Warehouse and Operations as a Career

Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I’m Marty T Hawkins. Today we’re doing something I always enjoy, another Ask Me Anything episode! Let’s see, we’re at episode 383, and I’ve got three questions that have come in recently that I think deserve a little conversation. And I’ve got to tell you, these are good ones. All three have came up before, and I f...

Today, let’s talk about a piece of equipment that, depending on how long you’ve been in the light industrial world, you may remember being a pretty significant part of the daily operation. The order picker. Or, as most of us have called it for years, the cherry picker.   Now, if you’re picturing the kind of cherry picker the electric company uses to work on power lines, we’...

Showing up. Now, when I say showing up, I’m not just talking about clocking in on time or about making it to the interview. I’m not just talking about being at the startup meeting, standing on the production floor, sitting behind a desk, or walking into the warehouse every morning. I’m talking about really showing up. Showing up for your career, for your family, for your responsibilities, and your...

Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I’m Marty and today, I thought we’d talk about three things that we see in just about every warehouse, manufacturing facility, distribution center, and production environment at one time or another.   Horseplay. Drama. And standing around. Now, individually, they may not sound like the biggest workplace problems in the world. Somebo...

Today lets talk about probably one of the most recognized, most used, most abused, and quite possibly most underestimated pieces of material-handling equipment in our industry. The pallet jack. You know the one. Two forks. A handle. A couple of wheels. And maybe a battery. And depending on which version we are talking about, maybe an operator standing behind it, walking beside it, standing on it,...

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I’m Marty, and today let’s talk about something that sounds incredibly simple. So simple, in fact, that we probably hear it growing up from our parents, teachers and coaches. And once we enter the workforce, we hear it from supervisors, managers, customers, and coworkers.   Do what you say you’re going to do.  That’s i...

Today let’s talk about something I’ve been asked many times over the years.  “Why warehousing?” Or “Why transportation?” Or “Why the supply chain?”   After unloading trailers, pulling orders, operating forklifts, supervising teams, managing operations, and on to the executive team, I’ve been asked that question hundreds of times. People usually expec...

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of  Warehouse and Operations as a Career.  I’m Marty, and as always, I appreciate you spending a little of your day with me.   Today I want to talk about something that’s been on my mind for quite a while. Over the past several months, I’ve spoken with warehouse associates, forklift operators, order selectors, recruiters, superv...

Today we’re talking about something that can literally save lives, protect equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, prevent product damage, eliminate downtime, and even set you up for success outside the warehouse. It’s called the pre-trip. Now, I know what some of you are thinking, Yeah, yeah check the forklift and move on. But today I want to challenge that thought. A pre-tr...

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I’m Marty, and as always, thank you for spending a little time with us today. You know, it’s funny how some of the most important jobs in our industry happen in the smallest places. Think about the size of a distribution center. Maybe it’s 300,000 square feet or maybe it’s a million square feet. Hundr...

Hi All, Marty here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I started off this week hearing a peer’s name I hadn’t heard in probably 12 to 15 years. A colleague was on his way to a meeting with a a prospective client and shared who he was meeting with. It was a gentlemen we’d both worked with in the past. I was reminded how many times this happens every year. It’s something we...

Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career. WAOC is on the road again this week, hitting up Nevada and Arizonia. It’s always nice to get out and walk a few operations and meet new team members. I’m Marty and today I’d like to talk about something every employee wants but not everyone necessarily understands. And that would be a raise. Whether you’re unloading trailers, operating a...

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career. Over the last several years we’ve discussed dozens and dozens of opportunities in warehousing, transportation, manufacturing, distribution, and logistics. We’ve talked about forklift operators, order selectors, recruiters, dispatchers, transportation managers, supervisors, safety professionals, operations leaders...

Yep, there is a gap between available jobs and job ready candidates. There are jobs available, but employers are becoming much more selective about who they hire. A few years ago, many facilities were simply trying to fill positions. Today, employers are looking for candidates who can bring reliability, flexibility, safety awareness, and productivity on their first day.   What many of us applicant...

Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I’m Marty and today I want to talk about something a listener brought up recently. They asked me, “Why don’t you just stick to explaining warehouse positions instead of all the other stuff that doesn’t make us more money?” Well, I guess that is a fair question.  As We’ve discussed many times, and I believe this is more than just my opinion. Her...

Last week while talking about all the different types of shipping containers I mentioned strapping and banding, closing up and securing D containers, and our loads. We had a few people write in asking if I could explain banding. A couple of listeners took strapping as securing the load in the trailer. So today I thought we’d walk through not only strapping and banding, but also the more common thi...

A young associate, from what I could gather, had been on the job for 3 days, and was asked to go over to another building and help load out D-Containers. They were quite shocked to learn they were not the large metal containers, as she put it, that looks like trailers. She asked if I’d ever seen such.  It just so happens that I’ve worked a lot with different containers earlier in my career.    Now...

Marty here, and thanks for stopping by Warehouse and Operations as a Career! I had a listener comment that on several episodes I had said something like early is on time and on time is late, and if you’re on time you’re late. They stated that I placed way too much weight on the time clock. And I guess somewhere I had written or said that I had learned more by always being early, setting in the bre...

Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I’m Marty and I’ve received a couple of different questions about forklift attachments over the last couple of months, so I thought we’d find a few answers for them. So today let’s talk about a few different tools we can see in warehousing, manufacturing, food distribution, and the paper, beverage, chemical, recycling, and even import/export op...

In our world of warehousing, transportation, and supply chain operations, titles or what we call ourselves can vary widely. You may be in sanitation, running a scrubber and setting the plate for the next shift or you may be a yard spotter moving trailers or maybe you’re on a forklift racking pallets, or an order selector chasing cases, a clerk managing paperwork, a dispatcher coordinating loads, o...

Let’s talk about something that many of us have experienced, but very few of us accepted well or maybe even truly understood. That moment when your supervisor says hey, can you step into the office for a minute? Your heart rate picks up. Your mind starts racing. And before you even sit down, you’re already on the defensive. You’re thinking, what did I do wrong? Why am I getting singled out? This i...

Let me ask you something, how many times have you walked into your facility, heard the safety message, maybe even repeated Safety is our number one priority, and then went right back to doing the job the same way you always have? Not wrong,  just familiar or normal. Because that’s where most of us operate, in the familiar and routine. Just this week, at different facilities, I’ve heard about sever...

I’m glad you’re here with me today, because we’re going to talk about something that a lot of us think we want but may not fully understand what we chased until we’re in it. Today’s topic is about reaching for frontline management in the light industrial world, what it takes, why we chase it, and the real challenges and rewards that come with it. Because let me tell you, moving from doing the work...

Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I’m Marty and It’s great to have you back this week. As I travel around to different facilities, and different regions, I’m hearing the phrase, no, not a phrase, I’m going with words, I hear the words, work life balance. Now, I’m going to tell you right up front, I believe in it. I believe in family, and I believe in taking time for the things that matte...

I’d like to talk about something that is a struggle right now, something I’m hearing from associates, candidates, recruiters, and even hiring managers. Why is it so hard to find a job today? I had to pause for a second when this was brought up to me, that question doesn’t always make sense. We drive down the road and see now hiring signs everywhere. We hear companies are short-staffed. Warehouses...