Lunch with Eskew

[over9five]

"You'd be suprised how hard CEO's work,"

Agreed. But they are a different kind of people. The job is their whole life, while I'd like my family to be a big part of my life.

 

[BoogaBooga]

Mike, here's my ideas for increasing productivity:
1. Custom maps for every individual route. Maps should be our blue print for figuring out how a loop works, the PAS system, and providing A1 service. It would lower cover/utility drivers overallowed.
2. Companywide attention to trailers getting out of the hubs later and later. Instead of adapting routes to fit volume and stops, management ends up shooting at the hip because of the early morning chaos-poor dispatches, service failures, and poor load quality. This is where we can save money by dispatching our highest paid salary employees with the best possible load so it can be delivered in the fastest-safest possible way.
3. Set realistic goals. Goals are good, and alot of your goals are obtainable, but not in the time frames you have given some of your frontline management people. This has led to misery on the front lines of the business, and the loss of trust of upper management's sense of direction. Plans are going to have to be more flexible-quickly adaptable to the ever changing business climate.
4. Keep looking for ways to improve the company's safety picture so costs can be kept down in workers compensation claims, injuries, and accidents. You may even have to look at reducing pieces per hour, or stops per car if you can produce at safer levels.
5. Let's find a way so full time employees can go to the Doctor, and followup/specialist visits so the employees health is good or restored, so the employee can perform at top levels. This may mean that Doctors/Nurses/Nutritionists/Personal Trainers visit UPS facilities before or after work as required by employee needs.

Well that's some of my ideas Mike.

 

[DS]

All good points MitEman...maybe less stops could lead to sales leads

 

[satellitedriver]

Let's give an extremely hypothetical situation:

Mr. Eskew shows some leadership. Instead of paying management consultants $2000 for the day, he'll give them the day off and instead have lunch with a few of his unionized employees; the preloaders, the midnight hub sorters, the drivers, the ECS clerks, and so-forth, asking them the question: "how can I turn higher profits while increasing employee morale and retention?" What kind of things do suggest this company can improve on that can help trim costs and make employees happier?

Let's say you're invited, what constructive ideas would you have for Mr. Eskew to turn higher profits while increasing employee morale and retention?? Remember that Eskew isn't just going to listen, he knows that his employees make industry top wage and he understandably expects a lot from his employees. If you tell him to cut productivity, he's going to tell you that a paycut would be in order. If you tell him PAS is a joke, he's going to ask you for a viable alternative.

Please:

• Don't go off on an anti-Eskew, anti-UPS, my back is killing me rant, you're out for lunch with him, what would you actually say? (I know for a fact that 99/100 of you wouldn't call Eskew an a-hole if you had the chance to meet him and he was paying for your calzone and wine)
• Realise that Mr. Eskew has a business to run, not employees to please, but he suddenly realized that happier workers are more profitable workers, and that front liners can provide information 10 times more valuable than any management consultant ever could.
• Remember the question being addressed is: "how can he turn higher profits while increasing employee morale?" not "how would you run the company, taking corporate finance out of the picture?"

Good question hoser. I would start by asking Mike (and forget the Mr. Eskew, we are still on a first name basis) how he would tackle delivering the worst route in the worst section of town which hasnt been time studied in over a decade to still run scratch. Of course he wouldnt have an answer. Then I would ask him how to juggle our routes to achieve the reductions PAS has called for...again I am sure he wouldnt have an answer. Then I would ask him for his help in re-looping our least best routes. By this time I'm sure he would be a bit upset and reply with a "what am I paying you for (as a pick one - driver, supervisor, center manager)"
To which I would say EXACTLY MIKE EXACTLY! Nobody knows the city, areas, customers and business in any area like the center TEAM. Please give us six months to show you we can run a business. Call off the dogs in the regions that justify their lives through endless conference calls and butt kickings for YESTERDAYS numbers. Let us have input on our yearly plan. Give us a realistic target and we will crush it. Let the center teams make the decisions to run and grow the business that THEY KNOW BEST.
Lets say this year we have a cost per piece in our center of $4.00 according to a detailed plan, not a number slammed in by the region. If I come in under the $4.00 our center receives a bonus (the entire center, not just the drivers or the management team). If I go over the $4.00 I had better have excellent justification. If not we start addressing where the hourly and/or management failed.
Let us drive the profits, sit back and enjoy the ride. As the old saying goes it would force everyone in the center to work smarter, not harder. Oh the things we could accomplish without the conference calls and region BS we have now!!!!

Truth,

You are 102% correct. Micro-management from district is planned failure. Our center team are order takers not managers. It is not because they do not have the skills to make the center run , it is because their hands are tied.

 

[hoser]

Mike, here's my ideas for increasing productivity:
1. Custom maps for every individual route. Maps should be our blue print for figuring out how a loop works, the PAS system, and providing A1 service. It would lower cover/utility drivers overallowed.

Great idea: Fedex would put the route number, a map, common addresses, boundaries (ie: centre street west, 10 street east, 1st ave south 10th ave north), and common stops above the belt where the package car would be parked. This allowed people like me (casual couriers) to load almost ANY truck without any problems.

2. Companywide attention to trailers getting out of the hubs later and later. Instead of adapting routes to fit volume and stops, management ends up shooting at the hip because of the early morning chaos-poor dispatches, service failures, and poor load quality. This is where we can save money by dispatching our highest paid salary employees with the best possible load so it can be delivered in the fastest-safest possible way.

True, but these late trailers don't seem to make a huge impact on the greater operation. We do a sort, we see a disaster. Customer gets their standard box at 3pm in one piece, they're delighted.

3. Set realistic goals. Goals are good, and alot of your goals are obtainable, but not in the time frames you have given some of your frontline management people. This has led to misery on the front lines of the business, and the loss of trust of upper management's sense of direction. Plans are going to have to be more flexible-quickly adaptable to the ever changing business climate.

Creating huge goals leads employees to always be on their toes

4. Keep looking for ways to improve the company's safety picture so costs can be kept down in workers compensation claims, injuries, and accidents. You may even have to look at reducing pieces per hour, or stops per car if you can produce at safer levels.

Mike would argue to the point of a broken-beer-bottle-fight that he is doing this. And he has a point; UPS is ridiculously safety oriented. Huge culture of safety. Reducing PPH and productivity, ehhh, yeah, it could reduce claims, but it would decrease producitivty and increase cost. i see where you're coming from thought

5. Let's find a way so full time employees can go to the Doctor, and followup/specialist visits so the employees health is good or restored, so the employee can perform at top levels. This may mean that Doctors/Nurses/Nutritionists/Personal Trainers visit UPS facilities before or after work as required by employee needs.

That's very innovative, but this would require a will from the doctors and specialists (to spend a half day serving 50 employess, 10 of whom would take up the chance), not so much UPS. And Mike would say "well, we give you an undeniably strong health plan you pay $0 for, combined with your optionals, paid sick days, weekends, and vacation"

 

[hoser]

bump! any more feedback? really good ideas coming from you guys.