Growing up in the “City of Firsts,” the manufacturing roots run deep in my family. Essentially every relative, coach, and adult I knew as a child worked in one of Kokomo, IN large factories on an assembly line or in skilled trades dating back to Haynes-Apperson, the first profitable American automobile manufacturer. From an early age, my plan was to get a degree (that my parents never had the opportunity at) and then follow them both into the factories for the next 30 years.  That was until the 2008 Recession hit and changed those manufacturing sites completely. Needing to pivot directions, I spent the majority of the next 10 years in industrial project management working inside some of the Midwest’s largest manufacturing and distribution centers.

So… you want to break into a market as a new entrant that already has established players?  While this is not an easy task, the opportunity to shake up an established category is one that can create great returns for delivering innovation to a stale, overlooked category.  Some great examples of category disruptors are Dollar Shave Club and Dyson vacuums.  These two companies delivered innovation in old categories, which differentiated them and their products.  

Beverage distributors operate in a landscape marked by diverse customer profiles, ranging from small retailers to big box stores, restaurants, and bustling bars. The cornerstone of success in this dynamic industry lies in exceptional customer service, a factor that not only fosters growth but also enables effective cost management, supply chain agility, and adaptation to fluctuating demands. As distributors grapple with these challenges to sustain profitability and competitiveness, a game-changing solution is emerging: the on-demand workforce, providing the much-needed flexibility.

Reshoring and demand growth is happening at a time when the existing skilled workforce is approaching retirement. As experienced workers begin to age out of the workforce, there’s a lack of up-and-coming talent with the required skillset and experience to replace them.  Manufacturers are already feeling the impact of this, both in terms of capacity constraints and increased costs for hiring and retaining workers.  Many look to increased incentives to attract talent, or even capital improvements to reduce the need for workers, but a simpler and often overlooked approach is available.  Eliminating waste by reallocating lower skilled work can help your organization better utilize your existing workforce, and help you upskill the next generation of workers to take their place. 

The most overlooked opportunity for increasing production capacity in manufacturing plants is planned downtime.  Because changeovers and maintenance are planned, we tend to accept them as normal or something that must be done.  After a closer look, you may realize that these planned events are the largest contributor to your production losses.  Attacking planned downtime will not only reduce inefficiencies in your operations, but more importantly let you claw back some valuable production time to increase your capacity and help grow your business. 

You might wonder what does on-demand labor have to do with supplier sourcing?  On-demand labor is a path to supplier development and cultivating competition by exploiting it to allow a new market entrant  a chance to meet the needed service levels. 

With five years in industrial laundry, I have held various operation leadership roles in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, from world-class Fortune 500 companies to 3rd-generation family-owned operations. Each share the same issues and hardships. The rental uniform business is highly complex and fast-paced, with the ultimate goal of serving customers a clean inventory of product week after week while allowing them to run their business safer, faster, and more comfortably. Industrial laundry is known for being highly competitive, very dirty, physically demanding, with long hours, and extremely tight margins . An average item is touched 10 times before returning to the customer. The most profitable customers are the ones that are retained, and a strong emphasis is put on keeping customers and limiting lost business. To add to the complexities, daily demand changes based on seasonality, customer behavior, economic sensitivities, and customer use. The Service and Plants teams have very little time to respond to changes, and traditional business strategies have limited the growth and success of this industry. To service customers better, faster, and safer, this industry must continue to engineer and develop creative ideas.

Throughout the United States, considerable amounts of public and private funds are being directed towards the emerging semiconductor chip sector. Prompted by the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act passed last year, both the industry and the government are collaborating closely to enhance domestic manufacturing. This effort aims to secure a foothold in a future-oriented industry and ensure a dependable domestic supply of these vital components, especially amidst escalating tensions with China and growing concerns about Taiwan's autonomy. Despite the substantial influx of public and private investments, challenges persist in establishing a homegrown semiconductor industry. These challenges encompass setbacks like regulatory delays, gaps in the labor market, and disruptions in the supply chain driven by geopolitical factors. The outcome of this industry's endeavors could yield extensive implications for American enterprises and individuals, influencing various aspects ranging from the technology job market and the availability of electronics to the economic trajectory of the emerging industrial region.

Expanding production capacity typically focuses on upfront investments in facilities, equipment, and recruitment; however, that’s not always wise in a volatile economic environment.  Even in a favorable economy, months pass between incurring costs and realizing benefits, and with changing market conditions that can be even longer.  Many businesses are unwilling to take the risk to grow, or simply can’t afford that level of capital investment. 

In the aftermath of the unprecedented economic downturn caused by thepandemic in 2020, the manufacturing sector has displayedresilience in recovering lost jobs.As a matter of fact, it is not about the availability of jobs; it's aboutfinding and retaining the right workers to fill key positions. As of June 2023, there were582,000 job vacancies within the manufacturing sector, highlighting theurgent need for innovative approaches to talent acquisition and retention.

I’ve had the opportunity to work in both well-established food and beverage companies that have been around for many years and also, I’ve worked in various automotive startups.  In both capacities, I’ve always been on the production side! Production is fast moving - it’s assembly lines, equipment, materials, and people! It’s been a pleasure to energize and ignite teams to persevere and break records consistently - driving team members to truly band as one and work cohesively to make it happen, day after day. And if there is one thing my experience in manufacturing and logistics has taught me it is to always prepare for the unexpected. While strategizing and working to ensure your plan is solid, it’s critical to understand that there will always be something that will pop up. Agility and Flexibility can often be confused, but both are important to driving success in Manufacturing, Logistics, Warehousing, and the whole supply chain.  It all starts with winning the day which starts with winning the shift and that means winning by the hour. I thought I would share how I came to appreciate the impact of agility and what I took away as three key lessons to always ensure I was prepared in an ever-changing environment.

It goes by several names – Lean, Continuous Improvement, Operational Excellence, Process Improvement, Transformation – but the core of this discipline, regardless of nomenclature, is to reduce the amount of time between cash going out the door until you collect cash for a delivered product.  We do this through the elimination or reduction of waste and the optimization of processes, always with the customer in mind.  I’ve spent more than a decade on the floor executing kaizen and rapid improvement events to organization-level strategy alignment and deployment (Hoshin Kanri).  System-level cohesion with organizational alignment and determined execution; everyone rowing the boat to the drum beat of the customer to maximize efficiency. 

