Anupam Podcast Final
Summary
This is an introduction to a person with a long history of supply chain design and transformation, who has worked across a variety of industries. He explains how labor orchestration has evolved from static scheduling to a more dynamic, data-driven approach. He also discusses the role of different systems in the warehouse, and how they work together to optimize operations. He shares his thoughts on the rise of robotics in the industry and how they can work in partnership with human workers, rather than replacing them. Robotics can take over repetitive tasks, but humans will still be needed for many roles such as exception handling, complex problem solving, and supervisor control. A smart warehouse also needs to prioritize replenishment, exception handling, and workload management. Organizations need to think beyond just implementing technology and instead redesign their operating model and evolve their workforce roles. Change management is key in this process, as humans naturally resist change. Each individual has to change their thinking in order to keep up with the rapid changes, such as the integration of AI in our daily lives. Supply chain leaders have to focus on involving their frontline operators and supervisors in the design and implementation of new technologies to ensure successful adoption and adaptation. They also need to prioritize adaptability, stability, and execution resilience to keep up with the future of warehouse operations. Finally, leaders should also pay attention to factors outside the four walls of their facility, such as the In this podcast episode, host Ben Lovejoy interviews Anoop Kumar, an expert in warehouse optimization and automation. They discuss the important role that warehouse managers play in keeping our supply chains running smoothly, as well as the challenges and opportunities presented by the increasing use of automation in warehouses. They also touch on the importance of visibility and planning in supply chain management, and the growing demand for speed, precision, and scalability in warehouse operations. Anoop shares his thoughts on the future of warehouse technology and
Transcription
Speaker 2
[00.00.06]
Hey what's up everyone? Thank you for tuning in to episode number 38 at the Warehouse Underground podcast, Real Talk or Warehouse DC and FC professionals of all levels around the globe. I'm Ben, the host of the show, and joining me on the show today is the new film. Everyone who knows or interacts with them knows who I'm talking about. When I say that he is a supply chain design leader who has been in this space for a long time, more than 18 years now. Currently, he's a senior manager design lead at Manhattan Associates that he has taken part in so many transformations in the supply chain space, from Asos robotics to WMS implementations to AI optimizations and not only supply chain but other industries. To. Not only that, he also is a volunteer in the industry. He is a sought after speaker. He is part of many conferences. He is the Vice president of the CSC AMP Council, Supply Chain Management Professionals at the Atlanta chapter of the Atlanta Roundtable, and also recently a advisory board member at the ISC International Supply Chain Education Alliance. You have full time job just keeping up with all the letters and acronyms that he has and his background. So I'm really excited to talk with him about the future of supply chain as he sees it, because he is on the cutting leading edge of that and is definitely someone who is really driving it. So I think this will be a very good show for anybody who's interested in the future of supply chain optimization as it pertains to distribution and warehouses. So with that, I will bring him on to the stage right now. And good morning, my friend. Welcome to the warehouse Hunter ground podcast. Sorry, sir.
Speaker 1
[00.01.49]
Thank you. Hi, Ben. I'm good. Good morning.
Speaker 2
[00.01.52]
And then
Speaker 1
[00.01.53]
pleasure to be here with you.
Speaker 2
[00.01.56]
A lot of this. Yeah. We we we actually. So I actually got introduced to you by a former guest of the podcast, Jerry Abbe, who did a very cool episode, and he was like, hey, we should. And then we kind of lost touch there for a while. So I was glad that we were able to reconnect and really set this up and do the show today. So, uh, shout out to Jerry. I don't know if he's listening, but, uh, there we
Speaker 1
[00.02.16]
go. Yeah. No, thanks. So yeah, mine then. Glad that he introduced me to you. And then, you know, it'll be awesome interacting and discussing all.
