Revolutionizing Warehouses with Robotics and Automation with Kevin Lawton

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[00:00:38] Strategically, a lot of companies, they have robots on the mind, right?

[00:00:44] I mean, they have automation on the mind. They're thinking about how can they better optimize?

[00:00:48] You know, how can they deal with some of those labor challenges in the warehouse that are still out there?

[00:00:53] How can they just be more efficient?

[00:00:56] So I think a lot of companies are recognizing that and there's a lot of focus to nice companies coming up where they're trying to help with that from an interoperability perspective.

[00:01:06] How do we be able to easily more integrate one solution with another solution from multiple companies?

[00:01:13] And I think there's a lot of focus on that and trying to figure out how do you make that all sing together, I guess, in unison

[00:01:19] with that kind of an overall flowing thing without disjointed processes or silos happening there.

[00:01:25] Hello and welcome to the next level supply chain with GS1 US, a podcast in which we explore the mind bending world of global supply chains,

[00:01:33] covering topics such as automation, innovation, unique identity and more.

[00:01:38] I'm your co-host, Reid.

[00:01:40] And I'm Liz.

[00:01:41] And welcome to the show.

[00:01:44] Hello everyone. I hope that you're having a great day.

[00:01:47] Our guest is Kevin Lawton.

[00:01:50] Kevin is actually the host of the new warehouse podcast.

[00:01:55] So it's kind of unique, but we're excited to have him on and he recently just attended Modex in Atlanta.

[00:02:03] And Modex is a conference very focused on warehouses and supply chains.

[00:02:08] And he's going to talk to us about some of the trends that he saw coming out of the conference.

[00:02:12] And this is a pretty big conference.

[00:02:14] There's 45,000 people that attend this per year.

[00:02:18] So let's jump right into the conversation.

[00:02:20] Kevin, welcome to the show.

[00:02:22] Thanks for having me on, Reid.

[00:02:24] Good to talk to you.

[00:02:25] I had you on the show recently, so it's good to be on the other side of the microphone here.

[00:02:29] I've been excited for this because we're going to get into Modex and the conference and everything logistics and distribution and robotics.

[00:02:37] And I'm sure AI may come up in our conversation.

[00:02:41] But before we jump in, just for our audience, just give a little background on yourself and the new warehouse podcast that you run and host.

[00:02:50] Just give us a little background.

[00:02:51] I've been working in warehouse operations for about 13 years now.

[00:02:56] I've started my career in inventory control type of role and been a warehouse manager, operations manager, plant manager, supervisor of quality control departments,

[00:03:06] very involved in warehouses and with systems and opening new buildings for companies as well.

[00:03:13] So I've seen a lot of things along the way and along the way to about five years ago, I started the new warehouse, which is a podcast media company covering pretty much anything and everything that touches the warehouse.

[00:03:25] We'll talk about on the podcast and the podcast is our main vehicle for doing that and creating that awareness overall.

[00:03:32] We also do things like videos on YouTube and blog post as well and very involved on LinkedIn too in terms of content on there.

[00:03:40] But it's really kind of the goal to just create awareness about what's happening in the industry and allow people like myself when I started the podcast that wanted to learn more about what's going on out there to be able to do that in a more easier, more fun way, I guess you could say.

[00:03:56] Yeah, a little more relaxed, less formal but still good information.

[00:04:00] It's funny because when we came up with the podcast on our side for GS1US here, it was really about, man, we're having so many conversations of just tremendous knowledge being shared at lunch, the water cooler in between meetings with clients, members, partners, everything.

[00:04:20] And I'm like, we gotta share this a little bit more and it's so funny because we thought about it the same way, very, very similar.

[00:04:26] So I wanted to have you on specifically because you were going to Modex and I couldn't go to Modex this year. So before we talk about Modex, why don't we tell our listeners what Modex really is?

[00:04:40] Sure. I mean, I think if you're in the material handling or warehousing fulfillment industry, you maybe could describe Modex as like the mecca for the industry potentially.

