The Warehouse Underground Podcast

In a world where metrics, efficiencies, KPIs rule the day, it was great chatting with Dr. Vernard Jenkins (also a fellow 2003 graduate of the Air Force Academy) about the massive importance of soft skills for leaders in the distribution industry.

He's the VP of Operations at Knight-Swift Warehousing & Fulfillment, a 3PL with sites nationwide. While he himself has had success at every level during his career climb, he is a big-time champion and model for what it means to give back and mentor the next generation of leaders.

Check out all of his awesome articles on LinkedIn and his new video series "Dinner Conversations with Doctor V."

It is some of the most honest, heartfelt, genuine and frankly spot on advice that anyone in the industry could benefit from!

🦺 "Manager Methods" episode! Great chat with Devin Galloway, an Operations Leadership Expert & Corporate Trainer, about development of new managers in fulfillment centers and the challenges this environment can bring. He should know.

👉 He has 12+ years of experience inside of Amazon FCs starting out as a front-line associate, managing hundreds of employees across multiple departments then ultimately, he progressed to designing and delivering leadership development workshops to managers across more than 80 Amazon sites throughout the US and Canada.

🚨 Now he is giving back to all and helping the next wave with Leadership Lessons (link below) where he's published 300+ articles providing practical leadership guidance for operations managers.

Check out his stuff and you'll see like I did that it's the gritty truth. Use it to help transform leaders of all levels!

Michael Rubin who is an OSHA attorney from Ogletree Deakins joined me for this great show. If you're a warehouse or distribution center leader and OSHA shows up in your lobby do you know what to do?

Do you know your rights and what you have to do vs what you don't? What about on the OSHA side; what are they allowed and not allowed to do? Don't wait until the moment hits to feel that anxiety and possibly do or say something you regret simply because you didn't have the knowledge of how this realm works!

He's been in this world for well over 20 years and is helping employers with OSHA inspections, citations, and trials nationwide.

Not only does he do this with future preparation he's been known to simply respond to calls or texts WHILE inspections are about to happen or happening!

Dominic Lindsay is the Founder / CEO of Nexobot. I had a chance to chat with him for this episode about this awesome new product/service that is making automation accessible to operations of all sizes.

Work in big FCs/DCs and you know how critical the outbound sorter is to your operation. And while these systems are great, they're also millions of dollars to install and the integration and installation "lift" for these is enormous! Hardly ever an option for mid-tier operations.

But Nexobot is a LOW-COST order sorter utilizing robots as the prime method for box movement vs conveyors. And it can be fully deployed in a matter of weeks not months.

They're only available in Australia right now, but this is a fast-growing company that you could soon see in warehouses around the USA!

Mike Coers, SVP Managed Logistics at Kinimatic, stopped by for a very cool chat.  As operations grow and consider expanding their footprint to multiple sites across the country, the complexity begins to grow too.... and fast! 

Where do you move to?  What inventory should go?  How do you know if you're getting savings or not on the logistics side?  How do you track and have visibility on all of this? 

Enter Kinimatic.  They have a "tech-driven approach combining advanced software, expansive integrations, an experienced service team, and a nationwide logistics network to deliver dynamic omnichannel visibility, control, and scalable growth." 

If you're a leader staring down an expansion like this reach out to them to be a BIG-TIME resource!

Jim Perry, Commercial Business Director at Warehouse on Wheels, joined me today! I always enjoy chatting with anyone from this company because I'm such a huge fan of how they operate and the solutions + service they provide to many distribution leaders.

I'm talking about the leaders suffering through the heartache of running out of space in their facility! I know what this is like first-hand. Chatting with Jim, it's apparent that they are well intertwined with their customers.

They understand fully their pain, and they are constantly refining where they can best come in in to reduce it.

Don't accept a jam-packed facility as a reality of your operation. No. Let WOW be your side storage solution while you go back to focusing on mainline operations!

Great show with Lee Rector CEO of LaborAI! Lee has over 30 years working with businesses of all sizes across multiple countries, has been a featured speaker at countless industry-leading events across the globe, and is the author of a globally recognized warehousing resource book Warehousing 101: A Reference Guide.

Now, with LaborAI he is transforming warehouse operations with tools geared to help solve the ever-evolving challenge of labor. LaborAI, a highly cost-effective labor planning tool, leverages order file data to accurately determine labor needs.

No guesswork. No retro-active averages. No estimates.

Just PRESCRIPTIVE analytics to arrive at the truth data much faster! Sign me up for this yesterday!

The rather epic Sam Goodman joined in to talk all things safety. But....this isn't your grandpa's safety.

Sam has a very fresh slant on it that he has molded after MANY years in the field. He is Founder, Human and Organizational Performance practitioner, and safety consultant at The HOP Nerd LLC.

Not only this but is also an accomplished consultant, coach, author, and speaker specializing in bringing HOP to life within organizations. He builds high-impact learning teams & fosters work environments of curiosity, improvement, and innovation.

It was awesome chatting with him and hearing all of his fresh takes on many topics which have shaken up the industry to some degree!

(Yes, Darrell The Safety Man joined on the show too but stay tuned for a special BONUS FOOTAGE episode for that!)

Dana Harris, a 15-year veteran in the industry and now the General Manager of a large site in the mid-west USA, dropped by for a chat as part of our "Manager Methods" Series. It's great to shine a spotlight on ACTUAL managers in the facilities on the front lines getting it done!

He's doing such a great job with his teams inside the 4 walls of the facility but follow him on LinkedIn and you'll see that he has opened a window for all to see the TRUTH about what is going on there.

He doesn't hesitate to reveal the wins, the losses, the triumphs, the challenges and how they overcome them (which anyone who works in operations will tell you is much more the reality of life inside a DC.)

Oh, be sure to listen until the end for some "Prime Time Points"

Will Quinn, aka The Distribution Guy, joined me for this episode to talk all things warehousing, distribution, AI, career growth and much more! Such great insights on this episode from Will!

The contributions he has made to the world of distribution are immense including 25+ years leading at all levels of well-known companies, operating his own consulting firm, publishing nearly 100 articles, speaking at many distribution events both in person and online, and now working as a professor sharing wisdom to the next wave of leaders.

I could have gone on for hours chatting with him. If you are an up-and-coming leader in the industry this is the show for you and if you are not following Will or reaching out to him as a resource somehow you are missing out!