In the realm of business, evaluating different paths of opportunity involves an assessment of risk versus the value proposition. When the potential returns far outweigh the risks, the decision becomes easy. For manufacturers and distributors seeking streamlined workforce solutions, this process is no exception. The question arises: "How can my business optimize its operational efficiency and maximize returns?" Enter Veryable, an innovative platform that redefines operational efficiency, transcending the limitations of traditional staffing firms.

 Flint Michigan is a principal figure in the US automotive history books, and it is also my community of origin. The businesses and employees from the community have given a great deal of themselves to get the industry to where it is today. Growing up in Genesee County, I was indoctrinated into auto manufacturing at an early age. Relatives, parents of friends, spouses of my teachers, the retired neighbors; everyone was connected to the industry and influenced my curiosity for manufacturing. Coupling this interest with a Supply Chain Management from the big in-State university provided me with the opportunity to start my career with a Fortune 100 construction and farm equipment company. I spent 7 years working in various supply chain, purchasing, and manufacturing roles. I experienced multiple disciplines across multiple sectors in an industry that is heavily influenced by growing, planting, harvesting and construction seasons. Moving back ‘home’ I signed on with one of the big 3 auto manufacturers, furthering my understanding through roles in supply chain, global allocation, scheduling, inventory management, production system implementation, launch and operations management. I bring a solid foundational understanding of the entire value stream at Veryable.

When you think about supply chain management, you'd be forgiven for picturing lines of trucks, spreadsheets, and some serious-looking folks in suits. But what if I told you managing a supply chain is more akin to riding a wave on a surfboard?

In the ocean of economy, disruptions are those big, gnarly waves ready to wipe you out. If you're not prepared, you're going belly-up, my friend. But if you've got the agility of Kelly Slater and the resilience of a rubber duckie, you'll ride those waves like a pro. So let's wax up our surfboards and dive into the world of supply chain resilience, dudes and dudettes.

Before leading Operations across Greater Cleveland at Veryable, I spent time as an Operations Manager for a major American manufacturer where I worked to balance site level manufacturing execution with the ever changing needs of our customers and the respective inventory to do so. I worked closely with key Plant Managers and several Distribution Center Managers to make sure our customers were properly supplied. Working closely with these Ops leaders on a daily basis as we navigated the extreme volatility on both the supply and demand side during COVID, I’ve seen the impact that volatility can have on operations from a variety of different perspectives.

The rise of the gig economy and the emergence of app-based platforms have fundamentally altered the landscape of work, allowing individuals to earn income and access services in new and innovative ways. However, these advancements have not come without their share of challenges. Recent regulatory decisions and proposals have ignited a debate surrounding the proper classification of independent workers within this evolving ecosystem.

When it comes to operations, the only constant is change (and your morning coffee, hopefully!). Hard work alone won't cut it anymore. To climb the corporate ladder, you need to keep sharpening your skills. And here at Veryable, we’re not just on board with this idea, we’re driving the train!

That's why we're oh-so-excited to pull the curtains back on our shiny, new on-demand learning curriculum - the Individual Business User Certification. It's like a career advancement catalyst, just without the lab coat.

My name is Michael Kavaky, I’m the General Manager for Veryable in Central and West Michigan. I have spent 20 years of my career in logistics and distribution, having worked in many industries such as Consumer packaged goods (CPG), chemicals, food and beverage, small parcels, and furniture. I’ve experienced the challenges that warehousing and distribution leaders face at all levels, from managing the floor directly all the way up to managing many facilities across oceans and borders. At the shop floor level, operational leaders are focused on driving short term objectives like finishing dock schedules, improving OTIF (On-Time In-Full), and avoiding overtime. At the regional level, leaders are focusing on long term perfect service, contractual agreements, logistics as a percent of sales, and cost reductions. No matter what the org level or the goal, it all comes down to operational execution and KPIs can help show you how well you are doing.

You’ve worked hard to build your small business.  You’ve made a name for yourself and are building a brand.  An email hits your inbox.  It’s not an order.  It’s THE order.  A Fortune 500 company has decided to buy your product as part of a global rollout.  You’ve finally made it.  Then panic sets in.  How can we meet their deadline?  Can we meet the requirements of this order and keep our other customers happy?  Should we even accept the PO?

We are proud to announce that Veryable is on track to become the first in our industry to achieve SOC 2 compliance, setting a new standard of excellence and security for our customers and business partners. In today's digital landscape, where data breaches and cybersecurity threats have become all too common, the importance of SOC 2 compliance cannot be overstated. As our company pioneers this achievement within our industry, it is crucial to understand the significance of SOC 2 compliance and how it can bolster our success.

In today's competitive business landscape, maintaining consistent quality standards and operational excellence is crucial for long-term success. One effective tool that empowers organizations to achieve these goals is Layered Process Audits (LPAs). LPAs provide a structured approach to monitor and improve processes, offering a range of benefits that enhance efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction. In this blog, we will explore the advantages of LPAs and how they contribute to business success.

The first formal program with the title “Engineering Management” originated at the University of Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri S&T) sometime in the 1960s.  The University of Missouri describes Engineering Management as the art and science of planning, organizing, allocating resources, and directing and controlling engineering activities.  Many other colleges have been focused on the same foundational concepts of Engineering Management for a long time.  The principles have been practiced in manufacturing and even military operations for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.    

The modern business environment is continually transforming, from world events drastically changing consumer behavior, to rapidly improving artificial intelligence, which is making adaptability a critical factor for competitiveness.  Quickly adopting new ideas and practices, especially in this digital age, seems like an obvious strategy.  However, mature and established industries are typically more hesitant to change what’s been working well in decades past.  This is where a company like Diligent Delivery Systems stands out as an example of embracing new ideas in the centuries old industry of logistics.

On May 17th, Globe Life Field was abuzz with excitement as the Texas Rangers took on the Atlanta Braves in a highly anticipated baseball game. Amidst the thrilling atmosphere, a special moment unfolded when Veryable operator Shane, renowned for his exceptional skills and outstanding work ethic, was given the honor of throwing out the first pitch. This blog post celebrates Shane's remarkable achievements as a 5-star rated operator with a flawless reliability record and over 700 completed ops.

