The Warehouse Underground Podcast

Are you applying to job after job and hearing nothing back? Or saying “we can’t find good people” when you’re hiring? This episode is for you.

Anthony Allen, Founder & Managing Director of Supply Chain Talent Advisors, started on a warehouse floor in the mid-90s and worked his way up through warehousing, planning and procurement in aerospace, defense and oil and gas.

He got tired of recruiters who ghosted people and didn’t understand the work, so he started his own search firm. Now he recruits supply chain leaders for small and mid-sized manufacturers.

He and Ben cover both sides of the hiring table:

🔹 Why recruiters work for the company, not the candidate, and why you should still get on their radar (about 75% of Anthony’s searches are never posted)

🔹 How to beat AI resumes and applicant tracking systems: lead with numbers, not job descriptions

🔹 “Define good”: the question hiring managers skip, and how candidates can turn it around in an interview

🔹 Why scar tissue beats years of service

🔹 What happens when companies won’t pay the market rate

🔹 Why director-level roles are among the hardest hires right now

🔹 When big-company talent struggles at a smaller company

🔹 Recruiting activity vs. recruiting progress, and why relationships close the deal

⏱️ CHAPTERS

0:00 Intro 2:12 From the warehouse floor to recruiting

4:41 Myths about working with recruiters

7:37 75,000 jobs a week, so why no callbacks?

12:22 Define “good” 15:09 Scar tissue vs. years of service

19:16 When companies won’t pay the market rate

23:49 Working across the aisle

29:04 Why director roles are the hardest hire

31:51 Big company vs. small company

36:07 Resume and LinkedIn mistakes

38:50 Activity vs. progress, and why relationships matter

43:38 Where to find Anthony

🔗 CONNECT WITH ANTHONY Website: https://www.scmhire.com

LinkedIn: Anthony Allen, Supply Chain Talent Advisors

🔗 THE WAREHOUSE UNDERGROUND Join the free community (message boards, networking, resources, live shows): https://www.thewarehouseunderground.com

Also check out The Tiger Team Show, about the culture and life inside warehouses and DCs, with plenty of wit and sarcasm.

#SupplyChain #Warehousing #Recruiting #JobSearch #Hiring #Logistics #Leadership #DistributionCenter #CareerAdvice #TheWarehouseUnderground

Andy Paulson, founder of Warehouse Performance Group, has been part of LMS rollouts at hundreds of distribution centers.

By his count, only about 1 in 10 hit a home run. He and Ben hash it out.... what separates those sites from everyone else, and it isn’t the software.

In this episode:

Why an LMS is a tool, not a program, and why most rollouts stall.

The foundation to fix first: supervisor roles, floor time and the “one best way.”

What executives must do before handing it to the ops team (one site’s overtime goal was worth $800K a year.)

The unsung KPI: direct vs. indirect hours, and the 17 minutes a day that can cost a 100-person building $250K a year.

Pay for performance done right: self-funding, with a Coca-Cola bottler running 50-100% more productive.

No budget? How to get real gains with your WMS data, payroll and good old Excel.

Cathleen Turner is the founder and CEO at Margin. She helps 3PLs accelerate cash flow and recover revenue by codifying billing with complexity and AI.

 🔦 Whenever I get the chance, I love highlighting start-ups on the podcast. And Margin is a really sharp one for sure!

 👉 Billing cycles issues and cash flow sagas are common thorns in the side of 3PLs but don't have to just be part of doing business.

 Cathleen knows this well and has seen it from BOTH sides of the fence as she has a background running a 3PL herself.

 This is a cool episode because not only did I get a chance to hear about how she's helping 3PLs behind the scenes, but I also got a chance to hear about Cathleen's journey and her thoughts on what it's REALLY like being an entrepreneur and not the always sunny parts we may see on social media today!

"If you gave a user a gold bar, they'd complain about how heavy it was." 😂

That's Wes Coleman, Industry Principal for Warehousing at Zebra Technologies, on change management. And he's earned the right to say it: 36 years in the industry, from UPS to FedEx Ground to running operational excellence, and now 30+ weeks a year inside customers' warehouses.

Always happy to chat with folks like him that are right there on the front lines of the industry!

