the big shift in the DC and time. It comes down to optimising workfl ow, labour
warehouse. Back then, a warehouse manager knew and equipment to meet customer expectations and
what demand levels would be for the next day and do it more effi ciently than ever.
could plan accordingly. Now, it’s a constant fl ow Walmart and Amazon can aff ord to develop
of new orders throughout the day, especially in these capabilities internally. Other companies’
e-commerce. That means that the work is harder to primary focus is on getting orders out the
plan and execute because everything is dynamic. door. They need to bring knowledge, expertise
That shift is enormous. It has an impact on order and innovation from the outside to help them
cycle times, timely access to SKUs, consolidation apply technologies and systems that optimise
of order lines, effi cient use of labour and workfl ow, operations and solve these challenges. All of
to name just a few key metrics. There’s also the this may sound like a technology challenge,
matter of equipment and labour optimisation. The but it’s more than that. Talent is an issue in our
result is much greater complexity on the fl oor, and industry that needs to be addressed. Let’s face
that requires completely diff erent facility designs it, people need broader skills than ever to be a
and modes of operation. supply chain professional going forward. The list
The challenge now and going forward is to includes skills in technology, business, leadership,
design and implement systems to continuously communications and fi nance. Unfortunately,
optimise as conditions change throughout the many people coming out of university today
day. I’m not talking about managers making these don’t have all these skills. That’s where the
decisions as they do today. I’m talking about 70/20/10 developmental model comes in.
systems making recommendations to managers We believe companies need to have a
or even making the actual decisions without programme in place that provides 10 percent
human input in many cases. Decision science and classroom training, 20 percent coaching and
optimisation is the future. mentoring and 70 percent experience-based
This change requires a new approach to facility learning. People have to be life-long students who
design. Companies like Fortna approach design continuously improve. The future of distribution
diff erently, extending from equipment selection depends on developing a talent pool that can apply
and integration to workfl ow optimisation. Software, decision science and technology to the challenges
especially warehouse execution systems, play an of real-time optimisation. •

22 September/October 2018 | Logistics News