[00:04:50] Modex is a conference trade show put on by MHI and they put on Modex and Promat, which Modex is on the even years and Promat is on the odd years, which I always thought was interesting.

[00:05:02] But I mean, it's just a massive, massive show. Basically everybody that has a solution or as a solution provider within the space is exhibiting there this year.

[00:05:11] I mean, they had I think 1200 different exhibitors in Atlanta down there and about 45,000 attendees. So I think that kind of gives you the idea of the scale.

[00:05:21] And this year was just insane how busy it was. But it's definitely if you want to see like what's the latest and what are some solutions out there for your operation?

[00:05:31] Like that's the place to go to see it all in one place.

[00:05:34] Yeah. And it's held in Atlanta, correct?

[00:05:36] Yeah. Modex is in Atlanta, right.

[00:05:38] And is Promat in Chicago or is that in Atlanta as well?

[00:05:42] Yeah, Promat is in Chicago. So yeah, Promat 2025 will be back in Chicago.

[00:05:47] What is the major difference between the two?

[00:05:50] That's a good question. I think there's supposed to be somewhat of a difference. But I mean, if I look at it and I've been to every Promat and Modex since 2019.

[00:06:00] So for like the last five years, pretty much, I don't think there's much of a difference to be honest besides the location and venue.

[00:06:07] Interesting. I have to look into that a little more.

[00:06:09] So let's start talking about some of the trends. What are some trends that you were seeing beforehand or hearing about but maybe got validated there?

[00:06:20] Or we all know about AI. We all know about robotics. But what are some things that are getting really sticky?

[00:06:28] This year at Modex, you can't not talk about the robotics side. I mean everywhere.

[00:06:32] You look at a lot of people I talked to actually, I mean, they're like this is moved from a material handling show into a robotic show.

[00:06:39] Actually just by the sheer amount of robots that were there. I think one of the big things around that, especially that people were looking for or very interested to see was around humanoid robots specifically.

[00:06:53] And who would be there? I mean, last year at Promat you had Agility Robotics with their digit.

[00:06:59] Humanoid Robot was live on display doing a demo and they were the only humanoid robot there.

[00:07:05] And surprisingly, I was pretty surprised by this. But again, they were the only humanoid robot company there at Modex on display doing a demo.

[00:07:15] And I think that kind of goes a long way as a testament that maybe they're a little further along than some of the other humanoid companies.

[00:07:23] But it's pretty interesting to see. So there's certainly a lot of talk and buzz around that.

[00:07:28] But stepping aside from, I guess, the shiny objects, we could call them in the industry, right? The robots and things.

[00:07:36] There's a lot of focus and I was hearing this not only at Modex but also Manifest earlier this year too as well.

[00:07:42] There's a lot of focus and conversation around the software and the data side of operations.

[00:07:50] And how are we getting our data to be clean, standardized, useful?

[00:07:56] And then what kind of software are we putting in place to be able to take that data and do something actionable with it

[00:08:02] and creating kind of that foundation to start to bring in those robots or those automation solutions.

[00:08:08] And I think there's a lot of focus and conversation around that.

[00:08:11] And I think it's an important thing to discuss and think about because I think that maybe from a marketing perspective in a sense on the robotics and automation side,

[00:08:22] that isn't necessarily like a messaging thing that's blatantly out there that like, hey, you can't just throw a robot in and it's going to solve all your problems, right?

[00:08:29] You have to have this foundational baseline to be able to build upon that and then start to bring in those solutions.

[00:08:37] I think actually if I look at Modex, one of my takeaways from there that I had posted about and put in our newsletters is that in the start-up section that they had,

[00:08:48] you would think, I guess you talk about start-ups, what's coming next in the industry.

[00:08:53] You would kind of almost expect that like, hey, there's going to be like a lot of maybe potentially robotics companies in this start-up group, right?

[00:09:00] And there wasn't really.

[00:09:01] One of the, I think company in that start-up section was a company called Reshape Automation.

