FEATURED CLIENT: GENESCO, INC.
Genesco Inc., a specialty shoe, apparel and accessories retailer, including the brands, Journey’s, Johnston & Murphy, Hatworld, Lids, Underground Station, Journey’s Kidz and Shi, opened doors to its new, semi-automated distribution facility in 2002. The facility was designed and geared toward servicing over 1100 retail stores, replaced their previous fifty-year old facility, and has the ability to accommodate significant future growth. Genesco selected a tier one warehouse management system to better utilize their modern equipment and updated processes. Genesco had seen successful implementation of piecework incentives in their manufacturing facilities for years, but wanted to lever the information provided by their new WMS to advance a performance-focused culture in their dynamic distribution environment.
Genesco’s operations team engaged consultants from XCD Performance Consulting, labor management strategy, planning and implementation specialists, to assist by developing a comprehensive labor management program for all their distribution operations. Possessing very capable IT resources, Genesco decided to develop their own custom labor management software program to hook into their WMS. Using XCD’s functional expertise, the IT team was able to develop a robust tool for gathering and tracking key performance indicators in real-time, calculating performance at the individual and team level, reporting performance and developing exception tools to identify operational issues.
XCD worked with Genesco in simplifying, streamlining and standardizing operations to drive out non-value added functions and cost. This process, coupled with engineering, leadership workshops, supervisor and associate training, laid the groundwork for a significant improvement in productivity and asset utilization. In addition, the tenacious sponsorship from Genesco management and on-site change execution from XCD, earned associate confidence in the program. This commitment and buy-in institutionalized labor management as an integral part of Genesco’s culture.
Facility productivity improved by more than 55%, immediately adding significant value to Genesco’s bottom. The new processes and employee focus increased the throughput of the multi-level, wave-pick modules by 60%. The program generated 100% ROI in less than four months, enabling 71% growth in volume with no capital expenditures and the elimination of the entire 2nd shift picking operation. Employee compensation increased by more than 20% for the high-performing associates with no risk to the labor budget.
Customer service levels increased by linking quality and accuracy to an associate’s individual performance. Supervisors’ skills were enhanced as they were trained to use new tools to manage proactively. Coaching and feedback became more effective as supervisors learned to focus on best methods, time utilization and pace. Genesco gained a competitive advantage in a tight labor market with increased overall and performance driven compensation. Associate retention and morale had a direct correlation to performance driven compensation and the personal investment of coaching and follow-up by Genesco supervisors and managers. The labor management program has become the cornerstone of their continuous improvement culture, and has strengthened management’s confidence in the power and capabilities of their new operations.
Bob Bristol – Vice President, Distribution and Transportation:
"At first, we weren’t sure about our facility or its systems. We moved from a very familiar environment to a totally unfamiliar one. Labor management enabled us to get our arms around the warehouse management system and get more than we ever dreamed from our facility. We don’t just have higher productivity, we can manage more proactively and our customer service levels have soared.”
Nancy Harris – Manager, IT:
"No other supply chain solution has had more significant and positive influence on productivity, management capability and culture as our labor management program.
XCD Performance Consulting
Princeton • Nashville
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