TIDBITS

The right staff

Coping with chronic absenteeism or apathy among your warehouse employees? It could be that they're simply not the right people for the job. A technique called targeted workforce location and recruiting (TWLR) works wonders in matching job requirements with suitable workers, says Ned Bauhof, a principal at logistics consulting firm St. Onge Co. in York, PA. One firm that was looking for warehousing employees mailed employment information to households analyzed by distance from the facility (no more than 12 miles), current employee profile data, and job functions. Following this $11,000 investment, which came out to $91.66 per employee hired, the company was swamped with responses from qualified candidates — so much so that it stopped other advertising campaigns after three weeks.

Growth spurt

After nearly five years of stagnation, the warehouse management system (WMS) market surged to $1.07 billion last year and could reach $1.4 billion by 2009, reports ARC Advisory Group. ARC analyst Steve Banker says that WMS spending was artificially propped up in the mid- to late 1990s by the Y2K scare and the dot-com frenzy. When the tech sector nosedived, the WMS industry followed suit and is only now starting to recover. Of particular interest are systems that are different in what Banker calls their “material handling style.” These WMS programs, he says, manage equipment that's a snap to put together and can be reconfigured if necessary.

Weight watchers

Distribution facilities take care to place popular items in storage locations that are easy to reach but often ignore product weight considerations, notes consulting firm Lincoln Technology Corp. For maximum employee safety, the optimal zone for the heaviest items is a shelf height of 66", say the Lincoln analysts; a height of 18" is acceptable for light items used rarely, and a height of 42" is adequate, although not ideal, for heavy items. Shelves or other storage equipment measuring 96" or more in height should be reserved for light items that can be placed at the edge for easy access.