News Articles

April 7, 2009

How will the changing workforce affect distribution going forward?

Thought leaders from the Supply Chain Execution and Technologies Group at the Material Handling Industry of America discuss the big issues confronting industry today as well as the emerging solutions.

How will the changing workforce affect distribution going forward?
SCE, April 7, 2009

Today’s skilled workforce is facing retirement. At the same time, the skills required in the automated distribution center are changing rapidly. A skill set that might last a decade or longer not long ago, might be in place for a few years at most before new technologies and new order fulfillment strategies require a change. How will those factors affect distribution going forward?

Jim Le Tart, RedPrairie: We have to understand the realities of the jobs that exist in the distribution center. When you’re working with automation, when you’re trying to execute postponement strategies and provide value-added services that require skills, you need a workforce that understands the bigger picture. They have to understand how that technology goes into filling that order and so forth. To be successful, we have to start looking at them not as a unit of production but as people. We have to look at factors like employee satisfaction that were not taken into consideration in the past. In the future, they will be.   Read more

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