Choice A or Choice B?

When it comes to highway driving, I wouldn’t exactly put myself in the category of motorists who view the operation of their vehicle as a competitive sport. But nor am I that putz who’s driving five miles under the speed limit in the left lane. Rather, I would characterize myself as a highly “engaged” driver who values efficiency as well as courtesy (although perhaps the former slightly more than the latter, if you get my drift). Since I make frequent 60- to 75-mile trips to visit family and friends near Chicago, I’m always looking to make smart choices that will shave off time — not entirely dissimilar to some distribution decision-making … I’ll explain in a minute.

Google Maps predicted 75 minutes for my most recent journey of 60 miles, but as I drew nearer to the exit that the navigation recommended, I rebelled against my allegedly data-driven co-pilot. Instead, I opted for a route that experience has taught me will shrink my windshield time. And I was right. Seconds after passing the exit that Maps instructed me to take, my time of arrival “miraculously” dropped five minutes, and by the time I pulled into the garage, I had beat the original estimate by 15 minutes — a 20% gain in “productivity” by my calculation!

Obviously, it pays to bring both data and discernment to decisions. Equally obvious, decisions are definitely not all weighted the same. I’ll borrow from this issue’s guest contributor, Will Quinn (well known by his trademarked nickname “The Distribution Guy”) as an example. Will has authored a new book, “Modern Warehouse Management,” and he was faced with a decision about which cover design to go with — so he put Choice A and Choice B out on LinkedIn, a clever maneuver to both promote the upcoming release and to hear the collective wisdom of his industrial distribution network. Very smart indeed. Artwork on the two options was quite similar, but in the end, he incorporated some advice that enhanced the subtitle text on Choice A … in essence, he created Option C and called it a day. All things considered, not a huge risk one way or the other.

THE CHOICE THAT SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN

Not so in another decision-making task Will discusses in his article inside on page 12, where the stakes are incredibly high. He identifies another A–B scenario, this time inside the distributor’s warehouse: the choice between speed (aka efficiency) and accuracy.

And here’s his point: Distributors make choices between these two priorities in the way they reward or incentivize teams, sometimes with disastrous results. It turns out, they should never have become competing priorities in the first place — it never should have been a choice of inventory operations versus inventory planning. “Warehouse teams are measured on speed and labor efficiency. Planning teams are measured on service and inventory turns,” Will writes. “When those metrics are not explicitly linked, bad data becomes a coping mechanism rather than a problem to solve.”

I’m grateful for the truly insightful “Distribution Solutions” article Will is sharing — I think you’ll find it is time well spent to consume this and all our content this issue. As always, thanks for reading!