Workflow Redesign

Every morning, our fulfillment team walks into the warehouse and checks the schedule to see which station they have been assigned to for the day. And every morning, each employee walks away either elated or utterly distraught and frustrated by their scheduled station. Why is this? What makes experiences at each station so polarizing?
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Goal: How can we improve employee happiness and department morale by creating a more standardized and fair experience regardless of which station employees are assigned to?

COMPANY

McMaster-Carr

COLLABORATORS

ROLE

Warehouse Teams
Systems Teams
Corporate Teams

TIMELINE

Dec.'17-Feb.'18

Supervisor & Researcher

Problem Statement

Fulfillment team employees are frustrated by the polarizing impact station assignments can have on their day. This frustration has resulted in distrust between employees and management around perceived fairness and "favorites" when creating daily schedules and has in turn increased tension among employee peers.

Research Methods

The first step in understanding how to improve perceived fairness and frustrations in station unevenness, was to identify WHY some stations were favored over others. Was it the type of material someone was filling? Was it the walking completed? What is the amount of weight lifted?

Observations

Over the course of the next few weeks, I spent hours on the warehouse floor simply observing how people operated within each station. What types of material were they filling? Could they keep up with the amount of work? What was causing them frustration?

Interviews

During each interview, I learned more about why some stations were easier or more challenging than others. Employees were all aligned in their reactions to certain stations. For example, 100% of employees interviewed stated their least favorite area was on level 2, given how difficult it was to keep up with the work in the allotted time frame.

Data Analysis

I looked at 4 months worth of data within each station to answer some outstanding questions. For example, on average, how long did it take to complete x units of work within each station. Did the data align with what the employees were feeling? Did it take longer to complete x units of work at a perceived "difficult" station than an "easy" station?

Insights

Naturally, stations located around heavier, stickier, and bulkier materials were less desired. People hated filling 100 each of magnets and heavy casters in comparison to lighter work gloves.

Type of material, density of transactions, and amount of work given are driving factors behind station difficulty levels. The lower the density of the area, the longer distances an employee might have to walk to complete their work.

Perceived unevenness of experiences on a daily basis was the largest source of frustration among fulfillment employees.

Over 90% of employees I spoke with all named the same set of stations as "difficult" or "easy." Employees were all aligned in their experiences within each station.

My data analysis perfectly aligned with insights from employee interviews. On the perceived "difficult" station, employees were 95% utilized, meaning they had just 30 seconds to rest, whereas in an "easy" station employees had 3 minutes to rest between jobs.

Both qualitative and quantitative analysis lead to the same story: There were significant differences in utilization and difficulty between each station. These differences were causing daily frustrations between employees and their peers and employees and their management teams.

Ideation

How can we improve employee happiness and department morale by creating a more standardized and fair experience regardless of which station employees are assigned to?

Option 1: Provide employees with more transparency around how we assign each printer station. While this does provide employees with more information around randomization of the process, it does not solve the core insight of frustrations driven by day-to-day unevenness. While each employee might acknowledge having bad days and good days, it does not bring us closer to having "standard days".

Option 2: If material and density are driving factors behind station difficulty levels, then we should consider moving materials and evening out the density of our warehouse. While many newer warehouses have taken this approach to laying out their structure, this approach is very costly for an establishing center to take on.

Option 3: Adjust how many units of work we send to each station to even out the experiences of employees. For example, the harder stations will receive 10 units of work to accommodate for more walking and heavier fills, while the easier stations might receive 15 units of work. This would result in everyone completing their work within a similar range. This approach would require in-depth analysis to ensure correct targets are selected and working with systems teams to redesign work selection process.

Testing

Based on a cost-benefit analysis, we decided to invest our efforts in Option 3. During the testing phase, I worked with warehouse and systems team to send various amounts of work to each printer and calculated employee utilization during those times. We also worked to restructure walking patterns to balance the experiences employees had within each station.