This summer I had an internship with Ark Logistics which is
a logistics and freight company run out of the northern Chicagoland
suburbs. I worked as a quality control specialist
which required me to run a final inspection on all the product that was shipped
out of our warehouse. We had an office
building connected to our warehouse and in the office building is where all the
business and logistics happened. I would
take the final inspection paper work from the warehouse and enter it into a SEP
database in the office building. The
database was a 4 step process to validate the truck coming to pick up the
product, validate the product number with the order form, validate the batch
number with the order form, and proper departure of the truck. All of the product in our warehouse is food
product so we had very strict FDA restrictions on the condition of the product
and the cleanliness of the truck it was going in. Even though I was responsible for the final
inspection as quality control, it was a full team effort by the warehouse and
office to complete all these steps. The
office would have to know reliable freight companies to contract to move our
product while the warehouse had to professionally store the product and load it
into the trucks. Every member of the
warehouse, regardless of position, was responsible to always be handling the
product with care and keeping an eye out for anything that could tarnish
it. The whole warehouse team would hold
each other accountable for this which gave me much more confidence in signing
off on the final inspection paper work knowing that at every step of the
process a team member was doing everything possible to ensure the quality of
the product. The company is only 16
years old and has grown so quickly due to the hard work that the team members
put into the process which turned into great success for the company. We are now the main contract for providing Wrigley
Manufacturing Co. with the sweetener for all of their products and also have
other contracts such as Colgate and Mondelez Global.
I was essentially the middle man between the warehouse and
the office. I had to take the order
forms from the office into the warehouse where I would give them to the
warehouse manager. The warehouse manager
then would send a forklift driver to go find the product in the warehouse and
bring it to the front for my final inspection before being loaded into the
designated truck. The warehouse manager
was very strict in every step of the process from how to load the order to how
the paperwork was filled out. The
manager was very hard on all the employees including myself because he expected
excellence out of all of us. Having this
type of leader on the team was essential to the success of the company because
his expectations and work ethic was reflected in everyone else’s work. I would then take the final paperwork of the
order back into the office where the office manager or myself would enter the
paperwork into the SEP database. The
office manager was also very strict himself expecting zero mistakes in the
paperwork and loading process. Having
two managers that expected nothing but the best out of their team is what I
believe lead to the success of the company.
People in these leadership positions need to be stern and expect the
best because if they do anything less than it will be reflected in the work of
their colleagues.
In the textbook “Reframing Organizations” it described “Simple
Hierarchy” which is similar to the one boss structure but a little more
complex. Simple Hierarchy is when a team
talks to one individual and then that person talks to another leader. To apply this to Ark Logistics I would see
the warehouse as the team that all communicates to me and then I go and work
with another leader (the office manager in this case). However,
another structure that fits our company is dual authority. I say this because dual authority talks about
the separation of teams with individual leaders and that can be seen by the separation
of the office and warehouse. With a
warehouse manager and office manager our company also falls under the dual
authority structure.
The way you told the story it is not clear whether mistakes ever happened or not. If they did, one example of that would have helped in the story. If they did not, perhaps you might entertain other possible explanations, apart from the strictness of the manager. For example, perhaps the tasks were all very easy so mistakes were unlikely regardless of the management approach.
ReplyDeleteI do appreciate that in matters of public health there is no kidding around. You do it by the book. I am not challenging that. What I wonder, however, is if it matters in the way you say it does. I know very little about public health, but I am aware, for example, that in a restaurant there are those signs in the bathroom about employees hand washing. And, indeed, there is a very famous essay about hand washing in hospitals by Atul Gawande, that has truly changed how health professionals prevent infection from spreading. That practice did matter. Not understanding the health risks at all in the business you were involved in, it is hard to say whether doing the paperwork carefully mattered or not that way or if mattered in attracting new clients. Some discussion of that would improve the otherwise interesting essay.
Then let me get at another point. You said you were an intern but you also described yourself as in a position of authority. That didn't quite make sense to me. I wonder if you could clarify that.
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A couple of times you used "myself" instead of "me" and that detracted from an otherwise well written piece. You can see the usage rules here. I am not the stickler that your warehouse manager is, but I would like to see improvement in this dimension in future posts.
Professor let me clarify the parts of my blog that are unclear to you. Mistakes did happen throughout the warehouse because there are many steps in the process and therefore many different opportunities to make mistakes. When shipping 800 bags of sugar and each bag needs a specific sticker there is going to be mistakes every once in a while. That is why it is my job to essentially double check everyone's work before departure in my final inspection process.
DeleteThe public health standards need to be up to the standards because once the customer gets the product if they see anything that is not up to standards they can reject the whole order and our company takes all the financial loses for that.
John,
ReplyDeleteIt is great to see that the company you worked for grew so fast in such a small amount of time. I have had jobs with similar organizational structure and definitely agree that having 2 managers in separate roles (but their roles collaborate) can lead to great team success. However I agree with Prof. Arvan on the subject that you did not offer up a scenario where mistakes could happen. It sounds like you helped run a tight ship with the help of your managers over there but potentially next time when there is a similar blog prompt offer up a potential mistake that could have happened and how you would have keenly addressed it.
John,
ReplyDeleteYour post offered an interesting look on the hierarchal management system of the company you worked for. Specifically I liked how you tied in that people in leadership positions within the company held not only an increase in difficulty of responsibilities, but also in variation. Good post.