Ep #56 Your DC's Biggest Problem Isn't Moving Pallets, It's Data | Zebra Technologies Wes Coleman

Mike Bambino, Vice President, Continuous Improvement at Malin, a Raymond Company, joins The Warehouse Underground to talk lean the way Toyota meant it. Mike has spent about 20 years in operations and continuous improvement, first at The Raymond Corporation and since 2017 at Malin, and he's studied the Toyota Production System in Japan. When he asked Toyota executives what TPS meant to them, almost everyone gave the same answer: it's a people development system. In this episode: - Why TPS is about developing people, not a toolbox of 5S and standard work - Protect the principles, not every Japanese word, so the floor actually adopts it - "Just do something": what Mr. Nomura taught Mike after turning around Toyota's Corolla plant in South Africa - The iceberg of ignorance, and why the people closest to the work are closest to the answer - The worker who told Mike LEAN means, "less employees are needed," and why that's not what lean is - Optimize, connect, automate automation is an accelerator, so a bad process just creates waste faster - Why Mike is out to create problem seers, not just problem solvers - Scaling from 300 to 800 people: growth doesn't create problems, it exposes them CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 02:13 Mike's background: from Raymond to Malin 03:30 How TPS connects to lift trucks: a people development system 05:58 Lean purists vs. translating lean for your team 10:03 Gemba and listening to the front line 13:54 Gemba walks aren't theater: do the reps 15:57 Does lean mean job cuts? 21:50 Optimize first, then automate 24:56 The $5,000 drum set problem 27:44 Building an automation roadmap 28:50 Teaching people to see problems 33:12 Scaling from 300 to 800 employees 36:16 Where to find Mike and what's next in 2027 CONNECT WITH MIKE LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-bambino/ Malin: https://www.malinusa.com/ MORE FROM THE WAREHOUSE UNDERGROUND Join the free community: https://www.thewarehouseunderground.com All podcast episodes: https://www.thewarehouseunderground.com/podcast Learn Lab: https://www.thewarehouseunderground.com/twu-learn-lab The Tiger Team Show: https://www.thewarehouseunderground.com/the-tiger-team-break-room Real talk for warehouse, DC and FC professionals of all levels around the globe. #Warehouse #Lean #ContinuousImprovement #ToyotaProductionSystem #Automation

🦺 How much work is your warehouse doing that never makes it onto an invoice? How many different systems are stacked up are smushed together that all have to work together? What a headache right?  Alon Partuk, founder and CEO of Octup, joins The Warehouse Underground Podcast to talk about the gap between what happens on the floor and what gets billed.  ✅ Why a WMS shows what happened, but not what’s happening or why it matters ✅ The 3 places 3PLs leak billing: value-added services, storage and contracts ✅ How capturing manual work can add almost 20% more billable events ✅ Why so many WMS vendors keep showing up, and why about every third client is looking to move ✅ Why transparency builds trust with clients instead of inviting scrutiny ✅ What AI agents can actually do for a 3PL leader day to day ✅ Alon’s founder lessons: work with clients from day one, and fail fast   00:00 Intro 02:40 Alon’s journey from brand owner to founder 05:23 Paper orders and learning logistics from scratch 08:07 WMS shows what happened, Octup shows what’s happening 12:33 Billing leakage: where the money goes 21:08 Why are there so many WMS vendors? 25:38 3PLs trying to be a one-stop shop 27:33 Does transparency invite scrutiny or build trust? 32:25 How 3PL leaders can use AI agents 36:06 Battle scars and founder lessons 39:50 Where to find Alon and what’s next in 2027

Are you applying to job after job and hearing nothing back? Or saying “we can’t find good people” when you’re hiring? This episode is for you. Anthony Allen, Founder & Managing Director of Supply Chain Talent Advisors, started on a warehouse floor in the mid-90s and worked his way up through warehousing, planning and procurement in aerospace, defense and oil and gas. He got tired of recruiters who ghosted people and didn’t understand the work, so he started his own search firm. Now he recruits supply chain leaders for small and mid-sized manufacturers. He and Ben cover both sides of the hiring table: 🔹 Why recruiters work for the company, not the candidate, and why you should still get on their radar (about 75% of Anthony’s searches are never posted) 🔹 How to beat AI resumes and applicant tracking systems: lead with numbers, not job descriptions 🔹 “Define good”: the question hiring managers skip, and how candidates can turn it around in an interview 🔹 Why scar tissue beats years of service 🔹 What happens when companies won’t pay the market rate 🔹 Why director-level roles are among the hardest hires right now 🔹 When big-company talent struggles at a smaller company 🔹 Recruiting activity vs. recruiting progress, and why relationships close the deal ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 2:12 From the warehouse floor to recruiting 4:41 Myths about working with recruiters 7:37 75,000 jobs a week, so why no callbacks? 12:22 Define “good” 15:09 Scar tissue vs. years of service 19:16 When companies won’t pay the market rate 23:49 Working across the aisle 29:04 Why director roles are the hardest hire 31:51 Big company vs. small company 36:07 Resume and LinkedIn mistakes 38:50 Activity vs. progress, and why relationships matter 43:38 Where to find Anthony 🔗 CONNECT WITH ANTHONY Website: https://www.scmhire.com LinkedIn: Anthony Allen, Supply Chain Talent Advisors 🔗 THE WAREHOUSE UNDERGROUND Join the free community (message boards, networking, resources, live shows): https://www.thewarehouseunderground.com Also check out The Tiger Team Show, about the culture and life inside warehouses and DCs, with plenty of wit and sarcasm. #SupplyChain #Warehousing #Recruiting #JobSearch #Hiring #Logistics #Leadership #DistributionCenter #CareerAdvice #TheWarehouseUnderground

