BDR’s Advanced Leadership Course - Productive Time Management 

Warehouse Supervisor's Experience and Success

Sandra is now a Supervisor, XXXX Warehouse, YYYY.  She was a Team Leader when taking the Advanced Leadership for Managing Time course.  Sandra accomplished key actions she developed in her Course Action Plan, volunteered to be an E-Learning Course Mentor and has brought her entire team on board with what she calls their “Time Management Plans.”  Sandra was promoted to Supervisor.

Sandra supervises the XXXX Warehouse, and reports to Ed in John’s organization at YYYY.  Everyone on Sandra’s team has put together their own “Time Management Work Plan” so they are all using their time in the most effective way every day.

When asking Sandra, “how does this work?” this is her explanation.  “When people on the team get side-tracked, which can happen in a XXXX Warehouse where priorities can change, the team finishes the activity required, and quickly goes back to their ‘Time Management Work Plan’ to get back on track.”  Sandra feels this is making a huge impact in production, and they are currently acquiring data to help measure the results.  To do this, Sandra is reviewing the EBS history to pull the data from previous quarters, acquire a baseline, and track progress.  This will help inspire her team with their accomplishments as well as have a good baseline to start from for monitoring future team work.  Sandra’s team is a highly motivated group who is interested in beating the previous numbers and demonstrating that their new plans are making an impact, not just on their and the organization’s stress levels, but on performance.

Encouraging her team to utilize their time wisely and understand the impact and results, both good and bad, has been one of Sandra’s focuses.   On-going and clear communication is what she has “preached.”

Sandra shared this example roughly 8 months after graduating from the Advanced Leadership for Managing Time course.  She was managing a small team who was very shorthanded.  They became backlogged in some of the DC checks.  The last backlog was approximately 100 + put-aways. To manage this process and their time, Sandra used the concepts from the Advanced Leadership for Managing Time course related to organization by zones and categories.  They created a system and divided the work by locations.  She then delegated the project to each warehouse person, and requested they set aside time blocks each day to complete the DC checks for their responsible areas.  The objectives were met:  eliminate the backlog and reduce errors in location by performing the needed check immediately.  Using these techniques, Sandra helped her team turn around what could have been a “de-motivating” project into a success.

Another new initiative Sandra is taking on is to create and write a “Strategic Leadership Plan” even though it is not required at the Supervisor Level.  The first part of the plan is to implement a visual way for everyone to see their Time Management Plans, called the Time Management Board.  She worked with YYYY’s Graphics IT Office to make this happen.  Individual contributors on the team will keep the Board up to date, on a volunteer basis.

Sandra’s slogan with her team is “If we are not managing our time, we are not managing the mission.”

Sandra’s mission also includes getting dedicated trucks out on time.  Her team measures the time involved.  Before using these ideas, trucks were shipped at 14% full.  Now, they are running at 91%, with no missed shipments, saving them money (savings was estimated) by not paying for empty space.

Sandra’s goal for her team is 0 defects.  They have achieved this goal of no mistakes in various locations.  The goal relates to inventory in the system, no shortages, and no overages.  Sandra believes the focus on time and generating their Time Management Plan for each specific area, the BDR Course and Coaching has greatly contributed to this.  Sandra’s strong leadership is certainly key to making this happen.

In asking Sandra to describe more about what it means for Individual Contributors to use their Time Management Plans, here is how she explains it, “Each department, including receivers, packers, warehouse folks, they all know when to address key issues.  The Time Management Plans help everyone know what comes first, second, and third.  And, now we all have the same understanding of the priorities.  In the Time Management Process, we make decisions in “Real Time,” as our Director encourages, and we can run reports, lists, organize, work on new processes, process exceptions, etc.  Before we established our Time Management Plan, our team was often stressed and frustrated: reacting.  Now, we are much more organized, all of us.  If it’s on the Time Management Plan, it gets done.  Empowerment and ownership has also increased with our group.  Everyone knows what they have to do, so ownership is very high, and it is less stressful.”

Sandra continues, “We also use the terminology of “time blocks.”  That is another goal, to use time blocks very effectively, so we are not stressed.”

Sandra’s team is very receptive to this whole approach.  One new person on the team is even sharing how they are using this process at home.  Sandra hopes to help everyone on her team feel that they have the power, empowerment and time to take a step back, review their Time Management Plan, review the mission priorities, organize, and complete things with focus and without stress.