Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Welcome to the clear impact podcast brought to you by P G T I university. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sherry Connor and I am your host.
Speaker 2 00:00:18 And then we're very fortunate that we have a great customer care team that is there all the time to be able to handle questions that pop up, but so really proactively communicate with their customer care teammate with any concerns and things that they have relative to my ship dates.
Speaker 1 00:00:33 When is my order getting delivered, or can I change my ship date? You may have asked one of these very questions at some time or another. In our final episode of our customer success series, we address these and more Jeff sheller and Christie Meadows share best practices around supply chain and how our efforts have made major improvements in our delivery process for you. Good morning, we are wrapping up our customer success series. And today we are meeting Jeff sheller, our vice president of supply chain, and also returning is Christie Meadows, director of customer care. So welcome. Good morning. Nice to have you both with us today. A pleasure to have you in studio, Jeff, you, but you're a pro, right? You've done a bunch of these before,
Speaker 2 00:01:14 Not at P DT, but past lives. Yes. A number of them.
Speaker 1 00:01:17 Nice. Um, well, I'm glad that you could find time to meet us today. In this series, we have been talking about the ways that our customer success teams help our dealers to be successful. And one of the things that we wanna talk about today is strategic order planning. And so Christie, we're gonna start with you. So Christie, how do our dealers know what is coming to them and when it's coming? Well,
Speaker 3 00:01:39 First of all, when they place their orders, it will give them a ship date. Okay. However, we do also send them weekly open orders reports, mm-hmm <affirmative> with the scheduled ETA. And then we also have dealer portals where they can check a ETA at any time. They can also run a report and manage it within the portal itself.
Speaker 1 00:01:55 Okay, awesome. So they have the option to choose a shipping date.
Speaker 3 00:01:59 They do actually, when they place their order, they can do what's called a required by date when they place the order and put in the required by date. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, we'll do a calculation when their next ship date is closest to the required by date mm-hmm <affirmative>. And when our planning with our build capacity will meet that date. Okay. So then it will shoot them back a actual date. That is the closest to the required by
Speaker 1 00:02:21 Date. Okay. So what would happen if they needed to change that date?
Speaker 3 00:02:26 So if they changed that date, they would need to send a request through ProConnect to our customer care representative, and then they would work with production control to see whether or not that that could be changed.
Speaker 1 00:02:36 Okay. Sounds easy enough. Mm-hmm <affirmative> so Jeff, I know supply chain has been challenging over the last couple of years for sure. And we've been making a lot of improvements in that area. I'm sure you're completely 100% responsible for all of that. Right?
Speaker 2 00:02:50 Sure. We'll go with that. <laugh> and a whole lot of people that are working with me,
Speaker 1 00:02:54 Right. So what can you share with our dealer audience today regarding our warehouse and shipping capacities?
Speaker 2 00:03:00 We've done a lot of work that really started back in fourth quarter of last year, and it comes in a different number of categories. First, we'll talk about capital investment. We wanted to increase our overall storage capacity. Last year, our warehouse was overfilled with product, and we knew that we could actually get that product in, in more efficient fashion. So we invested a lot of capital put better racking in because part of that gives us two things more capacity, but it also better improves the product quality. So we're protecting in a little bit more with this new racking that we've put in to help make sure that once it gets on the truck, the product is in decent condition yet mm-hmm, <affirmative>, we've also done a lot of what I would call business process reengineering. We, we knew that we needed to improve a number of attributes of what we were doing in the warehouse.
Speaker 2 00:03:46 First of all, our on time order fulfillment coming through, right. That's key on time and full to the customer product quality. That's an ongoing thing that we continue to focus on. And then also operational efficiency. We did that started that back, uh, last year. But once we defined all these new processes, we had about 70 teammates that we had to get trained up through that. So we did an extensive amount of training across all four shifts because we operate 24 by seven mm-hmm <affirmative>. And we had a lot of new people that came into the warehouse. So all of this was a new job, but we also had to make sure that they understood the roles and responsibilities and our processes. So we could get the outcomes that we wanted to in terms of improved order fulfillment, better product quality and efficiency in the warehouse.