[00:09:06] They're creating like a marketplace for automation and robotics solutions, which is pretty interesting and gives you a lot of transparency around pricing too,

[00:09:15] which is an interesting solution.

[00:09:17] Aside from that, all the other start-up companies that were in there are focused from like a data and a software perspective and not from a huge overarching system or umbrella data.

[00:09:34] We see all this visibility talk all over the place, right?

[00:09:37] I think that's another buzzword in the industry.

[00:09:39] But focusing on some of these, what I like to call in-between processes in a sense.

[00:09:44] So you had like two boxes who is just strictly focused on standardizing the return process from an operations perspective.

[00:09:52] You had tact in there, which is taking labor management system to the next level,

[00:10:00] which is focusing on standardization and optimization of carton optimization.

[00:10:07] So like if you have multiple items that you're putting in a box, what's the best box to use and what's the best way to arrange them?

[00:10:13] And how do you get smarter about that company called Response as well,

[00:10:18] which they're focused on aggregating all of your different suppliers that you use for supplies and operations.

[00:10:25] So like if you use like a Uline and a Granger and maybe Amazon Home Depot

[00:10:30] and you're going out there procuring supplies from all these different things,

[00:10:33] you're able to put together all of the accounts from those and put them under one umbrella

[00:10:38] and you just go through the response platform and everything is there and it's just connected to all your accounts

[00:10:43] and it's like one checkout, which I think is really cool.

[00:10:46] And a company called Arvist as well and they're taking existing security cameras that you have in your building

[00:10:54] and utilizing AI computer vision to take that video footage to recognize where you have potential problems

[00:11:02] from like a safety perspective or even like an efficiency perspective.

[00:11:06] So I think that's very telling to see that in I think they call it startup zone or startup pavilion, something like that.

[00:11:13] I mean, that's very telling to say kind of where are these solutions heading

[00:11:18] and what's becoming important on top of mind where I think a lot of the focus has been on robotics

[00:11:23] because it catches the attention or it's AI or things like that.

[00:11:26] But I think people are starting to recognize that hey, I need to get my foundational standardization

[00:11:31] optimization together because I know that at some point I need to do robotics and automation

[00:11:36] but like if I just layer on a robot or an automated solution on top of a process that hasn't been optimized

[00:11:43] or maybe is arguably a bad process, right?

[00:11:46] I'm just going to kind of make that just happen faster but not necessarily get the output that I'm expecting.

[00:11:51] Yeah, it's not getting the true return that you're looking for.

[00:11:54] I think a lot of folks are going, hey, I want general AI.

[00:11:57] I just want another human and I'm like, well, be careful for that because I'm from a big family

[00:12:02] and we're all human and we have many different thoughts and we look at things very differently

[00:12:07] and we'll give you the same directions to the same location.

[00:12:11] You'll get there differently and that's just human interaction.

[00:12:15] It's intriguing to me but also somewhat expected when you say that the software and data side of the operations

[00:12:24] and cleansing and standardizing robotics and automation is on the top list for many C suites

[00:12:32] and many boardrooms but what they often forget is what we just said is that in order to automate something

[00:12:40] it needs a system.

[00:12:41] System needs an input measure that's typically a database.

[00:12:45] Now there's lots of kinds of databases and there's machine learning and unsupervised machine learning

[00:12:50] and there's flat file indexing and we can get pretty technical down those spaces

[00:12:55] but it comes back to data and a lot of folks you can have a closed loop proprietary thing

[00:13:01] and you can really hunker down and get that thing flowing.

[00:13:05] But the world is getting smaller every day and resiliency that has to be built into our operations

[00:13:12] it's interoperability and pivoting quickly.

[00:13:16] Was that a conversation as well?

[00:13:18] Yeah, I think there's a lot of conversation around that especially you just touched on the interoperability portion to it.

[00:13:24] And I think a lot of the robotics companies as well are recognizing that because I think there's certainly some companies where

[00:13:35] they're trying to have a solution under their umbrella for every process right.

[00:13:40] But there's some I think that are recognizing that hey we're really good at this one thing so let's try and figure out

[00:13:47] how do we have better interoperability.

