Challenges
I had the opportunity to lead a significant project named "Mosaic" for one of the largest public-school districts in the country. This project involved distributing $35 million worth of reading books to 75% of the public-school classrooms in New York City. The scale of this endeavor was unprecedented for the company I was with, a wholesale distributor of educational books, but it was a scale I was accustomed to from my previous experiences.
One of the main challenges was working with an outdated warehouse management system that wasn't designed for such volume and complexity. To ensure the accurate receiving and storage of vast quantities of books, some of which overlapped with the company's core sales catalog, I collaborated closely with the IT department. Together, we developed a hybrid solution that involved creating virtual warehouses within the system and physically separating inventory. This approach not only isolated the project stock but also enhanced my understanding of warehouse software intricacies.
Best Practices
To accommodate the additional inventory, I implemented new organizational strategies across various parts of the warehouse to free up the square footage needed for the Mosaic project. One of the key initiatives was a targeted shelf cleaning program in which teams and individuals from multiple departments and shifts worked systematically to reorganize and maintain shelf integrity. Each day, a designated area of the warehouse was addressed, ensuring that by the end of the week every shelf in the target zone had been touched at least once. During these sessions, team members fixed tipped-over piles, removed unnecessary packing materials and boxes, and corrected any items placed in the wrong location. By optimizing space in this manner, we not only created the free space required for the Mosaic project, but also increased production efficiency by 15%, despite dedicating daily time to these maintenance tasks. This proactive and methodical approach made it easier to locate products, reduced errors, and ensured items remained stored in nearby areas that were not directly involved with the Project.
Coordination was key, and I worked closely with every team and leader involved, particularly the shipping department. The project had unique shipping requirements, such as delivering pallets to classrooms located on upper floors and navigating narrow city streets unsuitable for large trucks. By organizing daily check-in meetings with the shipping manager and key production staff, we kept our error rate below 0.2%. Of the $45,000 in total losses sustained during this $35 million project, $32,000 stemmed from a single pallet incident at a shipping terminal. However, because we maintained an exact count of the items on pallets, we were able to quickly rebuild it and send a replacement via expedited shipping. The new pallet arrived just two days after the original was expected, and still a full week before the end of the project’s shipping deadline.
Success
Drawing on my previous experience managing large-scale operations—such as opening a new warehouse in Denver, Colorado, where we processed tens of thousands of fragile cases in a week, I was able to anticipate potential bottlenecks and communicate effectively with the team. The Mosaic project concluded successfully, with all products delivered on time and minimal losses. The efficiency we achieved also led to lower labor and shipping costs than initially projected, resulting in a higher profit margin. The company's leadership recognized the team's efforts with targeted bonuses, and the client expressed their commitment to continue partnering with us for future initiatives.
