Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career, I\u2019m Marty and WAOC is back on the road this week! I\u2019m in San Antonio, Tx at the International Foodservice Distributors Association conference. I\u2019m actually here to Introduce The Distribution Training Center. It\u2019s always great to see all the vendors and old colleagues in the industry. There\u2019s some exciting news and innovations in our worlds of distribution coming, I\u2019ll be sharing bits and pieces of what all I learned and saw this week in some future episodes too, there\u2019s just so much to absorb! If you remember we visited with Joe back in April at The Taste of Oak Cliff event and learned a little about The Distribution Training Center, and as one of the Instructors involved with it I was honored to be a part of it\u2019s introduction to the industry this week! I\u2019ll try and grab Joe in the next week or two and put an episode together from the DTC, it\u2019ll be a lot of fun, maybe we can interview a few students over there!
\nAttending a large conference is really a lot of work, even for the attendees. I remember my first conference as a young Supervisor, talk about being stressed out. I guess it\u2019s a lot like how we can feel with a new job. I mean we\u2019re in a new environment, seeing all kinds of knowledgeable people, a host of new products, being introduced to new efficiencies as well as not exactly tried and true thoughts. As a young member of management, it\u2019s really an honor, or I always chose to believe it worked that way, to be chosen to attend all the corporate events or industry conferences each year. I always looked at the cost of the event, the travel, hotel stays and honestly those attendee registrations don\u2019t come cheap either, and committed myself to see all I could see and learn all I could from every booth and everyone I met! As many of you know, I try and keep a daily journal, really for my own benefits, but I\u2019d write everything down everything I saw at conferences! Most importantly for myself, my own self education but the greater benefit was probably that it gave me the opportunity to share what I learned with my bosses. When you have the opportunity to travel to such and learn or promote your company I strongly urge you to seize the moment. There\u2019s no better way to get noticed by your executive management team than assuring them that monies have been spent wisely and that they will see a return on their investment with you and with sending you to future conferences!
\nBeing a young Supervisor, or new to management is probably the toughest segment of your career. We\u2019ve spoken before how one of our first obstacles is breaking the expectations and relationships with our crews, or clicks, whatever we call them, our fellow employees I guess. We use to be part of the group, then overnight things changed. We now have responsibilities, regulatory, governmental, we have to make sure all the rules, processes and procedures are not just being kind of followed but really being performed to the letter of the law or our companies expectations! A quick story, I knew a forklift driver, he was one of 6 on his shift. For literally years they had no direct supervisor overseeing them, they were a very tenured group, knew what they we\u2019re doing and to be honest very good at their jobs, a very productive team. Anyway, the department was growing, and my friend was promoted to the position of Putaway Supervisor. Since the department would be experiencing this growth, doubling within about 8 months, it was on everyone\u2019s radar now. The warehouse director, who use to only check in with the group about once a week was now involved daily, his expense budgets we\u2019re increasing and of course his responsibilities towards payroll and productivity would be scrutinized as well. And the Safety Manager, someone they rarely heard from before was now, and rightly so, was a little more involved with the group. With new operators being added to the shift,