Taking the leap from one company to another can be stressful. Even if you are jumping into a position that is similar to the one you’re working now, it can be intimidating to enter a new work environment with a brand new list of expectations. Whether this transition is for better pay, culture, or working conditions, finding your footing is a challenging process for anyone.

In today's fast-paced and uncertain business landscape, companies must remain nimble and adaptable to survive. This is especially true during periods of economic downturn, where challenges and uncertainties can arise at any moment. On-demand labor, demand forecasting, and downcycle agility are all important concepts for businesses looking to stay competitive in today's rapidly changing economy. With consistent changes in consumer behavior, companies are under increasing pressure to be agile and responsive to shifts in demand– especially when it’s slower than usual. Read on to learn about how to keep things rolling when demand slows down:

Unfortunately, layoffs happen. In America, about 40% of workers will experience a layoff at some point in their careers. No matter the industry, when times are tough and your business has pinched pennies in every other category, it can lead to having to show valuable employees the door. Even though it’s “just business”, the effects of layoffs will always carry a personal effect– not only to those let go, but also to those continuing to keep operations running on the inside.

Now that the holiday season has passed, many people are taking it upon themselves to get what they really wanted to be gifted this year. Along with year-end indulgence comes year-end returns, with many customers acting now before they forget. Hitting “order” and checking your tracking number every day may come with some anticipation, but how would you feel if you knew your item was safely wrapped under someone else’s Christmas tree before it ever made it to your door?

When understanding the general public sentiment related to your company, almost nothing compares to your average customer’s experience from discovery to purchase to support. There will be specific factors that may lead to churn, such as a negative experience when calling customer support or receiving a product that just doesn’t meet expectations. 

The end of the year is quickly approaching. With it, seasonal sales and shopping are at an all-year high, and therefore, so is fulfillment. Let’s take a look at some of the trends we’ve seen throughout the year, and we expect to continue into 2023:

Are you short on labor resources, or are you actually just coming up short on proper allocation?

No matter what niche your company serves, we’re willing to bet that your data is your most valuable asset. When every key performance indicator can be measured, all customer and employee data are stored internally, and each sales metric is tucked carefully away somewhere within your network– it’s necessary to keep this information safe.

“The American Dream” had to come from somewhere, right? If you’re keen on American history, you’re aware of the blood, sweat, and tears that went into the creation of America’s “more to life” mindset. America’s founding fathers sought freedom from the status quo of the British regime. They wanted to live how they saw fit, even if their loyalist relatives and neighbors disagreed. So, they got to work creating a world around them that catered to their way of life, and eventually declared independence from the British crown altogether. In doing so, they created the nation that ultimately became the place where dreams turn into realities.

We all want a good deal. We always want to know how much can we get for the least amount of money. The truth is that there are benefits to spending a little more to get what you need. By the same merit, taking a chance on quality for a smaller investment might lead to stellar results.

Are you a new operator using Veryable, wondering just how to make the perfect bid that will actually get picked?

Is your business facing peak sales seasons, a revolving door of full time employees, or projects that seem to pop up out of nowhere?

Ahh, Black Friday. For many companies, this is the time of year that sees the most business and can make or break your success in hitting annual targets. Earlier this season, we wrote about the benefits manufacturers could anticipate from utilizing on-demand labor to get through a peak creation season. Only a month later, the time for distributors and fulfillment centers to gear up for the busy season has arrived.

Making sure your team has enough hands on deck can present challenges of all kinds. Namely, the expense involved with traditional ways of hiring. Traditionally, a recruiter could spend a couple of weeks hiring for just one position. All things considered (things being salary, onboarding costs, and the plan ahead), hiring often comes with a hefty fee attached.

This land is your land, this land is my land.

This just in: your order volume is increasing. What was once a small business you fully owned and operated alone is now a full-blown e-commerce store, and you’ve got a whole team to manage. Sound familiar? Would you like it to? You’re in the right place.

Black Friday kicks off the holiday shopping season for consumers worldwide. While they’re scrolling through must-have lists and shopping guides a couple of weeks out, manufacturers have already produced the season’s hottest items. Forecasting demand and getting boxes ready to fly off the shelves is no simple task and requires manpower from all angles where manufacturing is concerned.

The idea of the American manufacturing industry has always carried an implied meaning. When visualizing it, the setting that comes to mind might be in black and white, featuring workers covered in dirt and hard-earned sweat. While the days of Henry Ford’s assembly lines certainly influenced the industry that quickly became the backbone of America, the methods of manufacturing have kept up with current times.

In an earlier blog post, we said that defect prevention depended on understanding the root cause(s). Because this is such an important part of the problem-solving process, let’s explore it further.

Having on-demand labor at your fingertips is a great competitive advantage, but many businesses have questions about how bringing in new operators might affect quality. 

The current lean paradigm is about to drastically change, leading to an expansion of just-in-time. While leveling is a part of any lean production system, we need to see it for what it is: a countermeasure to rigidities that ends up being anti-lean. The gist of this article is that we now have a better solution.

We performed a survey of our current customer base and found that our customers are overwhelmingly producing and sourcing within the United States. This is a result of our focus on our core mission of revitalizing US manufacturing. We’re resonating with a significant portion of the supply chain that wants to localize production and is ready to innovate to make it happen.

There is a lot of talk about how difficult it is for businesses to find and keep workers. Whether you call it “The Great Resignation” or another term, something is clearly happening. The sixty-four-thousand-dollar question is, “What’s driving this?”.

You’ve seen the comments about supply chain visibility, and maybe you’ve encountered some technology providers who want you to know all about how their solution is the best for it. But first, you’ll need to know what it is and whether it’s useful for your business.

Have you ever wondered where all the overhead in your business is coming from? Transaction costs might be to blame, but luckily there are things you can do to minimize these. Lean methodology holds the keys to reducing the most readily addressable issues affecting transaction costs in your business.

You’ve likely heard the forecasts  of an impending recession. Some people might even have warned you of the possibility of a depression. We’re in no place to make a judgment on whether or not these predictions will come true, but we do know what you can do to prepare, just in case.

