A Tough Week

Over the last few days we have seen a stream of containers coming into the warehouse and with our product lines these are very heavy items. Gym weights when arriving in bulk boxes that weigh tons at a time add up quickly. These unfortunately need to be broken down even further and labeled for delivery so this is extreme physical labor intensive work.

Fortunately I understand what it takes and how long it takes so when he delivery requests come through I say either a yes or a no and there is no over promising. One has to be realistic with expectations because this is seriously tough going.

One of the buyers/planners who wanted this product turned around within a day has no clue and when my daughter said no his reply was he was going to ask someone else. Not only is this disrespectful, but also highlights a lack of knowledge of what is entailed. I will be dealing with him later separately on a one to one once we have completed this order because he needs to learn some manners. My family begged me not to phone once I had heard what happened because they know me so I will bide my time.

There is 92 tons of weights which is a serious tonnage that needs to be moved by hand multiple times. The only time the forklift touches this is when it is offloaded from the container in a crate. One of the containers in question was more like in the middle of the trailer and we needed to get a container forklift to move it to the end of the truck. There is a container yard next door and for $15 they kindly helped us out. Without this we would have been royally screwed.

The 92 tons of weights is then individually labeled before being repacked and placed within another box which is then moved onto a separate pallet and loaded by the forklift onto another truck ready for delivery. The 92 tons is moved 3 x by hand so in total equates to a 276 ton task. We have 10 people to do this so this is a proper gym workout over a few days.

Each pallet has a weight limit that cannot be exceeded due to knowing the truck cannot exceed 56 tons which is the legal maximum load. Now imagine being asked to accomplish all of this within a 24 hour period by someone who has never had to get hot and sweaty in a warehouse.

The delivery will take place on Wednesday and would have taken 4 days in total which I think is still very quick having worked all weekend receiving the containers. This type of delivery happens two or 3 times per year, but it tends to break most things including the pallet jacks.

The one thing the staff know is I have their backs on these jobs because I would never ask them to do something I have never done before or at least understanding what it is going to take. In the army we used to off load serious tonnage when the ammunition trucks arrived and you would literally do a 20 ton truck on your own with no forklifts. Mortar cases weigh in the region of 50 or 65Kg's depending on the shell sizes and not something you would ever forget.

This is a proper test of how well your warehousing staff works as a team as everyone has to literally pull their own weight. We should have 1 more of these orders to complete for Christmas orders and this should be like clockwork ,but no one day requests will be happening again.

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7 comments
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My goodness bro, handling all those weights looks incredibly tough. It's impressive how you manage such a heavy workload with your team. Great work brother

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You must be jacked bro 184,000 pounds isn't a joke that's a 100x of my bodyweight you guys carry around, surely you guys need a break and a vacation to regain your strengths, in the long run you guys must have a fast recovery rate than most individuals to keep that up.

I'm seriously wondering how you guys pick your new employees during interview, that's a nice job you guys do, thanks for keeping the world fit.

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The guys are very fit and used to this type of work. I can no longer do manual labor due to my bad back which was caused by something else and not carrying stuff around. Employees pick themselves by their work rate ad those who try and skip out certain tasks do not last long.

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When I was a young man working at a fish packing plant one of the blast freezers quit in the middle of herring season. We had just packed it with 40 lb. boxes of fish, and they were all going to rot if we didn't move them. Those of us that could (the young) pulled a double and spent 16 hours in human chains passing boxes of herring from hand to hand to get them into a freezer that worked. I still remember Tom Woods, my foreman, pulling me out of the line and telling me 16 hours was enough.

I had quit using my hands to catch and toss the boxes, and was just using my forearms like forks on a lift. He knew I was willing to stay, but wasn't willing to risk me getting injured, which I obviously was, my hands being useless from fatigue.

There are times when your team has your back, and that is when you demonstrate the kind of leader you are. If you're not a man your team will work a double for when the business is on the line, you're not the kind of man that should be leading a team. You seem to have been on a crew a time or two when doubles had to be pulled to pull the chips out of the fire, and to have pulled a team together out of those that have showed up. When you have a team that can muster when called upon you know not to break them on the wheel of unnecessary muster. That's how you keep a team like that, and that's how you become a good leader.

You have the blessing of good counsel you are wise enough to listen to, that tempers your instincts to defend your family, business, and crew from demands that can't be met. Seems like you're on a track that promises to continue to succeed based on a history of success. I don't think you should change a thing, because you're moving the things needing to move with all the right moves you need to make to keep moving things into the foreseeable future.

Thanks!

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Yes this is true and you somehow know when to call it or ask for extra help. I have put myself in hospital before through work and will not allow anyone else to go down that path. You had a good foreman who cares about the people around him and this is how it should be. I would never ask people to do thigs I would not do even though I cannot do those things anymore due to my back injury which funny enough happened in hospital when I was dropped in the operating room. My employees know I am hands on and will always have their back and why they respect my decisions.

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