Speaker 2
[00.02.25]
Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Right. So I, I gave a little bit of your background in the introduction, but that is not going to do it justice. I mean, you've been in the industry for a long time and done many things. So can you just tell the audience about in your own words, your, your background and your just experience supporting all types of, uh, initiatives in this space, in this industry? Sure. Again, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here because this is a topic I care deeply about. So like over the years, I had the opportunity to work across multiple supply chain environments, helping organizations like Rethink warehousing not just as a storage function, but as a strategic execution engine. So my background is really at the intersection of supply chain operations, warehouse technology and business transformation. So over the past 18 years, 18 plus years, I have worked across third party logistics, working on exports, imports, brokerage, custom border protection, document management, cross stocking operations and then moving towards warehouse implementations and retail apparel, consumer goods, manufacturing, logistics and distribution heavy environment where I have helped organizations modernize how they run their fulfillment and warehouse operations. Like a big part of my work has been like designing and implementing these methods in order management capabilities within the systems and also like parcel and transportation integrations, automation enablement, building workflows. And some of them are like robotics connected operating models.
Speaker 1
[00.04.07]
Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2
[00.04.09]
yeah. No, I mean, it's very broad, as I'm sure that you can appreciate. I mean, supply chain is broad even within warehouses and distribution centers. They're very complex now and they're very broad. But I want to start on this topic because it's always top of mind when it comes to many people. And that's labor. I mean, on the PNL, labor is almost always the biggest spend. It's not supplies. It's not everyone wants to know about labor spend. And what are we going to do about labor? How are we going to forecast? How are we going to plan it? How are we going to reduce it? So but now it's much different now than maybe it was back in the day. So, you know, there's a term that's arising that's labor orchestration. And so how do you see labor orchestration beginning to evolve in the in the modern warehouse environment we'll call it versus, you know, maybe 20 or 30 years ago. Sure labor orchestration is actually moved from being static and a schedule based to become more dynamic, demand aware and system driven functionality. Like traditionally, labor planning was often done using broad assumptions. So you forecast the volume. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you focus the volume, you assign people by department and then the supervisor supervisors adjust throughout the day like based on what they think is right. So like if you if you have traditionally seen that's how the warehouse has to operate in that model work when operations were simpler. Right. Like when when things were simpler, less complex, less effective than today's environment where today, if you see the orders profiles are continuously shifting, customer expectations are tighter and the warehouse complexity is much more higher.
Speaker 1
[00.06.02]
So that's where it is going. It is more like real time data tasks, interdependencies, evaluating the order priorities. And yeah
Speaker 2
[00.06.13]
I think. And another thing I think that people talk about is that you have all of these unique systems. So you have a warehouse management system. You know, transportation management system, labor management. There's just everything. There's a lot of systems. But the core of it, I think, is the WMS automation advances that allow real time execution, real time visibility. And so it's not it's not really like they all have to kind of work together like a, like the hands of a old mechanical watch. It just kind of all all the gears. So how do you see the role of all those things beginning to blend to, to sort of dynamically assign the work to the employees on the floor that is handled on the floor versus the old days, which is very, you know, segmented and sporadic and siloed. So it seems like now it's morphed together. But but how do you see that?
Speaker 1
[00.07.09]
Oh, that's a great question because those experienced operators absolutely brought tremendous value. If you if you think about those people, the intuition was built over from years of pattern recognition. Like this is how the the day in, day out, they work and they understand the pattern, what's going to happen. But the challenge with that intuition alone does not scale well in today's warehouse. And so like the modern operations are too fast, too interconnected, as we say, between these systems. And do variable rely only on the tribal knowledge? What are the warehouses and the people in the warehouses? And this is where Reynolds management systems, the automation controls, the real time execution becomes very critical. They create operational visibility and decision making structure where they are more resource responsive and they are more repeatable, like instead of spending time. Even micro decision manually, leaders can focus on exceptions, optimization and strategic flow control. Like that's based where human and judgment and the intelligence systems comes into effect. That's like real time shifting, moving from how do you want to run or visible making them making a decision support system like instead of like, you know, traditional process driven, like, you know, that kind of methods?