The skilled labor shortage has been a persistent problem in manufacturing for some time now. What’s causing this, and how do we fix it?

You’ll sometimes hear inventory referred to as “crystallized capacity,” the idea being that when you have limited capacity, building inventory is a solution that helps you meet customer demand. The typical example is a seasonal business, like a manufacturer of skiing equipment. 

Automotive manufacturing is not immune to the challenges facing the rest of the supply chain. Volatility is common in manufacturing and certain variables, such as geopolitical uncertainty, are often out of the circle of control. However, two of the most common struggles which can be affected are labor and the supply chain. If you sample a group of manufacturers, those two topics will come up over and over.

Flexibility and agility are two words that are often used interchangeably, but there are important distinctions between them. Knowing the difference can guide how and when you focus your time and energy to strengthen your business.

Reshoring is a hot topic due to the shocks to the supply chain over the past few years. Maybe you’re considering reshoring, but aren’t sure if it will be worth the trouble. What are the benefits of reshoring which so many people are saying you should be doing?

The next evolution of manufacturing will be true “lot size one” and will respond in real time to customer demands. Real-time agile manufacturing will require new approaches to production, including how labor capacity is managed, how production occurs (i.e. additive manufacturing, asset-light manufacturing), and how the supply chain is arranged (i.e. decentralized manufacturing).

While piecework is not as common as it used to be, perhaps you’re wondering if it would work in your business. For Lean practitioners especially, it’s important to consider how this would impact the culture of your workplace. Will workers still function as teams? Will productivity change?

The future of manufacturing is localized, agile, asset-light, and focused on customization to meet each customer’s preference.

There are many reasons you might be lacking labor capacity to meet the day’s demand. Workforce burnout, sick employees, religious accommodations, PTO, and a tight labor market are all common causes of labor capacity fluctuations.

Value stream mapping seems like a cryptic artificial constraint to the outsider, but it can actually be a powerful tool for your business. If you get past seeing this as a documentation exercise and explore the possibilities it exposes for operational improvements, you’ll see how a value stream map is worth your time.

The future of manufacturing is localized, agile, asset-light, and focused on customization to meet each customer’s preference.

Local workforces are a microcosm of the overall state of the labor market. In a tight labor market, the local workforces often feel it most strongly. When a large employer moves into town, this often causes a shift in the workforce that can be quite disruptive. A concept known as the Dutch Disease can reveal some insights into how to deal with this issue.

Veryable won the MHI Innovation Award for Best IT Innovation, awarded March 30, 2022 at MHI Industry Night at MODEX. Veryable’s on-demand labor marketplace competed with many other participants and won based on the concept, value, and impact as judged by professionals from the material handling and supply chain industry.

Many people know about the two pillars of the Toyota Production System (TPS): just-in-time and jidoka, and they probably know the two principles of TPS – continuous improvement and respect for people.

The future of manufacturing is localized, agile, asset-light, and focused on customization to meet each customer’s preference.

On March 14, 2022, the Eastern District Court of Texas reinstated a Trump-era rule which clarifies the worker classification test used to determine whether individuals are independent contractors or employees under federal law.

Data maturity is a skill which, just like any other skill, requires an initial foundation of knowledge and practice with incremental advancement until excellence is achieved.

In this blog, we’ll provide a solution to a common problem across all industries: insufficient standardization, leading to quality issues and inconsistent throughput rates.

Everyone faces turnover at some point. Knowing your turnover rate enables you to properly manage your labor capacity by taking action to address your labor needs.

Blockchain has been a hot topic since 2017, although most probably know about the technology because of the craze around cryptocurrencies. However, companies have started to pursue other uses for the technology in supply chains, such as material tracing. You might have heard of big players such as Walmart using the blockchain to trace food, but what does this mean for small businesses in the supply chain?

Kaizen is a term you’ll hear thrown out casually in conversation with many manufacturing leaders. If you’ve been using context clues to get by this far, you’ve likely figured out that it has something to do with always improving. So what exactly is kaizen, and why are people talking about it?

Want a real challenge? I challenge you to find a factory with more than 20 people that doesn’t at least try to apply 5S.

You’ve probably encountered a scenario in which you needed to stop production to solve an issue causing defects. And you probably lost more productivity than you would have liked, especially if you didn't find out about it until a few hours later when someone casually mentioned the problem at the water cooler like it was common knowledge.

Lean companies talk about “respect for people'' as a key piece of the Lean mindset, but what does it mean? It means that those who are closest to the process and add value are the true experts when it comes to rapid and sustained kaizen and that the role of managers is to develop and empower them. 

Imagine yourself sitting at a table, attempting to complete a puzzle blindfolded. Without the use of your eyes, you find your hands scrambling around the table, hopelessly feeling edges and shoving pieces together at random. With the use of your eyes, the information needed to complete the task efficiently is clear, like where the colors match and where they don’t.

Stacking inventory as a buffer is a common practice, but it often goes too far. In the worst cases, businesses produce everything ahead of time and then hope to sell it all, only to find that engineering made an urgent modification to the product or that the forecasts were way off.

From metaverse to augmented reality, these terms are spinning a bunch of buzz around them, but what do they really mean? There continues to be a lot of discussion around augmented reality in manufacturing. However, we have not seen a breakthrough use case to date that has uncovered a trove of value creation.

There are likely many times you’ve encountered problems that arose from something being unclear. Communication is key, as the saying goes. That’s where visual management comes in.

One of the first steps toward adopting the Lean methodology is implementing the five S’s. You might have heard of these before, but we’re going to make it clear what these terms are, what they mean, and how you can use the 5S methodology to set a strong foundation for future operational improvements.

Companies often ask us why we only focus on providing our on-demand labor marketplace for the manufacturing and logistics industries in the United States.

Delivering on time and including everything the customer ordered are key to succeeding in the supply chain. So how should you measure your performance in this area?

You’ve seen the headlines and heard the talking points on what’s happening in the labor market in the US. But what does this mean for you as someone in manufacturing and logistics, and more importantly, how can you adapt to this reality and come out stronger on the other side?