Andy Paulson, founder of Warehouse Performance Group, has been part of LMS rollouts at hundreds of distribution centers. By his count, only about 1 in 10 hit a home run. He and Ben hash it out.... what separates those sites from everyone else, and it isn’t the software. In this episode: Why an LMS is a tool, not a program, and why most rollouts stall. The foundation to fix first: supervisor roles, floor time and the “one best way.” What executives must do before handing it to the ops team (one site’s overtime goal was worth $800K a year.) The unsung KPI: direct vs. indirect hours, and the 17 minutes a day that can cost a 100-person building $250K a year. Pay for performance done right: self-funding, with a Coca-Cola bottler running 50-100% more productive. No budget? How to get real gains with your WMS data, payroll and good old Excel.

Cathleen Turner is the founder and CEO at Margin. She helps 3PLs accelerate cash flow and recover revenue by codifying billing with complexity and AI.  🔦 Whenever I get the chance, I love highlighting start-ups on the podcast. And Margin is a really sharp one for sure!  👉 Billing cycles issues and cash flow sagas are common thorns in the side of 3PLs but don't have to just be part of doing business.  Cathleen knows this well and has seen it from BOTH sides of the fence as she has a background running a 3PL herself.  This is a cool episode because not only did I get a chance to hear about how she's helping 3PLs behind the scenes, but I also got a chance to hear about Cathleen's journey and her thoughts on what it's REALLY like being an entrepreneur and not the always sunny parts we may see on social media today!

"If you gave a user a gold bar, they'd complain about how heavy it was." 😂 That's Wes Coleman, Industry Principal for Warehousing at Zebra Technologies, on change management. And he's earned the right to say it: 36 years in the industry, from UPS to FedEx Ground to running operational excellence, and now 30+ weeks a year inside customers' warehouses. Always happy to chat with folks like him that are right there on the front lines of the industry! 🔹 User acceptance now sits ABOVE throughput, quality and efficiency for a lot of companies. Retention changed the math.🔹 Your team has great tech in their pocket, car and home. They expect it at work too. If yours is good, use it as a recruiting tool.🔹 Bolting good technology onto a bad process makes things worse. Fix the process first.🔹 Bring a new hire AND a legacy employee into the decision, not just your rock star.🔹 Warehouses don't always "automate." They augment, one small piece of a process at a time. And of course this: "The biggest challenge in your DC today isn't moving pallets. It's moving data."

I sat down with Brian Fielkow, former CEO of Jetco Delivery, now EVP of Risk Resources at Acrisure, and author of the new book "Making Safety Happen". A WEALTH of knowledge in many areas but certainly safety. We got into: → Why safety should never be a "priority". Priorities compete and shift, but core values are non-negotiable. → How the C-suite sets the tone for safety culture (and why they can't delegate it!) → Why "unconditional respect" for process matters because often safety rules are written in blood. → The football helmet analogy that reframes how you think about PPE as your *last* line of defense, not your first. If you lead a warehouse, DC, or FC or in charge of those who do, this episode isn't a check box.

Technology and leadership are often treated as two separate things.  That's shifting some though. TrailPath Workplace Solutions isn’t simply putting another technology tool in the hands of ops leaders. It’s making improvement part of the work not just something that happens in a workshop and fades when everyone returns to the floor. Floor leads gotta know: Who needs my attention? Where should I focus? When should I coach? When should I step back? Experience helps answer those questions, we all know this, but new supervisors don’t have years of experience yet. Enter TrailPath!!!  They can help not by replacing leadership, but by helping leaders see what matters, build better habits, and improve every day. Habits shape behavior. Behavior shapes results. The question is: How do we help more leaders build those habits?

  Pete Allen is Managing Partner at Birch Advisors. And he knows his way around the world of warehousing and distribution quite well!  MANY companies seek him out for consultations, and particularly on strategies for integrating and growing robotics and automation. ✅ What are the unique challenges both at the tactical level (warehousing problems) but also strategic level (gaining traction and adoption from the end users in the industry?) ✅ Do you see robotics as an "either or" in integrations with humans or an "and also"?  ✅ What should ops leaders be focusing on building the warehouse of the future? ✅ What type of operation is an ideal one to get the most gains from robotics and how should they explore this ahead of time to minimize risk?

Robotics are everywhere in the distribution industry (and more every year).  You see them in shows and magazines.  BUT what do you really need to know about if they are right for your operation or not? Mike Bearman, the Chief Legal & Safety Officer at Vecna Robotics, is the perfect guest to chat with about this.   Find out:  *Why many warehouse automation projects fail to deliver on their original expectations. *Common mistakes operations make before, during and after projects. *Key "do's and don'ts" plus why AI should NEVER be responsible alone for warehouse safety.*What 'inside scoop' questions should you as a possible vendor. *How will it all evolve over the next 5-10 years (employees, robotics, AI). AND MORE!