Warehouse Tasking AI Report

Client: Global leading logistics and storage institution

Brief: Study to obtain qualitative & quantitative feedback on current task handoff process along with AI algorithm’s gaps in meeting SOW requirements with intention to alter program.

Project: Task Continuity SV Feedback Study 

Research Goals: 

• Understand the task handoff process across Olathe and Sunnyvale facilities

• Compare and contrast practices

• Identify best practices based on current processes and ideal recommendations 

Methodology: 

• 30-45 minute virtual interviews over Microsoft Teams

• Warm Up: 5 minutes
  Deep Dive: 25 minutes
  Wrap Up: 5 minutes
  

Participant Profile:

• 4 total participants 

• Operation Managers 

• High level understanding of Sunnyvale and Olathe Task-Handoff process 

Deep Dive Feedback:

• Most task reassignments take place about 3-5 times per shift. This occurs when a teammate forgets to log out of their device for the end of their shift or they have a rare hard stop and the task isn’t completed in a shift’s allocated time.
  

• In Sunnyvale & Olathe, the SOP is to stay and complete a task before leaving.
  

• In Olathe, Teammates do not request approval or notify SVs when taking their 15 minute or lunch break and only sometimes let their SV know when they have a hard stop.
  
  In Sunnyvale, corrective action is taken if Teammates leave mid shift without notifying a SV.
  

• In Sunnyvale, Teammates only get a 30 minute lunch break all taken at the same time so permission isn’t requested/needed.
  

• In both facilities, Teammates tend to stay logged in and hold on to tasks during lunch and breaks, some TMs take their devices with them.
  
  In Sunnyvale, if a task is left idle while they’re on lunch, it's likely that the system will reassign them to a new task in higher priority when they make it back to the floor.
  
  

• Requirements for handing off tasks in Olathe :
  1. The TM notifies leadership and returns their device.
  2. The SV logs the TM out
  3. Requests support to manually unassign them from the task
  4. AI chooses who the task is then reassigned to
  
  For lengthier tasks:
  1. TM notifies a supervisor and returns their device.
  2. The SV logs the TM out
  3. The replacement logs out of their gun and logs back in with Joe’s credentials, completes the task and then logs out.
  
  
  In Sunnyvale, the required process includes the
  1. TM notifies leadership, logs out and returns their equipment
  2. The SV then reassigns the task from their Dynamic Warehousing screen. 

• Currently, reassignment in Olathe is based on availability- safety protocols are not required to take over.
  
  

• Currently, there is no labor management tracking at Olathe. In Sunnyvale, a daily excel sheet is sent out with each shift where SVs filled with Start time, End time, who started and ended each task and what trucks were late.
  
  
  

• If a teammate is on lunch, the acceptable length of inactivity before a task is handed off is about 45 minutes. If they’re not on break or lunch, the acceptable amount of time is 10 minutes before it's handed off.
  
  

• Handing off a task when a TM is in the middle of unloading a truck is rare. This is because the app counts each pallet as a single task so the TM usually finishes that pallet and logs out.
  
  
  

• The ideal automated handoff process looked like:
  all SVs would like visibility of each break, lunch, hard stop and each task’s progress
  
  and 2 out of 3 would only want the responsibility of approving a hard stop for reassignment
  
  

Wrap up:

• One teammate said “Man, it would be ideal if we could keep the entire process in the app and just see what’s going on from a tracking standpoint- so we can know who’s taking what break, when, and how long”
  
  Another teammate noted:
  “Currently, we get a red message in the dashboard when a teammate hits something wrong. I’d like the same for handoffs. Let me go find him and find out why he’s getting a task reassigned before approval occurs.”
  
  

• Currently, the only way to know if a task is inactive is to check Start time in comparison to Last Activity. Progress visibility would be helpful
  

• 2 out of 4 SVs felt it would be beneficial to have a maximum amount of time a task can be handed off for high priority tasks.