If you say “we only want to hire full-time employees,” then you’ve probably been burned by temp staffing or aren’t aware of all the options for finding workers to get work done in your facility. Keeping your labor capacity at the right level is a big problem to solve, and if you expect better results, you’re going to need to change your methods.

It can be daunting to select an IIoT platform when you’re on your digital transformation journey. The good news is, your transformation won’t happen overnight, so there’s plenty of time to pick the right solution.

Have you ever gone through the steps of a process and thought, “Wow, that was easy”? If you have, there’s a chance that poka-yoke was involved. There’s a common refrain that good design goes unnoticed. Maybe that’s why you haven’t heard of poka-yoke until just now.

We’ve narrowed down the leaders in the maintenance management software realm and compared them to help you decide which one works best for your business.

When your orders come in for the next day and you see that it’s your pickiest customer with a bigger request than usual, you need a plan fast. And when your orders slim back down, you don’t want to pay people to stand around waiting for work.

In recent months, some supply chain thinkers have all but blamed lean inventory levels for the challenges and delays the world has faced in 2020 and 2021.

When your warehouse is buzzing and nobody has much time to stop and analyze the situation, you need a way to quickly see where everything is and then direct the work to get it done. That’s where warehouse management systems come in.

Perhaps you’ve heard of process lead time, a common metric in manufacturing that gives you an idea of how long you’ll have to wait on a widget if you start working on it right now. But you might not know that it’s closely related to a queue theory concept called Little’s Law.

When you need to know what to produce, how much of it to produce, and what order to produce it in, you have a couple ways to approach the problem. You can push through orders and create piles of inventory, or you can pull orders continuously to keep your production flowing smoothly.

It’s important to know which actions will drive results, especially when there’s so much noise. Being able to narrow down your to-do list to what matters is a crucial skill for doing work that matters in today’s world.

Back in early 2020, I published a couple articles aimed at encouraging US Manufacturers to stay the course and go on the offensive while global supply chains hemorrhaged amidst geopolitical turmoil. Now is the Time to Take it Back and Manufacturing Companies, Keep the Faith and Soldier On were calls to action during a time of great confusion and chaos – periods which have consistently proven to be the right time to rise above the noise and come out on the winning side.

Automation, whether robots or co-bots, are drawing a lot of attention these days with the 43.7% growth of e-commerce and the increasing fulfillment needs across a number of industries and consumer categories.  We’ve all heard the familiar refrain that automation is taking over in manufacturing and logistics, but that has not been the case due to offshoring versus automation.  

You need to meet customer demands, but you also have to plan your production properly to make sure you’re working profitably. This is a tall task, and luckily, people in your shoes have already tried many approaches to solving this problem.

Are you making the most of the data available to you in your Veryable portal? When used properly, you can see how many workers you’ll need, what your efficiency targets should be, and how much value you’re creating for your company.

As an operations leader in today’s hypercompetitive landscape, you’re always on the lookout for ways to reduce lead times to better satisfy internal stakeholders and, ultimately, delight the customer. In a volatile time with so many supply chain disruptions, the companies able to put products on shelves and in carts are the ones that get orders.

As a company decision-maker, you know that continuous improvement is critical to competing, and digitization is all but required to win in today’s market. However, stakeholders don’t always agree on the best way forward. Often the introduction of any new technology to your long-standing operations is a battle, and buy-in at all levels is necessary to maximize value creation.

There’s a good reason you hear about Lean, Six Sigma, and probably Lean Six Sigma all the time as a manufacturing leader. It’s a powerful way to manage your production, and so contagious that proud practitioners of this method often include their certification next to their names like doctors or lawyers.

US manufacturing has a problem. It’s not attracting enough workers, and its output lags behind where it needs to be if we are going to bring productive power back onto our shores en masse. What would otherwise be a simple equation has become muddled with variables and complexities that leave us worse off, as the global supply chain has shown us in the past year. US manufacturing is stuck in a giant Rube Goldberg machine, propped up by tinier complexities at the individual facility level.

You’ve been here before: operations seem to be doing just fine, until you check the numbers and see that output is not keeping pace. You should be taking on more orders, but you’re having trouble keeping up with the ones you have. So what do you do?

The following list of manufacturing execution software (MES) will help you choose the right tool for getting a clear picture of what’s going on inside your operation, so you can wrangle it under your control to achieve greater business results.

Implementing heijunka to level your production is a longstanding approach to manufacturing. However, it can bog down your business when it is used as a self-imposed, artificial constraint on production.

Quality is a qualifier for keeping business. The balancing act between cost, speed, and quality isn’t easy. Luckily, you still have control of your situation and can take action to save your operation from quality issues.

Manufacturing has long had the concept of a “digital twin” of physical facilities and their machines. The consumer-oriented version of this concept has been branded the “metaverse” and is catching on among Silicon Valley figureheads and social media companies.

If you’re a food manufacturer, you deal with products that become worthless if they aren’t delivered on time. On top of that, there are angry people at the other end of the supply chain who will face hangry customers if they can’t stock their shelves. Who wants to lose money and get an earful about it?

Ideally, your production process would achieve single piece flow and there would be no need for managing the process with a system for tracking what is where, and how much is needed. But because we don’t live in a perfect world, you will have to choose a system for managing your production process.

Transitioning from paper manuals to digital work instructions might not seem like a big deal, but this is an important step into the future of manufacturing.

So you want to grow your business, but you aren’t sure you can because of cash flow constraints. This problem plagues many companies, so you aren’t alone. This is an issue that US manufacturing as a whole needs to solve to maintain competitiveness.

Maybe you’ve heard of critical path project management, but what about critical chain project management? You might be wondering what the advantages could be of this project management approach.

Every company that sells something online knows the pain of watching returns roll in. It’s just part of the business. But companies that are new to selling online or that have experienced a recent increase in volume from online orders might not have a strong system in place yet for handling all its reverse logistics.

Most operations leaders know that service is the number one differentiator between suppliers. If you can consistently deliver on time and in full, you will win customers. On the other hand, if you can’t do those things, don’t hold your breath waiting for new customers and don’t expect to keep the ones you have for very long.

