Customer
Fortune 500 Food Customer
Details
A Fortune 500 food company requested that CJ Logistics assume leadership of one of its existing warehouses, which was being managed by another 3PL service provider at the time. CJ Logistics coordinated the transition from the incumbent provider to CJ Logistics, achieving a seamless cutover. Upon assuming leadership of the location, CJ Logistics’ improvement efforts yielded service and employee retention gains at the logistics center.
Situation
A Fortune 500 Food company was experiencing service and quality issues at one of its warehouses that was under management by another 3PL provider. The site was experiencing issues in the areas of staffing and equipment, service and quality, housekeeping and sanitation, yard management, volume backlog and employee overtime. CJ Logistics was asked to assume leadership of the operation based on our expertise in coordinating large-scale transitions between providers and our track record for high-performance operations.
Solution
In a preliminary phase before cutover, we migrated other customers from an existing CJ Logistics operation and consolidated them in this customer’s building. This filled significant empty space for our customer and created a multi-customer operation where all customers could benefit from shared CJ Logistics resources. We spent approximately three months migrating these customers into the building, cultivating relationships with the supervisors and observing the operation. During this period, we worked with the incumbent provider team members cooperatively and collaboratively to coordinate the next phase of the transition.
In the cutover phase, we managed hiring efforts using an off-site location near the building to interview employees and take them through the CJ Logistics hiring process, including background checks and screenings. We provided flexibility so that employees of the incumbent provider could be interviewed without interruption to their work schedule. We introduced our CJ Logistics culture in the workplace and implemented employee relations activities. Over the period of one weekend, we successfully and seamlessly transitioned leadership and management of the building over to CJ Logistics.
After assuming leadership of the operation, we worked to resolve issues of mandatory overtime and labor planning. Under the previous provider, mandatory overtime was in place every working day in the year. For some employees, this meant working overtime for three consecutive months. Within the first month, we eliminated mandatory overtime and replaced it with voluntary overtime. We trained supervisors on CJ Logistics’ approach to daily planning, the importance of on-site, on-floor presence and our commitment to employees.
In addition to smoothing out the work planning and establishing new leadership norms, we also made improvements in managing inbound trailers in the yard, which had been in a condition of significant backlog and congestion. To address prior neglect of sanitation and repairs, we thoroughly cleaned the building and implemented our pest control and sanitation program.
Result
CJ Logistics successfully transitioned existing employees in this operation and achieved uninterrupted service throughout the transition. Through our efforts, we were able to retain seasoned staff with 10-15 years of experience in the operation and reduce turnover rates to less than 1%. We developed trust with the employees who had experienced several management changes over the years. We also drove improvements in the operation. After one week of managing the operation, we succeeded in reducing the number of trailers in the yard from 126 to 14. We also brought the building to the level of cleanliness required for a food operation. We achieved American Institute of Baking (AIB) certification for the building within one year.
