Automation Isn’t Replacing Warehouse Teams Anytime Soon

Culture can sound like one of those things that belongs in an employee handbook or on a poster in the break room. Important internally, perhaps, but what does it have to do with the company trusting a 3PL to fulfill thousands of customer orders? Quite a lot, actually. Inside a warehouse, culture quietly influences how people communicate when an order goes wrong, whether someone feels comfortable raising a concern before it becomes a larger problem, how seriously teams take the details of a customer's account, and whether employees see themselves as simply completing a task or taking responsibility for an outcome. Customers may never witness those interactions, but they experience the consequences of them every day. At Barrett Distribution Centers, that connection between culture and customer experience is intentional. Adam Robertson, Vice President of Customer Experience, describes it as something that begins with leadership and travels throughout the organization. “Culture that comes all the way from the top. Our vision statement is to wow our customers. That comes from the top.” Culture Eventually Finds Its Way to the Customer Think about everything that can happen between an order being placed and a package reaching someone's doorstep. There are systems communicating, inventory being located, products being picked, packaging decisions being made, carrier requirements being followed, and people responding when something does not go exactly according to plan. Technology supports that work, but people bring it to life. For Barrett, the guiding vision is to “WOW our customers, partners, and fellow employees with every interaction.” The company's five core values build on that idea through continuous improvement, integrity, dedication to the customer, ownership, and open and honest relationships. Those values become especially meaningful when fulfillment gets complicated. During an easy day, almost any operation can look impressive. What happens during the difficult one? When volume unexpectedly increases, a retailer requirement changes, an inventory question appears, or a customer needs an answer quickly, the habits established within a company begin to show. Does someone take ownership? Do teams communicate openly? Are people willing to raise their hands and solve the problem? That is culture in practice. Give People a Reason to Care About the Outcome Interestingly, one of Barrett's core values is “I Am an Owner.” Barrett operates with an open book philosophy, sharing financial results with employees and allowing them to participate in the company's success when financial goals are achieved. The idea is larger than financial transparency. Barrett wants employees to think and behave with the responsibility of an owner. That sense of involvement has been reinforced through Barrett's participation in The Great Game of Business for the past 20 years. Weekly huddles, forecasting, scoreboards, and other practices give employees greater visibility into how the company performs and how their individual work contributes to a larger result.

Every 3PL can build an impressive presentation. You can review technology, locations, capabilities, services, and carefully selected photographs of the operation, all without ever stepping inside the building. Those details matter, of course, but they only tell part of the story. What happens when you leave the presentation behind and actually walk through the warehouse? Almost immediately, fulfillment becomes more tangible. Instead of hearing how an operation works, you can watch it unfold around you. Inventory is being received, orders are moving through the building, teams are communicating, and the people who could eventually be responsible for your products are doing the work right in front of you. For a prospective customer, that experience can reveal far more than another slide ever could. That philosophy is one of the reasons Barrett Distribution Centers hosts open houses. Mary Glenn, Director of Business Development at Barrett, recently reflected on Barrett's Memphis open house and explained that the intention was never to bring prospective customers into a building just to deliver another sales presentation. “This wasn’t going to be a sales pitch. This wasn’t going to be, you know, come and get PowerPointed to death.”