One day you might get a rush order and need to work around the clock until the next morning to fulfill the request. And if the print job is for an event, the customer is not going to be happy about delays, meaning you’ll get an earful about how they don’t need the signs anymore because they can’t go back in time.

Maybe you’re familiar with just-in-time as a concept, but what’s this about a just-in-time workforce?

You’re no stranger to logistics if you’ve implemented a micro-fulfillment strategy. It’s not easy to pull off ship from store operations and the like. There are often wildly different order volumes from day to day, and as eCommerce grows, things are only going to get more hectic.

You’ve likely been here before: you get an order that’s unusually large from your customer. And then another customer, and another customer. So you take that as a sign that demand has increased for your product, and you order enough supplies to sustain this level of demand based on your forecasts. Then a couple weeks later, your demand has settled back to its average level. What happened?

Far too often operations leaders view ‘the supply chain’ as an endless cost center rather than an opportunity to gain an edge on their competitors. Because of this, misconceptions over supply chain decisions handcuff organizations from improving operations & ultimately improving business outcomes.

There are tons of opportunities right now in manufacturing and warehousing. Maybe you’ve thought about expanding your resume into these areas of work, but you didn’t know how to get started, or whether it would be worth your time.

You’ve been there before: volume has suddenly dropped off a cliff, after months of hiring staff to meet a big surge. You’re left with more employees than you have the work for, and it’s eating a hole in your margins. The situation might be bad enough that you have to let people go.

If you’ve shopped online lately and ordered from a major retail store, you’ve probably received an order that was shipped from the store.

So you need workers now, but you aren’t sure if you’re ready to hire anyone yet. Maybe the need for workers won’t last, or maybe you would rather test the waters with any newcomers before extending an offer of full-time employment.

You’ve found that some parts of your operation move more slowly than others. And you’ve done what you can to work around it. It might seem like common sense adjustments to you, but the topic goes deeper than it seems on the surface.

You’re likely all too familiar with the annual busy season your operation faces. The long hours. The overtime. The circus of staffing up in preparation for it.

Maintenance isn’t what most people think of when they think of getting work done. It’s right up there with washing dishes, at the top of the list of things people let slide until they can’t ignore it anymore. However, savvy operations leaders know how important it is to stay on top of equipment maintenance proactively.

Micro-fulfillment is gaining traction in the supply chain as a viable strategy. You’ve probably seen it in headlines, and whether you know it or not, you’ve almost certainly shopped somewhere that’s operating a micro-fulfillment center. So what’s this all about?

You’ve probably seen Craigslist show up in search results for … well, anything you could want to buy. The Craigslist website was one of the early power players on the Internet, and still has staying power today. So does that mean the Gigs section of Craigslist is the right way for you to find work?

You’d like to add capacity and capabilities to your organization, but it’s not clear the best way to do this. Staff augmentation sounds like it might be a solution, but the term doesn’t make it immediately clear what this is or how it works.

Staff augmentation is a broad category, but does it include Veryable?

You’ve bid on your first Op, and when your phone lit up with the notification that your bid was accepted, you felt a little excited and a little nervous. You want to do your best on your first Op to make a great impression, but you aren’t sure how this whole thing works just yet.

Managing distribution at a beverage company can be a wild ride at times. You have high demand, a fragile product, and quick turnarounds to manage, all while trying to keep employees happy.

Keeping track of all the company’s employees is hard work. At times it seems like you won’t be able to get everyone where you need them to be. And it feels like all the work isn’t going to get done.

You’ve seen the words “pick and pack” floating around on job boards or in work descriptions, but what exactly does that mean?

Companies in the US have faced challenges finding workers for the past few years. This is partially due to the pandemic, but inflation, commodity prices, and shifting expectations about work are trends that will continue to make the labor market challenging.

It’s unfortunate, but sometimes a worker is going to leave you out to dry. When you found them through an on-demand labor platform like Veryable’s, there are a few things you can do in this case.

You’ve heard how easy it is to post an Op on Veryable, but it’s obvious that your involvement with the platform doesn’t end there. So what comes next when you’re using an on-demand labor platform?

When you need workers, you don’t want to spend so long finding them that it slows your business down. At the same time, you want to take time to vet candidates so that you get good workers instead of bad apples. So how do you balance these two priorities?

So you find yourself understaffed. It happens to everyone, especially when it’s hard to find workers and the labor market is competitive.

Imagine this: you drive in to work expecting everyone to show up for their shift and planning how you’re going to finally get ahead for a day and start tackling your backlog. Then when you get to the morning huddle, two of your 20 employees aren’t there. This ruins the productive day you had envisioned.

Whether you are a business or an Operator on the Veryable platform, one of the first things you’ll notice is the Operator reliability rating. That sounds like something you’d want to score highly on, but what does it mean?

You’ve heard of Veryable and you’ve heard of on-demand staffing solutions. What you might not have known is that the two are different in a few key ways.

The past year has presented many challenges in the supply chain. A boom in e-commerce, unemployment fluctuation, labor participation, and commodity prices have contributed heavily to the volatility of the economy.

Imagine it’s the busiest month of the year and you can’t take on any more orders because your employees are maxed out with their workload. You’ve all had your fill of overtime and if anyone has to call out, you don’t know how you’ll make it through the week.

As someone in charge of who comes in and out of your building every day, you’re rightfully concerned about their safety and anything that might jeopardize that. There’s a lot of thought put into who you hire and work with every day, because the right people make a big difference.

Your operation cannot seem to get over the workforce hump and hit its stride because people keep walking out the door, which is holding back productivity and preventing you from growing the business. Across the United States, distribution and fulfillment centers are experiencing turnover rates of 50% on average, while others are experiencing even more dramatic turnover rates approaching 100%. 

You’ve probably wondered before what the best way is to attract workers to your business with on-demand labor. It’s not always easy to tell, especially if you’re used to scheduling workers by the week like most companies are. However, on-demand labor gives you the option to post daily work opportunities, so how are you supposed to know when to use this option?

Your organization likely shares a common thread with most others – the goal of making a profit. This may be your goal for its own sake, or your organization may need to generate profits to enable its pursuit of other goals. You’ve probably got things that are holding you back from this, but sometimes it’s hard to know what these constraints are and how to eliminate them.