Speaker 2 00:04:29 Okay. One of the key things that I'm super excited about is a new technology that we've deployed starting really in earnest this year. And that's our new R F I D technology. So understand what that looks like at the point of manufacturing, every product in our manufacturing cycle gets an R F I D label applied to it. So that's kind of like that tracker, if you will, mm-hmm, <affirmative>, we've deployed various tracking tools within the warehouse so that we can really become really efficient in it and understand where's our inventory. At any point in time, as it's flowing through our facilities, you know, by doing this, we can do a number of things that are really key for us. We can capture a complete inventory of everything in the warehouse within 15 minutes, just by running a pallet scanner through the facility. It captures every single R F I D label. That's on a product in that warehouse in 15 minutes. Wow. Pretty cool. Right.
Speaker 1 00:05:19 That's really cool.
Speaker 2 00:05:20 We also have, uh, enabled our team members with a scanner, a handheld scanner that they can actually locate an item, an individual item within the warehouse within minutes. It's kind of like, remember the game of hot and cold. Yeah. That scanner will kind of tell you, am I getting hotter or colder until it narrows down the location, the bay and the area. And they can quickly and easily spot that individual product that they're looking for. So very efficient in terms of what we're doing within the warehouse.
Speaker 1 00:05:45 That's so cool.
Speaker 2 00:05:46 And one of the things that we're really focused on too, from an inventory accuracy, we have what we call gateways at each loading dock. The gateway, basically what it'll do is when a team member puts that product on the trailer, it scans it. So we have redundancy in our scanning capabilities because we're still scanning it through our normal systems. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, but this actually captures it. When it goes on the truck, we use it for receiving down in our medley distribution center for when the product is coming off. Why I'm so excited about this besides it sounds cool. Right.
Speaker 1 00:06:15 Right. And those are those little green lights that are by all the bay doors, right. That's
Speaker 2 00:06:19 Correct. Okay. So they're green, as long as you're putting the right product on, if you were in the warehouse and you decided you were gonna help out for the day and tried to put something on the trailer, but you put it in door 16, instead of door 17, there'd be a red light and a siren that would go off. Oh no. And people would be coming, looking for you as to why you put that on the wrong trailer. It's really a good tool for making sure, ultimately this is a manual process, right. And we're trying to make sure that we can put the right tools around our processes to ensure the accuracy of everything that we're doing. Sure.
Speaker 1 00:06:50 I have a question for you. That's not on script. So the RFI D system, I was told that that's rolling out in different stages. Is that going to be something that the dealers will have a handheld device where they can scan our product?
Speaker 2 00:07:04 That's a great question. As I would look at it, that is a future stage capability. We're looking to develop kind of a pilot with a couple of key dealers to be able to do that, giving them the opportunity of leveraging this same technology that we're using. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So if they can track the inventory once it's delivered to them. So our pilot project would be in conjunction with our provider SLS, who provides us the tool sets and the data sets and the communication portal that we can communicate the inventory transactions to. And that will really essentially be able to help the dealers leverage the same pieces of it that they can use. This would be something that they would, you know, work directly with SLS. We would be kind of helping as a collaborator to help them get set up. But it's kind of an, a LA carte approach to this.
Speaker 2 00:07:48 Mm-hmm <affirmative> we wanna let the dealers be able to say, okay, based off of what tools that they'd want, they could deploy those as they need. The key to this is we're leveraging that same R F I D tag that we put on the point of manufacturing. So that stays with that packaging until it's taken off when it's being installed. So it's a, it's a great opportunity to understand if I'm a dealer and I'm using this tool. I can basically understand when it's coming to me because the R I D information inventory will help feed into some of the reports that Christie shared with earlier. And then ultimately once that trailer hits there and they basically can scan it in at the point of delivery, it's now captured in their inventory. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so they know where they have it, right? So it's a huge opportunity, certainly from a capability of really getting what I would call is a real key tool set for people to understand where their inventory is, and really deployed without a whole lot of capital
Speaker 1 00:08:40 Involved. Right. That's awesome. I know I do plant tours for customers, and that's one of the things that I talk about is that new R F I D system, and that at some point, hopefully that'll be available to them as well. So thank you for shedding some light on that. That's absolutely, that's exciting. Be sure to tune in for upcoming episodes to help you understand the Fest industry, what you need to know when buying windows and doors and other related topics, you can find out more about us at P G T I university.com. You can also find us on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Speaker 2 00:09:16 And when you think about the capability of inventory, you know, there's a lot of time, effort and energy that goes into building and making a product, right? Mm-hmm <affirmative> so we don't wanna lose it in the warehouse. We were doing a, you know, a really good job of losing things in the warehouse last year. But right now, the key measure for this from a, you know, an outcome standpoint is our, we do cycle counts in the warehouse every single month. And our cycle count accuracy is 99% plus wow. Every single month. And we were operating well under that. Mm, before that, so huge payback in terms of the capabilities that this tool set brings,
Speaker 1 00:09:50 That is phenomenal. I know, as a salaried person, we were charged with helping do the end of year inventory. And last year was my first year of being here and doing that. And I was assigned to the finished goods warehouse, and I had no idea how easy it was to lose a window. I had the, like, no idea. And we were paired up with people who were familiar with that space. And I was like, no, there's only 15. And he's like, Nope, look. And I was just like, where did that come from? You're kidding me. Where, where was that? Like, how did I miss that? I am so grateful that I don't do that as a normal job, but I'm sure that the people who are working in that space really appreciate this, you know, added technology. <laugh>, I'm not qualified to be in this position. I don't know how to count so
Speaker 2 00:10:32 Well, we aspire to make a lot of things easier, but that is one exception of the rule. We're making it really harder for us to lose windows now. So that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 00:10:40 That's awesome. Thank you for shedding. Some light on that. That is absolutely fabulous. What happens when an order is shipped and for whatever reason it can't be unloaded?
