The Dolly Avenue facility in Buena Park, Ca. has been hard at work with Lean Logistic business practices. The warehouse 543 team had a great quarter working on a variety of projects most notably their Clif Bar picking MLR (Multiple Linear Regression). This project has been in the works for quite some time now as the team worked through completing the initial observations and time studies, to implementing the MLR and then to finally making it a core part of their culture at the facility. They have had such tremendous success that they are now rolling it out to other accounts in the building along with it being used across multiple other buildings within States Logistics.
The program the team has put in place is essentially a way to predict how long orders should take to pull by using past data they gathered during the time studies. By being able to predict how long the orders should take they can be better allocated to the team members that will pull them and the management team can better plan and prepare for their work day. Further, when a team member receives their orders for the day and is given their expected completion time it creates a sense of ownership and desire to hit their goal. It is clear that the team not only wanted to achieve their goal, but surpass it.
The LEAN MACHINE Award is given quarterly the facility / operation that best fulfills the below criteria:
Participation – to fully become LEAN, you must live, eat and breathe it on a daily basis.
Team Work – there is no “I” in LEAN. It requires the team working together to achieve the most success.
- Innovation – LEAN requires you to question the way things have been done in the past and think of a new and improved way of doing it.
- Success – the benefits of LEAN are endless. Success will be measured in a variety of ways (not just the amount of money / time saved)
If you have an idea on how to improve your facility / operation, tell your manager today! Your idea could help all of States improve and continue its journey to becoming LEAN! The opportunities are endless.
Aaron Richards
Quality Assurance Manager
States Logistics Services, Inc.