We’ve talked to hundreds of operations leaders, so we know you probably think that on-demand labor will take a long time to set up and test. If you’ve worked with traditional staffing agencies, you’ve probably spent hours just getting started. And that time doesn’t even reflect the whole process happening behind the scenes that you didn’t have control over.

If you’ve used Veryable, then you’ve had to select workers for your Ops. If you haven’t used Veryable, you might be used to staffing agencies selecting workers for you. Maybe you’ve asked yourself why Veryable doesn’t select workers when staffing companies do.

If you’ve looked for labor on a short-term basis before, you’ve probably used temp staffing. So when you heard of Veryable, we’re guessing your first thought might have been something like, “How is this different from temp staffing?”

So you’ve started using on-demand labor and found a worker you are particularly impressed by. You might be asking yourself if it’s okay to hire this person, or if it will cost you anything to do so. 

Sometimes businesses aren’t seeing the results they wanted from on-demand labor. While some things are certainly out of your control, we know that there are best practices that you can follow to be sure you’re doing everything to get the performance you want.

In a perfect world, each Operator you accept will be exactly who you need to support your Operations. While there are thousands of great, highly skilled, and reliable Operators working on the Veryable platform, you might encounter some others that are not a great fit at your business. 

Maybe you’ve heard of on-demand labor and you thought it sounds like a great solution for finding workers when you need them. But what goals can you achieve in a logistics operation with on-demand labor?

So you’ve heard of on-demand labor, and you’re almost ready to try it out, but first you want to know what type of work these workers can actually do. Maybe you’re looking for specialized workers, but you don’t have a need often enough to hire someone full-time. Or maybe you’re looking to support your existing skilled workers by bringing in workers to help with setup and cleanup tasks.

If your company regularly gives out overtime and your workers have come to expect it, you might be hesitant to adopt any solution that would wipe this away for fear that your employees would get upset about their lost income and quit. Likewise, if you’re already having employee satisfaction problems, you might hesitate to test the waters with any labor solution that might cause concern about job security.

So you’ve logged into Veryable, seen bids on your Op, and you’re wondering if you should pick the “Ready to Work” Operators without any ratings yet. Maybe you asked yourself, “Are they a risky pick? How often do new workers turn out to be reliable?”

So you’ve started using on-demand labor, but you’re not so sure about how many people you should be adding to your labor pool. Maybe someone told you a number that was so high it shocked you, or maybe you’ve been flying solo and don’t know what you should be aiming for.

Once you heard of on-demand labor and the concept of a labor pool, your next thought was probably something along the lines of “That sounds great, but how long does it take?”

Uncertainty is plaguing everyone’s world view now with how the past year has unfolded and how that will project forward into the future. One thing is for certain, top operations leaders share similar concerns as they evaluate their business driving into 2021. In this recent Supply Chain Dive opinion poll, executive leaders voted on their top concerns:  

Sure, on-demand labor sounds like a great solution for finding workers when you need them. But what business goals can you achieve with on-demand labor?

A big question many managers have when they hear of on-demand labor is if it really means workers will show up at the push of a button. 

You’ve heard the term labor pool and have an idea of what it is, but now you are likely wondering: what level of commitment is needed, and is it worth it for me and my business?

Operations leaders across the country are wrestling with the issue of balancing their daily execution with finding time to drive operational improvements. The truth is that creating a labor pool is something we’ve seen plenty of clients utilize to solve this problem. The other truth is that creating a labor pool is a bonafide change to the way that most businesses have viewed their labor force, which is understandably a reason to be skeptical.

At Veryable, we operate an on-demand labor platform to solve the need for efficiently responding to changes in customer demand. We understand that this isn’t for everyone, but by the end of this blog you will be better equipped to make that determination for your business.

The big question is: should building a labor pool be an operational improvement priority?

When someone first hears about on-demand labor and the concept of a labor pool, they often think they can get out of the hiring game for good. It can be confusing at first when you’re trying to balance managing your full-time workforce and building a flexible labor pool alongside it, so the temptation is to just choose one or the other. We get asked if people should stop hiring completely once they build their labor pool to a large enough size to cover all their work. 

Getting started with on-demand labor in your operation can go smoothly or it can go very poorly. You’re probably wondering what the best strategy is for getting the most out of an on-demand labor platform like Veryable, so you can avoid spending your time to get less-than-optimal results.

So you’re new to on-demand labor, and you end up hitting a roadblock that you weren’t expecting. You’re excited about the potential of Veryable for your business, but aren’t so sure any more. What now?

When thinking through your operation and how to best organize it to complete the work, you’ve most likely weighed prioritizing labor productivity rates versus prioritizing labor availability. This is actually a critical question, and one with implications on customer service that are not fully appreciated across an operation. 

The safety of the people working in your building is a top priority. You’ve probably spent considerable time and money ensuring that your operations are safe and accident rates stay as low as possible. So it’s natural that you’d be concerned about safety when bringing in people you haven’t worked with before.

You’ve probably reached what you thought was the limit of how far your cycle times could be reduced. And when that happens, you start to wonder if there’s something else to be done so that you can deliver to the customer faster and quit feeling like you’re treading water just to stay afloat. 

You’re probably wondering where the workers for an on-demand labor marketplace like ours come from. You might be thinking, if they specialize in manufacturing work, why would they be using an app to find short-term engagements at many businesses instead of working full-time at one business?

If you’ve ever managed an operation in manufacturing or logistics, you’ve noticed that some workers get more done than others. You’ve likely heard jokes justifying a slow pace of work by saying “I’m paid by the hour.” People say there is always a bit of truth in a joke, so what’s the truth in the difference between being paid by the hour and being paid based on what’s actually accomplished?

You probably think you can’t afford to pay employees any more than you already do. It makes sense on the surface, but digging deeper, you have to ask what you could gain if you paid more and how that might affect your stance.

Imagine you are starting your morning on a Tuesday. You’ve got a cup of coffee and everyone is rolling up to work so you can push out a big order by the end of the week. Just as you’re leaving your office, you hear the phone ring. The call is for a big order that’s way above what you forecast for the week. 

When you shop for something, you look for ratings and reviews by other people. In the age of the Internet, that’s just how it goes. But even before the Internet, word of mouth was how people decided between Bill’s shop or Bob’s. 

