Over the last few days we have seen a stream of containers coming into the warehouse and with our product lines these are very heavy items. Gym weights when arriving in bulk boxes that weigh tons at a time add up quickly. These unfortunately need to be broken down even further and labeled for delivery so this is extreme physical labor intensive work.
Fortunately I understand what it takes and how long it takes so when he delivery requests come through I say either a yes or a no and there is no over promising. One has to be realistic with expectations because this is seriously tough going.
One of the buyers/planners who wanted this product turned around within a day has no clue and when my daughter said no his reply was he was going to ask someone else. Not only is this disrespectful, but also highlights a lack of knowledge of what is entailed. I will be dealing with him later separately on a one to one once we have completed this order because he needs to learn some manners. My family begged me not to phone once I had heard what happened because they know me so I will bide my time.
There is 92 tons of weights which is a serious tonnage that needs to be moved by hand multiple times. The only time the forklift touches this is when it is offloaded from the container in a crate. One of the containers in question was more like in the middle of the trailer and we needed to get a container forklift to move it to the end of the truck. There is a container yard next door and for $15 they kindly helped us out. Without this we would have been royally screwed.
The 92 tons of weights is then individually labeled before being repacked and placed within another box which is then moved onto a separate pallet and loaded by the forklift onto another truck ready for delivery. The 92 tons is moved 3 x by hand so in total equates to a 276 ton task. We have 10 people to do this so this is a proper gym workout over a few days.
Each pallet has a weight limit that cannot be exceeded due to knowing the truck cannot exceed 56 tons which is the legal maximum load. Now imagine being asked to accomplish all of this within a 24 hour period by someone who has never had to get hot and sweaty in a warehouse.
The delivery will take place on Wednesday and would have taken 4 days in total which I think is still very quick having worked all weekend receiving the containers. This type of delivery happens two or 3 times per year, but it tends to break most things including the pallet jacks.
The one thing the staff know is I have their backs on these jobs because I would never ask them to do something I have never done before or at least understanding what it is going to take. In the army we used to off load serious tonnage when the ammunition trucks arrived and you would literally do a 20 ton truck on your own with no forklifts. Mortar cases weigh in the region of 50 or 65Kg's depending on the shell sizes and not something you would ever forget.
This is a proper test of how well your warehousing staff works as a team as everyone has to literally pull their own weight. We should have 1 more of these orders to complete for Christmas orders and this should be like clockwork ,but no one day requests will be happening again.