🔹 User acceptance now sits ABOVE throughput, quality and efficiency for a lot of companies. Retention changed the math.
🔹 Your team has great tech in their pocket, car and home. They expect it at work too. If yours is good, use it as a recruiting tool.
🔹 Bolting good technology onto a bad process makes things worse. Fix the process first.
🔹 Bring a new hire AND a legacy employee into the decision, not just your rock star.
🔹 Warehouses don't always "automate." They augment, one small piece of a process at a time.

And of course this: "The biggest challenge in your DC today isn't moving pallets. It's moving data."

I sat down with Brian Fielkow, former CEO of Jetco Delivery, now EVP of Risk Resources at Acrisure, and author of the new book "Making Safety Happen".

A WEALTH of knowledge in many areas but certainly safety. We got into:

→ Why safety should never be a "priority". Priorities compete and shift, but core values are non-negotiable.

→ How the C-suite sets the tone for safety culture (and why they can't delegate it!)

→ Why "unconditional respect" for process matters because often safety rules are written in blood.

→ The football helmet analogy that reframes how you think about PPE as your *last* line of defense, not your first.

If you lead a warehouse, DC, or FC or in charge of those who do, this episode isn't a check box.

Technology and leadership are often treated as two separate things.  That's shifting some though.

TrailPath Workplace Solutions isn’t simply putting another technology tool in the hands of ops leaders. It’s making improvement part of the work not just something that happens in a workshop and fades when everyone returns to the floor.

Floor leads gotta know:

Who needs my attention? Where should I focus? When should I coach? When should I step back?

Experience helps answer those questions, we all know this, but new supervisors don’t have years of experience yet.

Enter TrailPath!!!  They can help not by replacing leadership, but by helping leaders see what matters, build better habits, and improve every day.

Habits shape behavior. Behavior shapes results.

The question is: How do we help more leaders build those habits?

Pete Allen is Managing Partner at Birch Advisors. And he knows his way around the world of warehousing and distribution quite well! 

MANY companies seek him out for consultations, and particularly on strategies for integrating and growing robotics and automation.

✅ What are the unique challenges both at the tactical level (warehousing problems) but also strategic level (gaining traction and adoption from the end users in the industry?)

✅ Do you see robotics as an "either or" in integrations with humans or an "and also"? 

✅ What should ops leaders be focusing on building the warehouse of the future?

✅ What type of operation is an ideal one to get the most gains from robotics and how should they explore this ahead of time to minimize risk?

Robotics are everywhere in the distribution industry (and more every year).  You see them in shows and magazines.  BUT what do you really need to know about if they are right for your operation or not?

Mike Bearman, the Chief Legal & Safety Officer at Vecna Robotics, is the perfect guest to chat with about this.  

Find out: 

*Why many warehouse automation projects fail to deliver on their original expectations.

*Common mistakes operations make before, during and after projects.

*Key "do's and don'ts" plus why AI should NEVER be responsible alone for warehouse safety.

*What 'inside scoop' questions should you as a possible vendor.

*How will it all evolve over the next 5-10 years (employees, robotics, AI).

AND MORE!

🦺I was honored to take The Warehouse Underground on the road when I was invited to the opening of Toyota Material Handling North America's new manufacturing facility in Columbus, Indiana!

🙌To say that it is impressive is a major understatement. It's big (295,000 square feet), meticulously laid out, and has a highly engaged & proud employee work force to match.

💡A $100M investment with 140 new jobs coming in and those folks will be busy with a growing emphasis on electric!

Why? Because more than 1 in 3 forklifts sold in the US is manufactured by them.

Got a chance to have some great chats with Mike Field (Chief Operations Officer), Tony Miller (Chief Supply Officer), and Sam Coles (Chief Sales & Marketing Officer!)

Shortfalls in operations are often very similar no matter where you go.  But NOBODY wants to just be crap, right!  

So where does the gap live and how do you bridge it?

Chris Hamley and The Brecham Group know how to do just that.  Through the years they've helped turn around hundreds and hundreds of distribution operations.  And they gave away some of their "secrets" on this episode.

Find out:

What precision supply chain operations really mean to them.

What the Performance Paradox is and how to overcome it.

Why a lack of proper knowledge and training can be a sure-fire cycle leading nowhere.

Much more!  

Great chat about the real gritty truth of operations at the floor level.  Check it out!