There are three words that scare operations managers everywhere: free two-day delivery. This phrase wraps up the Amazon effect and slaps a bow on it. Customers are starting to expect reliable on-time delivery of whatever goods they want with little extra cost, and they’re expecting it to happen faster than ever before.

The idea of automation in manufacturing has caused many people to sound the alarm about potential job elimination, and for others it sounds like a necessary step toward more efficient production and less labor-intensive processes. There are strong opinions about automation that differ depending on who you ask. But one thing is clear: automation is already picking up speed.

If you’ve been in management long, you’ve probably encountered a situation where you suspected a worker of drug use. And if you’ve been tasked with hiring employees or selecting independent contractors, you have weighed the decision of whether to drug screen before the work or wait to see if something gives you cause for concern.

That’s a big, costly decision. So how do you decide?

It’s a huge ordeal to move into a new facility. Manufacturing leaders have spent many long nights worrying about the details of this kind of project, so we’ve provided a guide on what to do when you’re moving manufacturing facilities.

US Manufacturing is lagging behind the overall economy in growth, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s Purchasing Managers Index (PMI). The sector is seeing limited growth, however, with a PMI above 60%. 

In today’s world, Lean is being challenged as never before due to higher customer requirements and the digital revolution of Industry 4.0. The challenge to keep up in the landscape leads to the questions: Are Lean principles in conflict with the digitization that is Industry 4.0? Are Lean principles in conflict with serving your customer in the manner in which they have requested? The short answer is mostly no, and we’ll dig into the alignments and variances below. But, in order to keep up in today’s world, Lean does need to evolve to match today’s quick response, digital environment.

As with any new tool, you want to be certain you’re getting the most from your investment when using Veryable to find on-demand labor. 

If you find yourself overstaffed, it’s probably because at some point in the year, you will need the number of workers that you have. You don’t want to get caught understaffed when a big project comes up, so you take what seems like the lesser of two evils and hire more people than you really need throughout the rest of the year. 

When you need more workers to get the job done, but you know you won’t need their help in a few months or even weeks, that’s a tough spot to be in from a hiring perspective. Thus the temp agency was born. But what exactly does a temp agency do, and how can it help your business?

It’s something manufacturing leaders dream about: one day, a huge order comes in for your products, and you’ll be sitting on a gold mine once you ship everything out to your happy customers. Depending on how prepared your company is to handle the spike in demand, this could sound like a good dream or a nightmare.

You’ve probably heard of Lean before. It’s the thing everyone is talking about, but nobody seems to be able to explain when you ask them about it. Is it a book? Can you do it without a teacher? Do you have to join a club to learn its secrets?

No matter how hard you try, it seems like the busy season throws more at your business than you’re prepared to handle. Every year, it’s a scramble to grab the extra cash that’s being thrown your way if you can meet your customers’ seemingly insatiable, seasonal demand for that precious period of time.

If you’ve used on-demand labor for a while, you’ve probably heard the concept of a labor pool mentioned at least once. And maybe you’ve decided you want to implement this model at your business, but you’re thinking it can’t just be as simple as “build a labor pool.” What does that even mean?

It is difficult to understand how much money different forms of hiring will truly cost your company. What most people really want to know is whether you should handle it all yourself, or pay someone to manage some or all of your hiring. Many even wonder if they should choose another option entirely, like staffing agencies or on-demand labor.

When you’re first looking into on-demand labor, it’s a bit intimidating to consider all the ways this new model might or might not work for your business. You probably want to know what might go wrong. Even if you’re not thinking about it now, we know it’s important for you to be aware of the problems that could exist with a solution like ours. 

When you’re planning for the year ahead, trying to match up your labor to an unpredictable demand cycle creates frustration that is often palpable. Maybe you have lofty goals to meet, but have limited resources. You want to capture all of the demand you can without over-hiring. But how do you do that without perfectly predicting the future?

You’ve heard of on-demand labor, and maybe you’ve been looking for a solution to add flexibility to your operations. But it isn’t always easy to take those first few steps. So, what’s the right way to start using on-demand labor?

Scaling your manufacturing business is hard work. You know that you will have to spend money to achieve this goal, but maybe you aren’t sure where your money would produce the greatest return on investment. Perhaps you’re even wondering if there are ways to scale without spending.

Confusing rules around worker classification might have kept you away from engaging with independent contractors before, but now that the regulations are being made more clear, maybe you’re ready to try it.

It’s that time of year when every business that engages in the holiday retail dash is ramping up operations. Everybody is competing to hire hundreds of thousands of seasonal workers to meet holiday demand.

But some parts of the seasonal hiring are way different in 2020. The coronavirus has expanded the timeline for the holiday dash beyond the traditional timeframe. Scaling up to capture your share of the increased demand during this season is a huge boost for many businesses. If you’re hoping to fill higher order volumes in Q4 this year, you likely find yourself asking, “How can I compete in the holiday hiring spree?”

Operations managers are facing labor issues daily related to recruiting, retention, utilization, and performance. Maybe you are facing these challenges and making trade-offs so you have the right amount of labor to meet your production schedule. Doing so is a balancing act that requires some out-of-the-box thinking.

Have you ever stared ahead at a busy next week and just knew that it will be a challenge with overtime on the rise, and the very real possibility of people taking unscheduled days off? If so, you’re not alone. Solutions to these problems have typically been to allow overtime to rise or risk customer dissatisfaction by pushing out customer promise dates.

As an Operations Leader, you’re tasked with keeping products moving efficiently through your operation. But, half the time you are putting out fires related to missed deliveries, extended lead times, and rework - which probably originated with workforce issues related to turnover and callouts.

You know that as soon as a few individuals don’t show up for work one morning, you’re thrown into scramble mode to cover their shifts and redistribute the work. Unfortunately, this can lead to missed deadlines, and your key performance indicators are shot for the week. 

If you’re in manufacturing or logistics, you understand how important balancing labor costs and productivity is to meeting your goals. Pricing models for on-demand labor can be confusing, and businesses like yours need to know if this new labor model can cut costs and fuel growth. Maybe you’re asking yourself if it’s even worth looking into on-demand labor.