3000 Hours Lost on Poor Management Each Year?

A recent survey of 250 supply chain, warehouse and distribution managers showed that individual workers lost 15 minutes each day due to less-than-optimal warehouse management process.¹ Among the whole supply chain process, inventory management was believed to be the largest source of those claimed lost hours. As a result, inventory management software has been more widely used by supply chain mangers in the US. Using querying technology takes only seconds to provide needed information in the warehouse and distribution centers, while managers may get buried in stacks of paper in the traditional pen-and-paper inventory management.

Besides, packing, unloading and picking were also regarded as the most easily tasks that can be optimized by new technology in the supply chain process. Software management has gained the consensus among the 250 managers in the survey that “must” be introduced to today’s supply chain management to take place of the traditional way. However, does the advanced technology work for every single supply chain, including supply chain networks like Dabbawalla? We need to keep in mind that new technology may take years to upgrade and multi-million-dollar training cost, which sometimes much more costly than the 3000 hours each year claimed in the survey.

[1]. http://blog.apptricity.com/bid/259888/Inefficient-Warehouse-Management-Wastes-3-000-Hours-Each-Year