Speaker 2
[00.08.30]
Yeah. And I think too, and I've kind of mentioned this on previous episodes that that that idea, that mentality is growing very fast in the industry because there's more turnover now with the leadership and the management. They go from company X to company Y, company Z. I'm talking at the operator level. Where are you used to see people? One I'm a warehouse manager. I'm here for 20 years or whatever. Now you got all these fulfillment centers and distribution centers, and I work at company X, and it has this tech. It's it's it's optimized this way. I leave to go comp company y. They don't have it now I'm pitching to the to the CEO. Hey we need we need to have this. This is this is what we had back then. So I think that's kind of pollinating to use a bad springtime springtime word there. But I think that's pollinating all the different industry out there. So I think that's a really, really good point and really, uh, really exciting time, I think, to be to be in the industry when it comes to, comes to technology. So. Now let me ask you this a new one. So robotics I mean pro matte mode. You go to these big shows. The feedback that people will almost always give if they've never been to a show like this before. They will go. And I've taken some some hourly people to shows before and they're just they're just overwhelmed by all of the all of the robots that they see at show because they're, they're visually appealing and they and they have demos and it's, it's a lot of eye candy. So but what do you think about the future of, of robotics in the warehousing environment? Because it's you can't just have the robots. You have to have the employees too. They have to work. They have to work together. So what do you think about that balance, the balance of the rise of robotics, but also the need to have them meshed well with, um, with the employees that are actually using them with automated systems?
Speaker 1
[00.10.27]
Yeah. That's a that's a great, uh, course. Again, question about like robotics. And it's the same sometimes there is a misconception about people that robotics means replacing people, but it's not truly it's like working together instead of either or. It's not all or none. In reality, if you see more successful warehouse transformations are about designing the right partnership between this human capability and the machine. Right, you cannot think of designing a warehouse where you completely say, hey, my robots are going to do the task and I know what to do. I'll just go to simply sit and watch like my supervisor or the operations head is just going to sit and simply like, you know, see, everything is going well within the system. It's all. Robotics is extremely strong in areas like repeatability. Any kind of travel reduction, tense storage, accessories and handling, high volume, predictable, any any kind of predictable movements and human remains extremely valuable in judgment based work like exception handling, complex problem solving, and then probably supervisor control. Like you need to add that control where you want to manage your entire workflows, like the human. It's like robots. Like many, many people say that like, you know, like humans and robots work together. Like the real opportunity is not asking whether humans is better humans or robots. The better question is what would work like, what should be automated and what work should be human? And how do we integrate it all under the same building, under the same operating model? That's where it is going to be crucial. So we need to evolve our skill set. Like that's part of the thing where, you know, robotics can reduce some value added while also humans need intelligence as the brain was driving these robots.
Speaker 2
[00.12.19]
Yeah, yeah, I think in a lot of a lot of operators out there in the warehouse, uh, will push back on robots because, like you said, the the myth of fear is it's just going to be a all black warehouse one day, and there's not going to be any input in there. It's just going to be robots. And to that, I say I'm not holding my breath on when that's going to be. I know that that's the dream and the vision, but I think that is way farther off than people think. And I'm not sure it's ever really going to come to true fruition because like you said, there's so many variables. I mean, in this industry, there's so many variables that people have to adjust to. And if you don't, I mean, and and the the feedback that I hear from operators is I'm so stressed out, right? I'm overwhelmed. I'm managing all these things because you're using up all their brain bites. Well, if you have robots to help take away some of those, some of those brain bites, that gives you more ability to use your judgment, use your discretion, use your flex. You know, all those things. And so, I mean, in a way, it's not a robot, but in a way a forklift took away, you know, labor like a forklift, wasn't it the technology. But now everyone, it's just accepted. Now everyone uses them. So I don't know if robots are the same thing. I don't know if it's apples to apples, but in a way, that's just how it happens. So I think putting in a position where people feel that. This is something that's going to help me. This is going to help my life. It's going to help my job. I think that the adoption is going to will be there, uh, eventually, once that just for that unknown and that mystique and that fear begins to the, the fade away. So, um, but, you know, like, you go to the shows and them, you know, they're just they're, they're, they're everywhere and and they're there and there's a lot going on. So, um, now let me ask this question and, and, and you've brought this up before picking. So picking in the warehouse, everyone wants to know about picking. You hear about picking all the time order picking. And, you know, optimize this and everything. And picking is a big part of it. It's it's it's closer to the customer. But there's many, many other different functions that happen inside a warehouse. I mean, it's not it's not just picking. So can you speak on things like replenishment, uh, exception handling, workload prioritization, all these things? Can you speak of them about why those are all so critical in the intelligent or the smart warehouse of today versus just, you know, focus on not picking?