[00:13:49] So you're seeing a lot more partnerships I would say between a lot of companies and especially on the robotics side where you're seeing

[00:13:56] in some instances some booths where it was one robotics company's booth but then they actually had a robot from another company too

[00:14:04] and they were showing how they can interact with them.

[00:14:06] And a lot of these robotics companies too are focusing on their software for that reason right to be able to have better data

[00:14:15] and then ultimately have that interoperability in between with other solutions.

[00:14:20] And I think that's a huge focus and it's a big conversation because as you said I mean strategically a lot of companies

[00:14:27] especially on the C-suite level as you mentioned I mean they have robots on the mind right.

[00:14:33] I mean they have automation on the mind they're thinking about how can they better optimize you know how can they deal

[00:14:38] with some of those labor challenges in the warehouse that are still out there and how can they just be more efficient

[00:14:45] get the same results, same output all the time without having to necessarily deal with some of the intricacies of

[00:14:52] like you said the way a human thinks or acts or reacts and being able to do that smartly.

[00:14:57] So I think a lot of companies are recognizing that and there's a lot of focus too when I see companies coming up

[00:15:03] where they're trying to help with that from an interoperability perspective how do we be able to easily more

[00:15:10] integrate one solution with another solution from multiple companies or how do we act as like an orchestration layer

[00:15:18] over top of that so we're extracting data from one solution from another solution bringing that together

[00:15:24] and having that kind of orchestration within operation to make sure that this robot understands

[00:15:30] robots over here or a person's over here or a forklift is over here or the trailer is in this door

[00:15:37] so we want to send resources over here and I think there's a lot of focus on that and trying to figure out

[00:15:42] how do you make that all sing together I guess in unison and make that kind of an overall flowing thing

[00:15:48] without disjointed processes or silos happening there.

[00:15:52] It's interesting because two things come to mind for me I was two months ago sitting in a presentation

[00:15:57] it was more of a entrepreneurial financial environment but they were talking about scaling

[00:16:03] and this woman was presenting and she was a really good presenter she really got everyone's attention

[00:16:09] and she said you know everybody's looking for efficiencies everyone's looking for a better process

[00:16:14] but you're missing the picture of systems repeatable systems that's how you truly scale

[00:16:21] and I'm like oh my gosh like that's kind of what we're doing all the time here

[00:16:25] and then it brings me to the point I wanted to bring up with you is when we say robotics

[00:16:29] everybody typically immediately thinks of a physical like an arm you know you're in a warehouse

[00:16:36] or you see a forklift moving on its own and it's a robot or you're in a car manufacturer

[00:16:43] and you see the arms that are moving engines and doors and car parts and welding things together

[00:16:49] but software automation is robotics.

[00:16:52] First from your perspective and the people that you speak to are folks really looking at a lot of that

[00:16:57] like how to really truly automate software processes like scanning in a PO, updating it, getting it out, digitizing it

[00:17:07] no physical machines but there's a lot of compute automation.

[00:17:11] Yeah absolutely I mean I think that's a huge focus too because you know you talk about like scanning POs

[00:17:16] for example right or scanning barcodes right which you know a ton about right and GS1

[00:17:21] it's such an interesting thing because there's still operations out there I mean that are still working off paper

[00:17:26] I mean they're still picking off paper which is crazy to think I mean you go to a show like MODX

[00:17:31] and you see the amount of technology there and then you say like oh there's still an operation that's out there

[00:17:36] picking off paper you're like what how could that be right?

[00:17:39] All day every day.

