Distribution and Customer Service Team Scoreboards

The Distribution and Customer Service teams chose three major areas to focus on for our scoreboard. These include:

• Percentage of on time shipments for orders with stock on hand,
• Number of errors made by Customer Service, and
• Time it takes to process finished goods into inventory.

On-Time Shipments

We felt the focus of on time shipment for in-stock orders was important to the company as a whole as it was the best way to ensure we as a team didn’t leave any possible revenue on the table in terms of shipments going out the door as quickly as possible.  It has brought more attention and planning to upcoming shipments each week, and will shine a spotlight on any weak areas within our control that could inadvertently delay a shipment from going out on time.

Customer Service Errors

Customer Service felt that the best way the team could impact profitability was to track order-entry errors. In tracking errors, we hope to avoid them, therefore ensuring we do not cause extra unnecessary costs due to things like an incorrect ship date or quantity in PLEX. Entry of a wrong part number for a spot buy, which could cause parts that aren’t needed to be built and then likely not sold, etc.  Almost any error in accuracy of interpretation or entry of our orders could cause costly mistakes to Fastco, directly impacting our profit.

Efficiency in moving Finished Goods to Inventory

Lastly, our team wanted to track our current efficiency in the process of moving finished goods into inventory, starting with unloading the skids from our truck into the appropriate inventory aisles, and then the process of verifying skids, putting them into the racks and updating that inventory into PLEX.  The team had some ideas for possible ways to improve the efficiency of this process overall. Therefore, we wanted to track our actions to have a baseline for our current methods. Hopefully, this will bring more awareness to how we do things to see if our ideas made sense.

Challenges Faced in Distribution and Customer Service

As a small crew at full force, absences, especially unexpected ones, can have a huge impact on our team.  Luckily we have some awesome team members. They pull together to get the job done no matter our staffing situation.  Our team just worked through three months of being down to just three people pulling, prepping and shipping our orders.  I’m extremely proud of how they worked together to get the job done!  Especially when short-handed, we need support from other teams to give us as much notice as possible for shipment needs and make sure PLEX orders are as up to date as possible. That way, we know what we need each day.

Looking Ahead

We are excited for the changes  our progress into the GGOB and the weekly huddles has brought to our team and Fastco as a whole.  You can feel the shift in the energy, the mindset and the awareness that these huddles have provided.  We love hearing everyone’s questions. Seeing the thought, effort, and collaboration of working through these questions has been so encouraging.  We can’t wait to see where we are year from now!

by Emily Bradfield, Customer Service & Distribution Team Leader