Speaker 1
[00.14.50]
Sure. So, like as you said, auto picking gets the attention because it's what is my like need versus the demand. I need to meet the demand, what is exactly being asked for. And that's making me money. But picking only performs well when the rest of the system is supporting. Right. Like replenishment is absolutely critical because if my forward bay locations are not stocked with inventory at the right time, my picking process is really done. Because if I have if I look at picking from these four locations and I am an e-commerce star and I don't replenish them at the right time, I'll fall off. So that's like when their inventory is is somewhere else in the building. So replenishment is just not a thought process. It's just going to throw enough. An exception. Handling is equally important because these warehouses do not operate always. Nobody works in the perfect condition. We have studied the reality when it comes to things are in a different way. You have damaged inventory shortages, mischance, inventory mismatches, automation faults. Some are carrying issues. Your vendor, your your your vendor. The vendor is shipping the product, it's not yet arrived. And your your launch item going on in a couple of days. Then there is a whole supply chain disruption happen. These are some of the priority changes overlying. The difference between an average operation and a strong one is how quickly and intelligently resolve these exceptions. And then the workload prioritization comes into effect, which ties them everything together. Like you ensure your replenishment are executed well ahead of time, and that's where your smart warehousing concepts come into play that I want to ensure my locations are well and before mine demand kicks off. Like, you know, and then my prioritization engine always keeps checking off all which is the inventory is depleting versus how many orders are flowing in. And then, you know, how can I ensure my orders are on the door at the right point of time? But that's what matters right now as intelligently acting your inventory levels throughout.
Speaker 2
[00.17.03]
Yeah. And I think the technology is important to help manage this, because there's so many moving parts that it's very difficult for a human to be aware of them all. I mean, just all the moving parts that are in place. So, you know, tech and AI, I think can really help people make some better decisions. And you're right. I mean, if I go into a facility, I see a facility that's touting how good they can pick and how fast they can pick. But I look and I see you don't have any inventory control. It's, you know, processes, you know, replenishment. You don't have any easier things. I just go, okay, well, you're going to be picking fast until you're not. I mean, it's gonna it's gonna it's going to taper off. So all those things under the surface are almost just as important. In fact, they are just as important. And there's tools and technology out there that can really help people help people do that. So I, I agree with you 100% on that. So let let me ask this question. Now we've talked a little bit about the future of, of warehouse, uh, of, of distribution. But what do you think that organizations need to do just in terms of redesigning their models? I mean, what do they need to be thinking about? How do they how do they should be thinking about their workforce roles, their decision making structure and change management, which is a big part of it too. What should leaders in 2026 who say, I want to be look, I want to be forward thinking. I want to set my operation up for what's coming down the pipe and be effective. How should they be posturing themselves and thinking about it to to lead effectively into 2026 and beyond? An intelligent warehouse era.
Speaker 1
[00.18.50]
Oh, so again, a great question. The transition, like the transition to an intelligent warehouse, is just not just implementing a technology. And I'm good for it. Like it's an operating model redesign. Like, you know, you have to completely redesign your how you operate today. The first organizations need to start thinking of automation or system upgrades as an isolated process. They cannot be isolated then. They then need to define what kind of warehouse they are trying to become in the future, right? Am I a faster global e-commerce fulfillment center or like, am I a more resilient store replenishment, warehousing fulfillment center? Or what kind of labor productivity I want? Where do I reduce my dependency on the tribal knowledge built over the period of time? Unlike the higher inventory accuracy. Where is my. How do I see that? Like. And I also feel like the workforce roles needs to evolve in an intelligent way. Like, people are just not the executors, they are also a system operator. Exception managers. Then I can also think of automation coordinators, analysts, system analysts, continuous improvement coordinators like some of the roles which I see people in warehouses are going to play, and that requires investment in upskilling.