[00:17:41] Yeah and so there's a lot of opportunities still for that to come into play

[00:17:46] and I think companies are looking at that and I think you know they're thinking about

[00:17:51] not only from a user perspective looking at that and trying to figure out what's the best solution there

[00:17:56] and how they do that but from a solution provider too I mean there's a lot of companies that are doing

[00:18:00] very interesting things you know you talked about the scanning ideas just from the perspective

[00:18:05] of handheld devices or wearable devices to be able to take care of that

[00:18:10] and capture that information through scans or companies where they're utilizing AI in the sense where

[00:18:17] it's just taking a picture of a pallet and extracting all of the information from every barcode that's on there

[00:18:24] and then bringing that into a database so you can go through and do that or having it automated to as you said

[00:18:29] go through if it's a PO capture then it's capturing and automatically posting that PO

[00:18:35] or receiving that PO so I think there's a lot of focus on that and I would say too I see

[00:18:41] because I'm pretty tapped into like the smaller medium size 3PL market

[00:18:47] and they're using a lot of these cloud based WMS solutions which are I guess in the grand scheme of WMS solutions

[00:18:56] you would say a lot of them are fairly new I mean they may be 7, 8, 10 years old but that's fairly new

[00:19:01] when we look at some of the legacy players that are out there and there's a lot of people trying to figure out

[00:19:06] automations around those and pretty interesting ones where there's a for example I guess maybe we'll stick with the PO receipt

[00:19:13] like I see people where they're working with WMS and they try and figure out an automation through

[00:19:19] it's like a Zapier or something like that and just like simple the PO is received so we have a Slack channel

[00:19:26] with our client and once that PO is received it creates an automation that automatically posts a message in the Slack channel

[00:19:33] of the client that says PO XYZ has been received. Those types of automations go such a long way to your point

[00:19:42] to be able to create those efficiencies and I think there's a lot of people that are getting like very creative

[00:19:47] around those things I mean there's a guy I follow on LinkedIn and he that's like his thing

[00:19:52] it gets like so hyped up about just creating like automations through Notion to WMS and all these things

[00:19:58] I mean it's pretty interesting and it's pretty crazy how far you can take that and you know I think it's a good reminder

[00:20:05] too as you look at those types of things you try to process improvement I mean I may seem like oh you're saving

[00:20:10] like a couple seconds or a minute right but you think about the vast amount of things you're doing

[00:20:15] you know seconds turn into minutes, minutes turn into hours, hours turn into days, days turn into weeks

[00:20:20] and three more truckloads a week. Yeah I mean it's all dollars at the end of the day so yeah I mean I think

[00:20:26] there's a lot of focus a lot of interesting things happening with that. Yeah you hit on a couple of things

[00:20:30] like the Notion and ZAPE here and a couple of other things you know I'm always looking at different ways to help

[00:20:36] automate systems that we're working with in 2019 I went to CES and there was a lot of IoT stuff

[00:20:43] and I'd been a little you know then COVID hit so I'm like well I got nothing else to do so I started

[00:20:49] putting a lot of IoT in the house and started automating these things it was so helpful around the holidays

[00:20:55] with the lights going on and off at different times and there's some fun things to happen.

[00:21:00] I would encourage any listeners you know if you're out there and you're working in a warehouse

[00:21:04] or distribution logistics I would encourage you one there's plenty of stuff on the internet you know

[00:21:10] there's your podcast and there's lots of other DIY things but go talk to your marketing team.

[00:21:15] Marketing teams are digitally savvy like somebody clicks on this link and they automatically get an email

[00:21:21] they click on that link they're automatically getting a post of their social media feeds whatever it may be

[00:21:27] and they're very very similar in concept and I was just told so we have an Innovation Department

[00:21:34] and I was having a one-on-one just earlier this week two days ago with one of the folks from the Innovation Department

[00:21:40] they were telling me about a 3PL that they're working with right now and you're familiar with the 2D barcode conversation

[00:21:47] we've been having QR codes and elevating the UPC the 1D barcode to 2D barcodes at Point of Sale checkout

[00:21:54] 2D barcodes are used for a lot of different things so interestingly enough this is putting it on the side of their trucks

[00:22:00] and when it goes through the gate it knows when it leaves and it goes in it knows when it's coming in

[00:22:06] when it backs up it knows that it's at the doors and that is a unique identifier of an asset

[00:22:15] so we have a global identification asset standard and so they're using that on the trucks

[00:22:21] and then tying it to the WMS system and tying it to POs and tying it to other things

[00:22:28] and then it's also it's inventory management for their own assets

[00:22:32] how many trucks do we have out in the market today?

