Unfortunately, due to the day-to-day demands on warehouse employees and infrastructure, it’s easy to delay improvements to avoid disrupting the process. Many companies settle for inefficiencies, sticking with the current system—no matter how flawed—to keep shipping schedules on track. Thankfully, Master Electronics recognizes the value of investing in improvements and solutions that will deliver long-term value.
When the company faced this challenge internally, Director of Inbound Operations, Mark Light, got to work on a solution. Mark created a new team from the ground up, recruiting leaders and employees, developing training materials and a training schedule, communicating expectations through all distribution center (DC) departments, following up on progress daily, and creating accountability around the execution of daily tasks. His vision? Rethink the current stocking strategy and shelving design to make daily processes more efficient and accurate for all team members.
The new DC Projects Team was hand-picked from existing distribution center employees after a thorough interview process that prioritized attendance, performance, and contributions to company culture. Then, the team went through a six-week “boot camp” training across all DC departments. With a clear understanding of each department and its challenges, the DC Projects Team could focus its efforts on big-picture improvements that would benefit all teams at once. The team officially got to work after training was completed in October 2020.
Mark’s DC Projects Team was a massive success, improving outbound production by roughly 5%. Its members designed and iterated on new stocking strategies to increase capacity and lower the overall bin density. Then, when the warehouse acquired an additional 20,000 square feet of space, the team was able to design a future-oriented racking design, develop a new stocking strategy focused on velocity mapping, and facilitate an expansion of future capacity.
These improvements allowed the DC Projects Team to lower the overall density from 94% shelf volume capacity, down to 80% shelf volume capacity, especially in our highest turn parts. And with a robotics-based warehouse system on the way, the DC Projects Team is perfectly poised to facilitate the induction of the parts.
When you work with Master Electronics, you reap the rewards of a team that values continuous improvement. As Mark and the DC Projects team illustrate, the Master Electronics culture doesn’t settle for the status quo, and its customers enjoy the benefits. If you’re looking for a leading global authorized distributor of electronic components (with a new and improved warehouse environment!), get in touch.
