The Warehouse Underground Podcast

Warehouse racking is a foundation of almost all warehouse operations,  but how do you take a lifetime of industry experience and turn it into a thriving startup? On the latest episode of the podcast, I sat down with Bryan Greenwood and Justin Sanders, the co-founders of Rhino Racking . After years on the ground, they "caught the bug", launched their own company, and are now shaking up the ind...

Are your employee's backs taking a beating from all the lifting they're doing in the distribution center? Do you have the "Must be able to lift up to 50 pounds" BLUES? Verve Motion is doing something about this and in a big way! Their SafeLift exosuit is changing the game for warehouse employees everywhere. Had a chance to chat with their CEO, Ignacio Galiana on the podcast and I love what they're...

Billy Malady has been a leader in distribution operations for over 15 years and at all levels; from the boardroom to the warehouse break room.  Always cool to chat with folks who have that full end to end perspective.  He's "fixed" a lot of operations but not in the ways you may think.  Check out his new book today   "Nobody Told Me It Would Be Like This: 100 Stories from the F...

Janielle Myers has done (and is doing) a lot in the supply chain space. A great example and mentor for the new generation of leaders! - Should supply chain leaders embrace "wearing many hats" or should they silo and specialize? - What about Burn Out?  Real or not?  How to mitigate. - Starting with motorcycles but now at a Space Company, Loft Orbital, and why something about space makes i...

Work in distribution? Then you know Raymond products. But I had the chance for a second time to learn so much more about them chatting with Derrick Miller, Senior Sales Manager.  Amazing episode to learn not just about the value they bring, but how they think like, connect with, and understand the operational realities of distribution! -What is the feedback Raymond receives from ops leaders e...

Hilla Herzog Manor is the VP Strategy @ Zimark | Smart Pallet Tracking for Warehouses & 3PLs. And they have built and are building some amazingly valuable warehouse tools for operators. Cameras on forklifts tracking movement into bins and in the facility? Yes please. Shipping control cameras at the dock compiling proof of loads. Yup. Vision to one day rid all operations of manual scanning? YES...

Sarit Tamir is Founder & CEO at Seeteria, which I must say, is a very cool start up with a great solution for a problem in large distribution centers: it's hard to see everything at once! But if your site has cameras already inside and Wi-Fi, they have all they need to start working the magic! They're eliminating the invisible middle in warehouse operations by providing real time visibility ri...

Leroy Pinckney Jr. has seen it all. Raised in Harlem. Deployed to Iraq in the Army. A distribution career in multiple organizations (including Amazon.) He was recently laid off and is now navigating the world of networking, job applications, interviews and ultimately continually putting himself out there to find the new right spot for him. And it can be tough out there. BUT he's all over it (see h...

I must say, there are some exciting, buzz worthy, and extremely positive stuff going on at Knight-Swift Supply Chain! They allowed me a chance to record this amazing podcast episode to chat with and highlight SEVEN of their stellar ops employees. These folks are a mix of salaried and hourly. They chatted with me during a break in operations and they were GREAT! It really comes through the positivi...

Anupam Bandyopadhyay, Supply Chain Design Leader, has been leading high level projects in supply chain for almost 20 years including robotics integrations, WMS implementations, AI initiatives and more. He's currently the Senior Manager / Design Lead for Manhattan Associates and is VP/Mentor with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP Atlanta Round Table) and a new Advisory Boa...

Do you see a problem here? Overfilled warehouses from excess and dead stock? Common problem! But Amrita Bhasin the CEO at Sotira has created a big time way out of this. Reverse logistics rarely gets as much hype as mainline distribution operations do. But that doesn't mean it isn't an area begging for solutions. And at Sotira, they are helping companies discreetly monetize and donate surplus inven...

Dario De Stasio checking in to the podcast all the way from Italy! He is an emerging logistics ecosystem architect in his own words, and it was such a treat to chat with him about logistics in general but much more. - The gray areas organizations often have when it comes to decision making. - Mental automation before technological automation importance. - Cultural differences between European oper...