[00:22:34] and there's lots of different solutions that are out there already it's not a replacement

[00:22:38] this is an enhancement and I was like huh I didn't think of it

[00:22:42] it's just a very simple and this is a low-tech type of thing

[00:22:47] but it was talking with other departments that prompted the whole thing

[00:22:51] I think that's such a creative thing and like you said I mean there's a lot of low tech, low hanging fruit

[00:22:56] almost kind of things out there to be able to make those differences

[00:23:00] and like you said too I mean it's not only a difference in terms of just efficiency right on the yard checkout process

[00:23:06] but then it also gives you higher visibility from a data perspective

[00:23:10] on the inventory of assets out there and where are they or where were they last

[00:23:14] and all those kinds of things I mean it's pretty amazing what you can do with some really simple solutions

[00:23:20] and I think it's great to highlight that especially as you know you can get lost in the shiny object syndrome

[00:23:25] and the expensive objects

[00:23:27] and the expensive objects in between yeah absolutely

[00:23:29] it blows me away I mean Excel is such a powerful solution

[00:23:33] email is a powerful solution there's not a lot of folks that actually realize you can automate email

[00:23:39] and I see a lot of companies that oh hey we're digitizing

[00:23:42] I was like oh really that's fantastic yep we no longer use pen and paper everything's in Excel

[00:23:47] do you have any formulas in the Excel is it automated

[00:23:50] no no no it's just digitized so we can search for it

[00:23:53] and like okay yes you did digitize but that's like taking one step where you could have taken like

[00:23:58] leaps and bounds same cost same time same effort type of things

[00:24:03] from your perspective we talked about motives we talked about the conference

[00:24:06] and some of the people that were there and highly attended a lot of education classes

[00:24:11] that you can take there and keynote speakers and so forth

[00:24:14] but what are some other best practices that you're seeing and sharing with your audience on your podcast

[00:24:21] about supply chain and warehouse operations that we haven't touched on

[00:24:25] so we talked about automation we're talking about robotics

[00:24:28] and we're talking about systems but are there some other things that we haven't talked about

[00:24:32] that you're like is there some kind of like simple one-on-one blocking and tackling that needs to happen today

[00:24:38] yeah absolutely I always say take it way back right for foundational processes and things like that

[00:24:46] if you're looking to do process improvement which I think for an operations manager

[00:24:50] I mean your head should always be in process improvement mode

[00:24:54] the first thing I always say to look at is where do you have travel time

[00:24:59] and where do you have paper I mean those are like your two biggest ways that are easily addressable

[00:25:04] you know if you look at for example we talked about the PL coming in right

[00:25:08] somebody has a stationary computer at a desk and they're walking back and forth

[00:25:14] check PL's on pallets on the dock I mean give them a mobile workstation

[00:25:18] like a new castle systems cart or something and have them take the computer to the work

[00:25:23] it's simple things like that I think where it's like a third eye for waste

[00:25:28] I guess in a sense for an operation like it opens up so many opportunities that you're just like

[00:25:35] man there's so many things here I can do to just like save costs, save time

[00:25:39] make the employees stay a little easier run a little smoother

[00:25:42] so those types of things are kind of always the one-on-one foundation I say

[00:25:46] and then we talked about digitizing and automating things

[00:25:49] I mean anywhere you're using paper there's most likely absolutely probably 99.9% of the time

[00:25:56] there is some type of digital solution to be able to eliminate that paper

[00:26:01] and I think that's one of the big things too not only from just an efficiency

[00:26:05] you know productivity cost saving perspective but from like a sustainability perspective too

[00:26:10] I think that's a huge thing I mean you have companies out there they're doing electronic BOLs

[00:26:15] for example and you think about how many BOLs a company uses in let alone a week

[00:26:21] let alone a year and then keeping them in boxes it's taking up storage base

