I have been in a whole lot of different industries throughout my career. It has led me down many paths and some of them were revolved around manual labor and other management. The joy of being able to be in many different industries and jobs is that you get to learn how to deal with a variety of situations. This year I am glad for my past experiences because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has led to such a change in our economy and the way that we do business that my past experiences have come in handy. Our company has shifted to doing some extra marketing tasks in-house. This meant that my knowledge of past shipping supplies and how to utilize them came in handy.
We ended up having to order all the products directly and put our own marketing together. This was a task that needed some past warehouse knowledge in order to get down what we needed. Working and managing a warehouse led me to understand how manual processes and ordering of products in bulk can be the difference between success and failure. The reason I knew this was because I had taken a warehouse department at an auto dealership more efficient one summer while I was going to college. It was a great job for the summer and it was my goal to do such a good job that they would hire me back summer after summer.
I learned that understanding that the way a job was done could be money saving. This was done by watching different people do the same job. I learned that some people did things because they were told to do them and some would do what they wanted. I asked people than to do the job differently than normal and I tracked the type of products they used, the location they did the work, and how much time it took them. I then found the most efficient way by seeing people with experience and those without expereince do that same job. From there I was able to track the tape, boxes, and labels that were used and how much of each product was used. This allowed me to figure out the most efficient way for tasks to be done. I then created systems after seeing what worked best and had the teams follow those systems. I walked them through how each step saved their time, and the store’s money and didn’t penalize them for doing more.
This whole lesson taught me how to take out the marketing department in-house and work on finding the best products and best way to put our projects together. Then I went shopping for the best shipping supplies stores and found the best deal for our company. It is not an easy task to then take what you know and justify it to a board of directors. So I had to price out local stores to see what they could give us. Then I went on Amazon to see what deals were available for our products and the time and cost of shipping involved. When I went to major online retailers I was able to get the best deals and costs and justify it to the board with proof. I hope these tips help your company thrive through the pandemic as well.