In today's volatile environment, leaders face unprecedented pressure to deliver more with less. Production targets increase while budgets shrink. Customer expectations rise as market conditions fluctuate. Yet across countless shop floors and DC's, the response remains frustratingly predictable: double down on what's always been done and hope for different results. This type of response, not to oversimplify it, is a result of poor leadership. Having been in this position before, I know that this could put you in a spot where you may feel helpless. But like my Dad says, "When you don't have leaders, be a leader".
There's a profound difference between management and leadership. Managers execute existing processes and maintain the status quo. Leaders chart new paths forward especially when existing approaches fail. Unfortunately, manufacturing and distribution has historically favored rigid management over bold leadership, often to its detriment. Consider these common scenarios:
What these scenarios share is a fundamental adaptability problem. Traditional models treat labor as a fixed resource in a world of dynamic demand. This square-peg-round-hole approach persists not because it works, but because "it's how we've always done it."
Pictured above is an AI generated image that depicts a blindfolded person holding a watering can labeled "Innovation" and attempting to pour it into an empty clay pot, while another blindfolded person watches with the caption reading: "Blindly applying resources to an empty vessel...hope, without strategic direction, yields no growth". This image captures the reality in many operations today. Well-intentioned leaders invest in new technologies, additional workers, or process improvements, but without visibility into exactly where those resources should be directed, they're essentially pouring innovation onto barren soil that doesn't produce the intended results.
Perfect example, while digging into an operation of a local furniture manufacturer, department managers would request additional staff based on their back-of-the-napkin math rather than data. The result? Some departments were consistently overstaffed while others struggled with critical bottlenecks. The plant manager would approve overtime for struggling areas, while fully-paid workers sat idle in others - all because they lacked visibility into their true labor utilization across the operation.
This blindfolded approach to workforce management isn't just inefficient - it's financially ruinous. Without real-time data on where labor is needed and where it isn't, operations end up simultaneously experiencing labor shortages and labor waste. They water some areas excessively while others wither from neglect.
This is where Veryable's Workforce Management (WFM) software can help eliminate this blindfolded guesswork by providing complete visibility into labor needs, capacity, and utilization across every department. WFM enables operations leaders to see exactly where resources should be allocated, how each department is performing, and where idle time exists that should be redistributed. In addition, it saves valuable time by pulling all relevant data from your WMS/ERP, HRIS, Skills Matrix, and more into a centralized dashboard allowing you to make accurate data-driven decisions to improve efficiency and drive cost out. Remove the blindfold and schedule a demo today!
Hope isn't a strategy. Hoping that tomorrow's demand will perfectly align with the labor plan you put together isn't just ineffective-it's expensive. Operations that lack flexibility and responsiveness incur significant and often hidden costs:
These costs accumulate over time, gradually eroding competitiveness until a business finds itself wondering how the market left them behind.
True operational leaders recognize when traditional approaches no longer serve the business. They understand that excellence doesn't come from working harder within broken systems - it comes from fundamentally reimagining how those systems function.
For example, one Midwest manufacturing company facing volatile market conditions almost a year ago saw the strategic imperative to change their operational approach. While they didn't immediately implement Veryable's flexible labor strategy, they carefully evaluated their options through multiple discussions with "solution" providers. Ultimately, they committed to making Veryable's on-demand labor platform and strategies a core component of their operations and workforce management strategy ahead of 2025. This strategic foresight gave them confidence to cut deeper during necessary workforce reductions than they otherwise would have, knowing they could scale quickly when needed with Veryable's on-demand marketplace. The results have been transformative: they've maintained current volumes with their right-sized operation and flex up only when additional volume demands it, building in the capability to response when (not if) the levy breaks.
In today's "feast or famine" environment, they're seeing tremendous value from this commitment to Veryable's platform and strategies. Rather than saddling themselves with fixed costs during volatile market conditions, they've built true capability into their operations - scaling precisely with demand, delivering consistently on service, and doing so with the lowest possible cost structure. Most importantly, they've positioned themselves to capture growth that their less than agile competitors simply cannot pursue.
"Now is not a good time for us"....it's a response we get often and it couldn't be further from the truth. Forward-thinking leaders are abandoning hope-based strategies in favor of operational agility because they know the road ahead requires it. You don't build a boat once the flood comes, you build it now and thank God you did when the flood comes. This approach recognizes that in today's landscape:
Fortune favors the bold. The most progressive operations are building what some call "operational elasticity" - the ability to expand and contract labor in precise alignment with demand. Veryable is the only platform that can help you transform the historically fixed cost of production capacity into a variable cost that scales in direct proportion to output, giving operations leaders both the on-demand labor marketplace and workforce management tools they need to achieve true operational agility.
If you're facing pressure to deliver better results while using the same outdated approaches, remember that hope is not a strategy. Real leaders don't just execute existing playbooks - they write new ones when circumstances demand it.
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