Speaker 2
[00.20.19]
Yeah, I think that's a great point. It's like the shiny penny syndrome. It's tempting to just go, oh, we want this, uh, we want this tech or we want to do this. This looks cool, but you gotta kind of you gotta know the entire cake that you want to bake ahead of time, and then you can go get the ingredients of it, and then you can bake it. But it's just, you know, that that takes a little bit more foresight and, and, and setting the vision and then executing it versus, oh, we're going to get this tech and implement this and that, that piecemeal approach. I don't think it's going to lend the results that operations want. I mean, how how do you see that? I mean, you think that people are prone to just grabbing this and grabbing this or. Have you seen more people are like, no, they they're very good at setting the world. Where do you think most people come down on that and what you've seen?
Speaker 1
[00.21.11]
Yeah. And it's more of like the change management. What do you want them like that's where the change management is in. Like change management has to be intentional. I know it is difficult for us to change. We have been doing some things over and over here over the past couple of years. And suddenly somebody comes and asks me to do a change and it's just not true. You know, we have to understand why this matters. Like, what if a person is speaking here and there and like, if their role has to get improved, we need to also show them success. And that's when people get attacked with the change. Like when AI has come into our life so much, we also have to see that how can AI is helping us in day to day life, right? Like, fine. It is giving me. It is helping me. But I have to make it as a partner or in my workplace to make me make me more successful and then better people in the workforce, the warehouses, they have to do an upskilling their roles, their jobs, their responsibilities. It's more of a change management process. If they're doing here and it stops here and there, they need to ensure that, like, I know that, I know what I need to do next or what I need to do, or how do I orchestrate my myself the whole time. Yeah.
Speaker 2
[00.22.22]
Yeah. And, uh, I think that's a great point. And you hear and you hear that a lot. And sometimes people say this, that in the, in the supply chain industry, in a warehouse environment, distribution center environment, designing the tech is very is difficult. It's I'm not going to undersell it. It's very difficult. But sometimes people will say designing the tech is is easier than getting adoption. Like getting the people to fully embrace it and everything. And so what do you think about that? I mean, what? Because I think that there's there's two parts of that equation that have to work together. If you only design the tech, but you don't get anyone to ever embrace it, you don't get them to embrace the change management. They're not on board. It will fail. And if you have all these people who are clamoring for this change and they want it and they're ready, but the but the text is not good enough. I mean, the tech doesn't meet their demand that they have or it's not aligned properly. That will also fail. So I mean, what what do you what do you think about that? I mean, what sort of different strategies or different experiences have you had to say we have the tech and we have the change management, and we have the adoption and they work together and now we win. What do you think about that,
Speaker 1
[00.23.43]
that concept. Yeah, I mean, I absolutely agree with you. Like in many cases the hardest part is not the technology itself. It is the organizational transition around that technology and the most effective strategy. What I have seen is making the change personally relevant to the people who live with it every day, like people who design the system or build the technology architecture and build the entire ecosystem of a smart warehouse. They implement the solution and then they have their there for some time. But the people who just work on the floor, they are there. They have to live with it the entire time and they have to adapt. So frontline supervisors and operators see the technology as something being done to them, as a resistance is not like if something is going to happen to them. A normal resistance is like it's very natural, like if they see it is something that reduces frustration, it improves their clarity, makes water safety, it removes some repetitive non value added effort. Some adoption. These kind of adoption improves dramatically. And another key strategy is like early involvement. Like involve them at an early on the project. Like instead of keeping them in the silo and lend them, making them feel like, oh, the whole environment is changing. Instead, involve them from the beginning. Get them in the loop. Ensure they are right from the design phase. Then, like you know, the paper phase when we are, everything is on the paper, right? Like the architecture, the layouts, everything. And that's where it will help them to make things much more better. Like they will adapt to it. And that's how their training goes on when they are getting trained in an automation work workforce or automation level kind of systems. They know what was designed behind the scene and they adapt to it faster. So that that's very crucial.
