Lately, we\u2019ve been fielding lots of questions about employee turnover rates and warehouse associates\u2019 pay rates, especially after a peak holiday season when competition for labor was at an all-time level of frustration \u2013 unfilled positions and low retention. Wage pressure and availability of labor is top of mind with many companies.<\/p>\n
What does this mean for you? Now is the time to start thinking about how to increase warehouse-associate productivity to counterbalance the necessitated increase in pay and in numbers.<\/p>\n
Think Best Way<\/strong> Consider training associates in the finer motions of a warehouse job. For instance, teach a packer to pack a box just like you would teach a child to throw a baseball or perform a dance movement. Break it down into steps, emphasize the importance of each step to the desired end, and practice, practice, practice.<\/p>\n Crowd Engineering is a relatively new means for discovering best-way techniques to teach. The process is based on three assumptions:<\/p>\n What Our Experience Has Taught Us<\/strong> By comparing how Sally seals a box to how Bill does it, we learn how the various nuances each has developed has impacted\u2014both good and bad\u2014their efforts. Then we pick the best method of sealing a box (usually in a room with a large monitor, a bunch of associates, and a whole lot of discussion).<\/p>\n Next, we create videos and\/or webinars instructing associates on how to do each step in the approved best method. (Often, we also include clips showing how not to do a particular step and why.) These videos become the basis of a real training program as opposed to the usual on-the-job instruction.<\/p>\n The result? We consistently identify 10% to 30% improvement in labor productivity via Crowd Engineering, affording you the ability to handle warehouse associate pay increases today and beyond.<\/p>\n How\u2019s that for results?<\/em><\/p>\n As of September 8, 2020, Crimson & Co (formerly The Progress Group\/TPG) has rebranded as Argon & Co following the successful merger with Argon Consulting in April 2018.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":11750,"template":"","categories":[145],"class_list":["post-11749","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-supply-chain-planning"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nYou have a plethora of ways to achieve this end, but one of the most effective is to teach warehouse associates to use better methods. Creating a good labor standard\u2014a best practice or \u201cbest way\u201d\u2014is hard when everyone does the job in a different manner. First, specify a best way to do a job. Then, develop the standard around people following it.<\/p>\nEngineer a Solution Via Your Crowd<\/h2>\n
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\nTPG has learned that videoing different associates doing their jobs and using software to help us compare them as they complete each different step in the process is invaluable to a Crowd Engineering effort.<\/p>\n