Speaker 2 00:10:50 No, it's a really good question. And I would come back to what Christie shared earlier. We are really putting a lot of effort on the front end of our supply chain to make sure that the outcome isn't, that, that we're not having an order refused. If you will. You know, I look at us as a demand driven supply chain. So understanding what the customer's demand is and when they need it. So that way we can all collectively plan for it, both, you know, us internally, as well as the customer. So our objective is never to get to that point, but we know that sometimes it still happens, right. What I'd rather talk about is what can be done to prevent it from happening. Mm. Versus what happens, cuz I think we all know what happens. The truck goes back to the DC and we have to, you know, run the play all over again, if you will.
Speaker 2 00:11:30 Right. But there's really kind of three key things that customers can do to prevent it from happening, you know, monitoring their open order reports, certainly understanding what is coming at them in the future. So they can plan for it. Mm-hmm <affirmative> utilizing our dealer portal for updates. Mm-hmm, <affirmative>, you know, understanding what, you know, another good communication tool that can be used proactively. And then we're very fortunate that we have a great customer care team that is there all the time to be able to handle questions that pop up, but so really proactively communicate with their customer care teammate with any concerns and things that they have relative to ship dates. You know, why we think it's important to address the outcome of what we're trying to do. There's a big implication of refused orders, invoice implications in accuracy issues that cause a lot of effort in rework, it can be redelivery fees. Um, because transportation isn't free. If any of us have, you know, bought gas or diesel lately, we all know that for sure. Right. Right. And then certainly multiple occurrences of rehandling that product. Every time we touch that product and if we have to take it off the trailer, put it back into inventory, re pick it again. We're just increasing the opportunity for product to get damaged. And then we all know the outcome of damaged products. Right? Not good. Not good for anybody,
Speaker 1 00:12:40 Right? No, exactly. Those are great points. So what are the best practices to employ in this area? So that we're all successful. Let's do a recap.
Speaker 3 00:12:49 Yeah. I think we will just repeat what we've said throughout this podcast. Right. We wanna make sure that they're proactively communicating with their customer service people. They're there to support them. And they know the right people to get in touch, to help them make sure that they're looking at their dealer portal, make sure that they're paying attention to their reports that are being sent out. And then also making sure that they put in that required by date when they place their order. Mm-hmm <affirmative> plan ahead. Know when you need it and know when you're gonna be able to install it. Therefore you put the date in, we'll give you the closest date to your required date.
Speaker 1 00:13:19 That's awesome. All right. Well, this has been a helpful conversation. It's a great way to just kind of wrap up this series and Jeff and Christy. I'm so thankful for your time today and
Speaker 2 00:13:29 You thank you. Good to be here. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:13:31 So that's it have a lovely Tuesday. You
Speaker 3 00:13:33 Too, you too.
Speaker 1 00:13:35 PG C I university is the customer education team for an entire family of brands. We began with the original easy breeze porch and closure line then became P G T America's leading brand of impact resistant windows and doors. We then added CGI C G I C windows, Western windows, new south windows, echo windows and doors, and our latest acquisition and Lynn windows and doors. We create products built to withstand major storms, keeping people safe, secure, and prepared. Our exceptional brands give you the protection you need without compromising design or functionality. P G T I university is here to educate you our listener so that you can be more informed about window and door products.