[00:26:26] and racking for multiple years there until County is like okay I can let go of them

[00:26:31] but I mean there's so many things foundationally you can find just in those two little things

[00:26:36] like where am I taking a lot of steps where am I using paper

[00:26:40] and just look at those and address them and then I think foundationally too

[00:26:44] from a 101 perspective simply talk to the people that are doing the work every day

[00:26:49] in the operation I mean talk to them ask them what's frustrating to you

[00:26:54] what doesn't make sense to you you know I give an example from my career

[00:26:58] one that always kind of sticks out in my head as like a very small thing

[00:27:03] but made like a big difference for the employee and ended up having a decent amount of cost savings too

[00:27:09] was go back to the BOL example we had a printer BOL

[00:27:13] you need two copies you send one copy with the driver you keep one copy

[00:27:18] and we're doing that every day multiple times a day shipping five to seven truckloads of LTL orders out

[00:27:27] every order needs a BOL needs two copies our system would only print one copy at a time

[00:27:32] there was no option to print multiple copies so the employee literally every time we had to print a BOL

[00:27:38] would have to do the same process twice it just happened I was just spending some time with her

[00:27:43] and I'm just asking her how things going just kind of observing and I saw her do the process twice

[00:27:48] and I'm like wait you can print two copies at once she's like no she's like I have to go back in and do it again

[00:27:54] and I'm like how could that be like we could fix that and you know simple IT ticket simple thing in like two three days

[00:28:01] they updated it and we know every single time we need to copy so she just hits the button once and she gets two copies

[00:28:07] and save all that time just a little tweak like that and seeing those kinds of things I mean you got to get on the floor

[00:28:14] whether it's observing with your own eyes or talking with those employees that are on the floor doing the work every day

[00:28:21] and starting to understand what are some of those things and that's really how you start to find these cost saving little things

[00:28:27] and like we said earlier I mean they add up exponentially over time and I think that's some of the three things I would say would be like my focus

[00:28:36] like if I was going to walk into an operation for the first time and they asked me to look at where can we improve some process

[00:28:44] where can we find some cost savings like those are probably the three things that I would do right off the bat.

[00:28:48] That's awesome. I really appreciate you sharing that. For folks out there that you're thinking like these are all great ideas

[00:28:54] but we have no money and budgets are tight and those types of things you know Kevin's not wrong here.

[00:29:01] Shavings make a pile and I will tell you from personal experience I have this shavings make a pile opportunity

[00:29:08] and all these little benefits there were little little benefits but I couldn't get the company to buy into moving forward

[00:29:16] and I happened to be at a lunch with a couple of colleagues and friends and was talking about it

[00:29:22] and I'm like yeah they just won't move on it and they're like why don't you get legal to play for it.

[00:29:26] I'm like what does legal have to do with this but in this particular incident it was a document that was needed

[00:29:32] and whenever it was lost it would cost legal whatever blah blah blah that cost in itself one incident paid for the whole thing

[00:29:41] so I'm over here with all these little 2% 5% benefits but because X number of people had to focus in on it

[00:29:49] and legal it was a very unique but my point is that a lot of times we're in our own fish bowl

[00:29:55] we're in our own swim lane and we think what we're doing in the warehouse or in our swim lane

[00:30:01] there's always a cascading effect and sometimes that there is some other opportunities out there

[00:30:06] so I just share that as encouragement because I know the struggle is real out there to kind of get some of these improvements.

[00:30:13] Yeah absolutely I think that's a great tip there too I mean that's one thing I always try to make an effort is to get to know

[00:30:20] the other departments and you know work with them too because like you said I mean there's many things where

[00:30:25] yeah it's like a win for you it's an improvement for you but then you may not realize like oh that's like a big improvement

[00:30:31] for customer service too that's a big improvement from a finance perspective too

[00:30:36] you know you start to get more than one person barking up the tree I guess in a sense like you can get some attention around something like that.

[00:30:42] Yeah and a lot of two for ones if marketing is doing something they want to put it on the side of the truck

[00:30:47] you might actually be able to leverage it for some other logistics pieces.