Speaker 2
[00.25.35]
Yeah I agree and I I've I've made that mistake in my own career where if you design something and you hand it down to the employees and say use this and they were not involved with it. The moment that there is an ounce of resistance where it is not going well, they just cross their arms. Nobody. Nobody asked me. Nobody. Nobody included me. And you're. And you're dead. You're dead in the water there. When that happens. So you're right. I think if you can use them in the in in it. Even if you. I mean, even if it's just a light level, if they still feel like they had a say and obviously they know pieces of information that you might know, not know as the developer. I think in the end that that is that that's the way to do it. But you're right. You hand it to them. You say use this because they're already they already have a lot of things on their plate. So they're very sensitive to more things being added. But if you build them into it and they see that it's gonna make their life easier, it's going to make their operation run better. I mean, they're humans. They'll they'll embrace it. If it's going to be more than you have to do, and the more, you know, aggravation, then they're going to, they're going to push back on it. And it's just it's just human nature. That's what it's what we do with anything that, that, that we buy. So, um, I agree I agree with you on that. So now let me ask this question. Is there anything that you think that people overlook? You know, like if there's one big takeaway, what should supply chain leaders be focusing on when they're building the warehouse of the future. And we mentioned many, many other different things. But if you just kind of had a name like two, you know, what? What are the big things that they need to be focusing on? Is it is it the adoption? Is it the engagement? Is it the alignment? Is it the choosing, the correct tech? Is it you know what? What are the the things that they should say? If we only do this and nothing else, that will be will be 80, 80% of the way, uh, type thing.
Speaker 1
[00.27.36]
Oh, yeah. I mean, if I would say supply chain leaders would focus on definitely adaptability. Stability. Yeah. And execution resilience. That's where their focus should be like that. That's where they need to work on. And the future of the warehouse is just not. Most of the robotics seem limited. Complete robotic solution or you put in a new fancy software and all your demand share is labor related volatility network disruptions. You are like, you know, you need to respond on those. And your and your customer service question because there is an entire order demand coming from your customer service department. Your CS department is completely poking you. Hey, where where are these orders? Where where where do I get like, give me that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, in other words, the future ready whole system and built for it. Basically leaders need to just focus on like visibility. And you cannot optimize what you cannot see. Like if you don't have the real time visibility of your workforce or your inventory of your demand, and you're also part of your automation performance, right? Like how your automation, if there is a breakdown you need to know earlier. That is there is something coming up and you need to work on that faster. And that's where like, you know, resilience is an execution. Like people you see, like how they are prepared for this season, how they are prepared for any kind of supply chain disruption. Remember Covid 19, remember the road closures, all these sudden inventory shortages. And then there was a labor shortage and then sudden order spikes around. And with the model operating model, it was very difficult to sustain that kind of environment. I mean, if I cannot get a proper visibility, where is what is where, then it is going to be very difficult for me to operate. Like if I'm being a warehouse manager, I it was difficult for me to just perform and give results to my customer. Customer experience department and customer service delivery. So yeah.
Speaker 2
[00.29.38]
Yeah. It's just like your car, right? Like when you drive your car, you need to have visibility of what's going on in your car. You can see your speed, you can see your RPM, you can see your battery, you can see your gas. You can tell the temperature all those things quickly. And that helps you make good decisions when you're driving your car. If you couldn't see that, oh my gosh, I don't know, I would have run out of gas. I don't know, I guess I you know, I don't know what happened. Yeah I think yeah. But for me, I mean how I see it and I'd be interested to get your thoughts on this and that is, I think in a modern warehouse world, like we mentioned, a lot of things, you know, the head of visibility and we need to have flexibility. But I think, I think there are a lot more things that people can do to help their operations that are happening outside of the four walls of the facility with with the total supply chain in terms of, you know, what's happening on the outbound side, what's happening on the inbound side. And then I think in, in like cyberspace, you know, it's like there is people say, well, you, you know, you need to walk the floor and you do right, that you need to go to where the work is. And gemba, you understand what's happening on the warehouse floor. That's a big part of it. I, I'm not I'm not discounting that, but that it cannot be only that because it's a, it's a it's a smart warehousing world. And you need to understand what's happening inside the programs, outside the four walls. And I think those are the leaders that will best be able to support their teams. Not only can I walk the floor and help you, what's in your area, but I know what's happening in the systems and the software. I know what's happening, the four walls, I know what's happening in the industry, what's changing, and all those things need to come together to really set up. If I just, you know, figure out how to make this area over here better where the pallet is, that's great. But, you know, like, that's not the 21st century in, in, in warehousing anymore. So what I mean what what do you think? I mean, you think that that would be good advice or for leaders to begin to learn and implement and all that? Or do you think that. Nah, the technology is probably good enough. They don't really have to. They don't really have to be aware. It's just going to run on its own type thing.
