Sometimes a large project is kind of like a race.  The end date or completion date is your goal line.  The project kick-off meeting is like the sound of the start pistol going off.  And the excitement of the race kicks your adrenaline into gear.

You want to plan it all and do it all as quickly as you can.  You want to make things happen.  You want to get things going.  You want to see progress immediately and milestones pass without any issues or with minor issues that you can quickly and decisively address and resolve. 
But in reality, it's much more like a marathon race.  To run a long distance race like that you take one mile at a time, hold a steady pace, tackle every hill or pain one at a time, and keep focused on finishing.

This is how a major project should be viewed and compared.  So when you think about the story of the Tortoise and the Hare and compare it to our warehouse modifications and upgrade project, you could use the comparison and say – the Tortoise is on the move.

The scope of the warehouse project we're undertaking can be broken into a few areas. We're installing and implementing a new warehouse management system (WMS) to tackle the inventory management of everything that goes into, out of or is stored in the warehouse.

We're improving our worn out dock canopies and adding dock restraints for safety.  We're reconfiguring our pallet racking to better maximize our storage with our inventory profiles.  We’re building a much larger flammable material storage room.  We're purchasing and putting into service new order pickers.  And, at the end, we're increasing our square footage by installing a mezzanine to be used for various production needs.

Breaking this project into one area at a time and each area into separate pieces makes the project less overwhelming.  Below are some of the milestones and projects we've completed in the last two months.

RECONFIGURED PICK AREA RACKING – UNIFORM AND DESIGNED TO MAXIMIZE PRODUCT STORAGE