[00:30:52] We're kind of coming up on time here and I didn't even mention this I'll have to mention it earlier

[00:30:57] but Liz wasn't able to join us today so Liz is our co-host but at the very last minute

[00:31:02] Liz was traveling and had a little hang up so she couldn't make the show today but Liz and I always kind of go with our last two questions of the podcast

[00:31:09] so I get to ask both. So the first one we always ask everybody is what's your favorite technology that you're using today?

[00:31:17] Could be for work, could be personal but what's your favorite tech you're using today?

[00:31:22] Man my favorite tech I mean it's got to be my phone, my smartphone.

[00:31:28] I mean I can do, yeah I mean it sounds like a very basic high level but I mean at the end of the day I look at that and I'm like

[00:31:38] what I do around the podcast and everything there's literally only one task that I cannot do for my phone

[00:31:45] which is record the podcast itself.

[00:31:47] And you probably could it's just not as convenient?

[00:31:50] Yeah just wouldn't be as good quality and wouldn't be the same but everything from social media we do to emails we do to writing, reviewing things

[00:31:59] I mean it's all on the phone so I can be...

[00:32:01] Main bills, collecting money.

[00:32:03] Yeah it can be anywhere pretty much you know it takes away kind of that need to be stationary in a sense and gives a lot more flexibility

[00:32:10] which I think is such a powerful thing especially trying to be flexible and spend time with family and things like that

[00:32:16] I mean it's a huge thing and I will say I also live by my Google calendars I will say that on the phone too is a huge thing for me.

[00:32:25] Yeah especially having multiple calendars for different things.

[00:32:28] Last question for you is what's something that as a young person, middle life where you are right now in current life or just somewhere along the lines

[00:32:39] that's just something happened and it blew your mind and it changed the way you look at the world going forward.

[00:32:45] I will say the idea of becoming more curious.

[00:32:52] I think early on like in my career I will say it's easy in a sense I think to just take things as they are because you're trying to figure out

[00:33:01] you're trying to navigate right but as I started to ask why a little more and start to get a little more curious

[00:33:10] I found that opened so many doors for me and tying back to a lot of our conversation we were talking about finding opportunities to improve things within an operation or a company

[00:33:21] and getting involved with other departments you know and I would start to inquire more or ask why.

[00:33:28] That really opened up a lot of opportunities for me to shine as an employee or within my career or for just other opportunities to arise as well.

[00:33:39] When I started asking why and not necessarily getting afraid of being told no or doesn't concern you that really changed a lot of things for me

[00:33:50] and that opened my mind a lot to think about things in a different way.

[00:33:53] That is so insightful. I really appreciate you sharing that because we've all had those moments.

[00:33:58] I look back at certain things and a lot of times you're scared right? What's the worst thing they can say?

[00:34:04] Yeah, like when you're young too you're kind of just like I don't want to disrupt a job that I have here right now but I think if you go about it the right way and you're curious it's going to open a door for you.

[00:34:15] And maybe you don't ask the question in the meeting but you ask it afterwards in the hallway with your manager or somebody else.

[00:34:23] That's really great. Well Kevin can't thank you enough for spending some time with us and thank you for the update and low down on MODIX.

[00:34:32] It would sound like it was another great event. I mean 45,000 people is no small shake of a stick.

[00:34:37] I mean it's a lot of collaboration going on down there and I appreciate you spending with us.

[00:34:42] And for our listeners I encourage you listen to Kevin's podcast.

[00:34:46] It's the New Warehouse Podcast and it's where you go for insights and ideas on distribution, transportation and logistics.

[00:34:53] So Kevin thanks again.

[00:34:55] Alright thank you very much Reed and happy to be on your podcast after we had you on ours.

[00:35:02] Thank you for joining us on this episode of the next level supply chain with GS1 US.

[00:35:07] If you enjoyed today's show please subscribe to our feed and explore more great episodes wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:35:13] Don't forget to share and follow us on social media. Thanks again and we'll see you next time.