Challenge
This company ran a three shift operation supplemented by a large traditional temporary labor pool. As a result the following challenges existed:
- Turnover exceeded acceptable levels.
- Efficiencies were below standard at a UPH of 108 (there was a minimal accountability of labor pool provided by the temporary help provider).
- Training strategies and operating procedures were primarily based on tribal knowledge.
- The receiving process lacked a strategy directed at the pre-sort of product to modules causing significant quality and double handling issues.
- The actual freight on yard was not being efficiently managed, creating labor management issues across all shifts.
Solution
SIMOS implemented a fourth shift staffed with six SIMOS supervisors and 94 SIMOS employees across the facility. SIMOS developed departmental SOP’s for all work processes within the facility and incorporated them into our pre-training and continuous training programs.
The SIMOS Engineering team worked with the customer’s management team to obtain visibility of freight available on the yard. They also created a strategy to properly distribute freight across all shifts while managing to improve LOS’s at the same time. SIMOS implemented a pre-sort process for all freight received at the dock which resulted in improved efficiency and quality. As a result of the successful implementation the following resulted:
Results
- UPH went from 108.6 UPH to 120.42 UPH
- Learning curve went from 90 days to 60 days after SIMOS Pre-training Program
- LOS went from 14+ days to 4 days