Different vibe here from a regular TWU podcast, but raw real event with real people from the FC industry and the panel offering as much insight, perspective, wisdom as we could! Also, these are OUR opinions and thoughts about A way to excel in the industry.  We are not saying these opinions are THE way.  Take them as you will. A little bit of everything in this one and worth a listen! Ca...

Keith Ingels is the Director of Lean Business Development at Toyota Material Handling North America. Find out how the famous Toyota Production System, that he has extensive training in, is intertwined with Toyota Material Handling equipment of all types. Don't miss our no holds barred discussion about all things Lean/Continuous Improvement in the industry... 👍 Things we like. 👎 Things we don't l...

How many pallets are on Earth?  I've seen some big estimates on this (pushing 10 figures.)  They are such a critical piece of operations today but can sometimes be an afterthought, that is, until you run out.  Good operations leaders should know at least a little bit about how the pallet industry operates.  Having a great partner for this can be HUGE!  Stephen Bartalini th...

Loved chatting with Carlos Cody on this episode about real life of operations inside big fulfillment centers and how he leads others in this arena! He's walking the walk in the world of fulfillment as an Executive Operations Leader (scaling systems, developing leaders & driving profitable growth) and he's doing this the right way: by growing, mentoring, and championing all of the talented peop...

I couldn't have Mack on the podcast without also featuring an episode with Ria Story too!  She is the founder of Top Story Leadership and has trained thousands of leaders across the country & internationally for more than 13 years and has helped them in the development needed to climb The Ladder of Influence®.  A published author of 21 books, her own story of resilience is truly insp...

Mack Story, the creator of Blue-Collar Leadership®, joined me for a great show that speaks directly to the heart of the blue-collar world but also those who lead in it on both sides.  The majority of people working in distribution today are front line employees!  Blue-Collar Leadership® is designed to help you strengthen your team, increase workforce engagement, and build a high-impact c...

In a world where metrics, efficiencies, KPIs rule the day, it was great chatting with Dr. Vernard Jenkins (also a fellow 2003 graduate of the Air Force Academy) about the massive importance of soft skills for leaders in the distribution industry. He's the VP of Operations at Knight-Swift Warehousing & Fulfillment, a 3PL with sites nationwide. While he himself has had success at every level dur...

🦺 "Manager Methods" episode! Great chat with Devin Galloway, an Operations Leadership Expert & Corporate Trainer, about development of new managers in fulfillment centers and the challenges this environment can bring. He should know. 👉 He has 12+ years of experience inside of Amazon FCs starting out as a front-line associate, managing hundreds of employees across multiple departments then ul...

Michael Rubin who is an OSHA attorney from Ogletree Deakins joined me for this great show. If you're a warehouse or distribution center leader and OSHA shows up in your lobby do you know what to do? Do you know your rights and what you have to do vs what you don't? What about on the OSHA side; what are they allowed and not allowed to do? Don't wait until the moment hits to feel that anxiety and po...

Dominic Lindsay is the Founder / CEO of Nexobot. I had a chance to chat with him for this episode about this awesome new product/service that is making automation accessible to operations of all sizes. Work in big FCs/DCs and you know how critical the outbound sorter is to your operation. And while these systems are great, they're also millions of dollars to install and the integration and install...

Mike Coers, SVP Managed Logistics at Kinimatic, stopped by for a very cool chat.  As operations grow and consider expanding their footprint to multiple sites across the country, the complexity begins to grow too.... and fast!  Where do you move to?  What inventory should go?  How do you know if you're getting savings or not on the logistics side?  How do you track and have...

Jim Perry, Commercial Business Director at Warehouse on Wheels, joined me today! I always enjoy chatting with anyone from this company because I'm such a huge fan of how they operate and the solutions + service they provide to many distribution leaders. I'm talking about the leaders suffering through the heartache of running out of space in their facility! I know what this is like first-hand. Chat...

Great show with Lee Rector CEO of LaborAI! Lee has over 30 years working with businesses of all sizes across multiple countries, has been a featured speaker at countless industry-leading events across the globe, and is the author of a globally recognized warehousing resource book Warehousing 101: A Reference Guide. Now, with LaborAI he is transforming warehouse operations with tools geared to help...