Learning the Stowing Process

It was mentioned that the building (warehouse) we are working in is huge. As we arrived yesterday for our first hands-on training day, I took this shot of the building as we started to drive to the back parking lot where we were instructed to enter:

One of the training coaches said this building was 800,000 S.F., and the one in Coffeyville, KS., is nearly twice this size at 1.5 million S.F., if you can believe it. The amount of inventory contained in these buildings is mind boggling.

We were once again divided into several small groups and our hands-on training began on time at 11:30 AM. Our first couple of hours were spent in what they call "Stowing School" which is a training area that contains everything involved in learning the stowing process. We were given hand held scanners, and magnetic "bin" markers that we will use to place on the storage bin that we are working on. We then went out onto the floor for actual stowing experience with our trainers watching over us. The bins are mostly small, and they are like upright bookcases with slots to place your items. There are, however, some larger bins for larger items all along the rows of bins. We have to locate a bin that will fit the next item we need to stow. We scan the items, scan the bin number, and move on to the next item. If it fits in the bin, using storage rules they gave us, it is placed in the same bin. Otherwise we scan the bin number again to close it, and count the total number of items in the bin and record it in the hand held scanner. Everything is so computerized that each item is now then available for immediate "picking" to fill orders. Every item is recorded instantly in its location. We were told that there may be times when you will enter an item into a bin and a "Picker" will be right behind you to take it out to fill an on-line order. It is a very thorough and precise system. There are special handling rules for problem items such as bad bar codes, damaged product or products that should not be in your "cart" for stowing. We learned alot this first day on the floor.

Our schedule is the same today and tomorrow and we will work from 11:30 to 4:30 again. It's going to be a very different kind of experience for us which is what we want. It is physical in the sense that we will do a lot of walking, standing and reaching during the day but we feel we are up to it.

We are missing some fabulous weather while working inside though. Tuesday was 74 and yesterday was 73 for highs with clear, blue skies. It has gone down to the mid to low 40's at night, but it isn't bad. We hope it holds out until we at least get some time off to enjoy it, which will be Saturday. Until tomorrow...