Lean Road Map Helps Distribution Center Cut Costs

Oct. 4, 2012 - PRLog -- Immucor's product can be a matter of life or death. The life sciences company sells blood for transfusions, along with related items.

"Our processes were very inefficient," Naji Haddad, Immucor's senior director of global supply chain operations tells "Distribution Center Management."

Without a major capital investment, Immucor was able to significantly reduce overtime and increase accuracy and throughput.

Haddad enlisted his employees to draw up what he calls a "lean road map." The road map was drawn in three phases:

Step 1: As is
In this step, Haddad and his workers collected data and examined the warehouse as it operated. They made process maps and developed a consensus that things needed to change.

Step 2: Could be/Should be
In this phase, Haddad and his employees decided what needed to be improved and how the facility might look.

Step 3: To be
This was the implementation phase, when the improvements turn into reality.

The roadmap focused on process standardization, setting clear performance goals, revamping the current layout, and moving from a paper system to wrist-mounted scanners.

The changes increased accuracy and saved 11 hours of overtime per day while allowing the warehouse to process twice as many orders, Haddad says.

The October issue of "Distribution Center Management" includes details on this dramatic transformation.

About the Distribution Group

For more than 40 years, Distribution Group publications have helped distribution center and warehouse managers increase productivity, cut costs, and meet increasing customer demands. Distribution Group publishes "Distribution Center Management" newsletter, books and reports, and a free e-newsletter.

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