Speaker 1
[00.31.43]
No, no it is, it is. Absolutely. The visibility is so crucial. And I'm seeing the companies there a lot of investing in supply chain planning methods like you know, that, hey, where's my product? If I if it is coming from each part of the world, exactly where is it? Like if there is a port closure, do I have a way to bypass and do I have a way to offload the product somewhere in a different code? Those are some of the things which people are getting involved now earlier, once the product is in your code, was that when I had the part? But it's not there and it's not that anymore. You need to people thinking beyond the four walls now, like my transportation system. If I have a weather challenge before when I when I drop my launch product, as I was giving an example to my store where I'm launching the launching a new product in two days of time and there is a complete load shutdown, I need to predict that. I need to get that visibility, that kind of visibility out.
Speaker 2
[00.32.38]
Yep. Now I agree. Now I'm gonna, uh, I'm I'm going to bring up a quote from you that I like, and I'm going to bring it up on the screen because I this, I feel like sums up a lot of what we've been talking about today. I'll read it for people. Warehousing is no longer about storage. It's about speed, precision and scalability. Companies lagging in automation face higher costs, slower throughput and competitive erosion. So what how did you. First of all, I couldn't agree more with this. I think that this is spot on. But how did you arrive at this quote and this philosophy, and how do you think that it's being accepted out there in the industry? Because I feel like the tide is starting to turn and people are really beginning to see things your way and how you, you put this throw quote out there. So what's the what's the backstory of this? Love it, love it, by the way.
Speaker 1
[00.33.33]
Thank you. No, no, that's a great point. And I would strongly encourage, like every warehouse operations leader to learn about this automation, even if their current facility has unlimited automation today, like you said about vortex and the formats and like go there and understand what the company or the industry is doing is just learning. I mean, you don't need to. Maybe you are the way you are. order your inventories, your operations are you may not be able or used to in a situation to like in order to support an automation, but that's fine. Like, you know, you need to learn about that and then try to get some ideas like, okay, I have this opportunity to put in an automation thing. And and then reason is that automation is no longer a conversation. It is becoming part of the mainstream warehouse strategy. Like whether that means a robot goods to person, the EMR, the automation stores, automation, the RSS, the intelligent labor orchestration, all these computer visions and all these things are like they are like your storage platform. And maybe your facility does not deploy major automation tomorrow. The expectation is that they need a or accuracy, a labeled throughput, labor efficiency and speed of this operations like the various operations are moving in this direction because you have to ship out your products faster than your, let's say, laser increasing. Like, you know, you're so learning about automation is no more going to be like, you know, people say, I don't need to learn it now. When the time comes, I will learn it. But you know, you need to keep keep adapting to it and you need to keep learning about it. Like that's where I feel like that's that's where I went.
