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b'Warehouse and Operations as a Career, and I guess we\\u2019re on Episode 72 here today. I\\u2019m Marty, and I\\u2019m back home in Texas this week. I\\u2019ve been traveling the last couple of weeks, been up north, in the snow for a while. Each quarter I try and visit several facilities, I stop in on a couple of Production Facilities and several Distribution Centers and perform some observations and visit with Associates & Customers for business reviews. I really enjoy the conversations, and the opportunity I have to learn from everyone. I was lucky enough to meet with several new comers to our industry and a few individuals just recently promoted to the Lead and Supervisor positions. Through my visits I noticed a recurring thought, the word responsibility came up with almost everyone or position that was discussed. We\\u2019ve spoken to the responsibilities of our jobs and our careers on several episodes. I just found it interesting, and I was excited to hear all these new associates recognizing the points of their Jobs and planning as they were towards their careers!
\\nOne of the things I\\u2019m looking at when I enter a facility is the sanitation practices, what the transportation yard looks like, is the fence line clean or are there leaves and debris blown up into the fence, and are the Bollard post, I know a lot of us call them ballard post but anyway, are they nice and yellow or red or has the paint been knocked off or faded real bad. Another thing I check out, are all the trailers or containers locked to the docks or are the wheels chocked. Several facilities I\\u2019m involved with requires Glad hand locks or air line lock out devices thats applied to the red airline on the trailers. We\\u2019ve had a few episodes where we\\u2019ve mentioned Audits and how every facility is subject to some kind regulatory concern each year, city, state or federal agencies may be stopping by, oh and probably a Fire Marshall or Building Inspector even. As employees it\\u2019s all of our responsibility to follow the practices and procedures in place for our Safety and to adhere to those regulations of our industry. If I find all those things look good I\\u2019d bet the facility will have all their paperwork in place with every employee being safety conscience. I usually find a very strong Safety Culture within the shifts. Now on the other hand, if all that isn\\u2019t 100% I know I\\u2019ll probably find a few deficiencies with the safety practices or procedures. It\\u2019s kind of the same with the docks isn\\u2019t it, if the unloaders or lumpers keep their work area clean from pieces of broken pallets or torn shrink wrap you can pretty much bet the rest of the warehouse is going to be in top notch shape. Many times an Auditor or inspector won\\u2019t even go on into the aisles, you know if it\\u2019s not a regulatory audit of course, but he or she can tell just that quickly what the sanitation and safety cultures are within the first 20 minutes of walking around. I may even stop a couple of equipment operators and ask them to see their operator\\u2019s license and maybe ask them a couple of questions too, that\\u2019s a great way to meet them, shake their hands and let them know what a great job their doing.
\\nAnother place one can get an idea of how well a facility runs is checking out the breakroom. Are their storage areas for lunches provided, plates and utensil\\u2019s or are things stacked in window sills and counters, that\\u2019s another indicator to an auditor of how the facility is ran. I know as an employee these things seem a little trivial, especially when looked at individually but you can see how important they become as a whole in an auditors or agents world.
\\nI had an associate bring up a concern about a write up he had received for his lunch being on his equipment. He\\u2019d came in for his shift and since the equipment room was closer to the door than the breakroom he\\u2019d placed his lunch on his forklift, done his pre-trip and was driving his lift up to the breakroom.'