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b'Welcome back, Marty here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career! Last week we visited with Phillip and were discussing a couple of the challenges a new Lead or Supervisor can encounter when being brought up from within the crew. It was really interesting seeing the feedback and the messages that were sent into us, I guess we have several listeners that have recently stepped into those roles or a few that are ready too. A lot of times after a promotion we as Leads, or Supervisors of course want to make changes, changes we feel are better for our associates and the company both. We\\u2019ve possibly received our promotion due to someone moving on, maybe our old supervisor was promoted, or had quit or found another job or an entirely new position had been created for us and our talents. In any event or scenario, we mentioned, something called change is inevitable and in our industry and culture, there\\u2019s another good word, culture, anyway change is sometimes met with some seriously high wall\\u2019s, very thick walls! Today let\\u2019s talk about handling Change & Culture. This week I was able catch Joe, our WAOC go to Safety Man and have him on the phone with us today. You know Joe, Wither as an associate, a new member of management or a long-term Manager, Change is something we\\u2019ll need to learn to handle. Many times, we can maneuver around those walls, drill right through them or easily hurdle over them. I\\u2019ve been taught and found that it\\u2019s all in how you present change and handle change that determines failure or success with the project or situation!
\\nWhat\\u2019s your thoughts on change Joe, would you agree it can present itself as a barrier to us on the floor & as Sup\\u2019s Sir?
\\nJoe - Change is one of those things you can\\u2019t prevent. Take a look at Vietnam era building and manufacturing practices and compare them to today. Worlds apart and a lot of change to get it there.
\\nLet\\u2019s look at the word change, Merriam Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/change says in part
\\na : to make different in some particular
\\nb : to make radically different
\\nc : to give a different position, course, or direction
\\n2 a : to replace with another
\\nb : to make a shift from one to another
\\nd : to undergo a modification
\\n
\\nWe\\u2019re Operations people, we come in for our Shifts and do our Jobs, things work, we get the job done so why change anything right, it all just works! I used to pull orders with a tugger, some use to call them tovairs, we connected two heavy industrial flats or buggies to them any pulled through the warehouse placing the product on them, then we\\u2019d drop them off at their staging door to be loaded by the loaders. They worked great, I always felt it was the best system period. I mean the buggies were easy to roll out of your way and reposition any time you needed too, and loading was a breeze, you\\u2019d just roll the buggy into the trailer and stack the product on the floor, high and tight! We pulled at the time on pick tickets which we\\u2019re just a computer sheet that told us who ordered what and where it was going. Simple and efficient. Or so we thought at the time.
\\nMy employer installed a Selection System, we switched from tuggers to electric pallet jacks and from our easily maneuvered buggies to stacking product on pallets. And the pallets were broken down into 2 zones even, the system told us wither to place the product on the front or back halves of the pallets. This was change, and I can quite honestly say I didn\\u2019t see it working out at all. I willingly gave 10 reasons to anyone that would listen as to why this wouldn\\u2019t work and was a waste of time. I can remember sitting outside at lunch on the 2nd night that we were working with the new system and a much older gentleman I knew came over and sit down beside me. He was a trailer spotter at the time, he\\u2019d been a driver many years ago with the same company.'