Speaker 2
[00.35.10]
Yeah, I think. I mean, if you're an obsolete or out there, you can put your head in the sand. You can refuse. You say, I don't need to know this, and this is not. That's fine. That's your right to do that. But but people are going to want to know about it. Whether it's your boss or your boss's boss or somebody new comes into the company and they want to do these type of initiatives, like at some point you need to. And so, you know, I think it's helpful for people to learn about it now, learn about automation, learn about it. It's just going to help them because these are the things that are coming down the pipe. And whether you like them or not, you know, whether you don't think you need it doesn't really matter. I think like it's it's happening. And if you try to resist too long, eventually someone's going to come in and go, okay, you're out right now guys coming in. Because this, this is what we need to do. And and I don't want to see that happen to people. So. All right. So where can people find out more about you now. You're you're I feel like you could you I feel like this question you could answer like ten minutes. Answer this question because you're everywhere, you're online, you're you're doing all sort of events. You're a part of all sort of different organizations and shows and everything. So but where can people find out more about you and what do they do if they want to reach out to you and work and work with you? Is that I mean, is that something that you do you open to? But what you got and what have you got work coming down the pipe in 2026.
Speaker 1
[00.36.29]
I don't know that that's. So that's again, a great question again. I can be reached on LinkedIn. I am very active on LinkedIn and social media person, definitely in LinkedIn. Not not other stuffs. But yeah, I, I do a lot of uh, uh, research and uh, on warehouse automation, workforce evaluation, evaluation and like the future of where the fulfillment methods are going. And, and I definitely I collaborate with a lot of, uh, local chapters and chapter like with CMP. And then Isci is a local chapter again where I get involved and then I, I definitely try to be part of more conferences. Uh, yeah, definitely. That's something which I talk about. Yeah. And, and in looking in 2026 and beyond, uh, I'm also going to like there's a book coming up, uh, which is very fun. But yeah, it says in the Smart Housing, which is going to publish in coming months. Uh, that's an already the book ISBN number has been published, but it is just on its way. And it's more like, you know, how smart I was saying. Yeah. And it has more details about, like, labor, orchestration, more on how to evolve your like a rule from an operations manager and all your, all your stuffs like, you know, like learn about these kind of stuff. So yeah, this is where I am going towards in 2026. And the mission is very clear, helping organizations and professionals like move from their traditional warehouse thinking towards a more intelligent, connected, and a future ready warehouse. That's where I am. Yeah, I love it, man, I think you I think you're definitely doing that. And I always have a lot of respect for people that do what you do. You're out there, you're putting it out there. You're a resource for everybody. You're not just close holding it to yourself like you're sharing all of your wealth and all of your knowledge. And and I think more people should do that. You know, it's just the industry gets better as a whole. When we do that, we get better. And so I just on a personal level, I respect you for doing that a lot. And I'm excited for the book. I think that would be a cool book. Let me know when that comes out. I'll, I'll, I will take a look I will take a look at that. So it's always cool like I've had I've had a lot of podcast guests that have books out or have books. I just think that's a they never mentioned me in the book that they write, but yeah, yeah. Next slide. Next book for yeah yeah
Speaker 2
[00.38.49]
yeah yeah yeah yeah. There there. It couldn't have happened without the warehouse and I'm kidding. But I knew from my friend it was a it was a pleasure talking to you a joy talking to you. You're you're so intelligent, right. You've got so much knowledge in the industry. And, uh, and I really appreciate you appearing on the podcast and giving some of your wisdom. And I hope people reach out to you. So thanks a lot for I appreciate
Speaker 1
[00.39.10]
it. Thank you. Ben, nice talking to you.
Speaker 2
[00.39.13]
Yeah. You got it. Take care. Bye bye bye. All right, guys, that concludes this episode. Thanks again for Anoop. I'm just a fantastic resource in the industry, a great guy, fantastic resource. If you go to events, you'll probably hear him talk. He's that conference. Just reach out to him today. I love having people like that on the podcast. So spread their their knowledge and their and their information out there to the industry. So thank you again, sir, I appreciate it. As the warehouse underground goes, we have over 300 people that have signed up for the community. Now if you are into that do, it's free. They have message boards in their networking. We've done some live events in there that you can see and we have some coming down the pipe. So check out the community at the Warehouse Underground. Sign up for that today. And also check out the Tiger Team show. I do another show, another podcast with cohost named Jordan. It's all about life and warehouses and distribution centers and fulfillment centers. However, it has a little bit of a wit, humor, sarcasm flavor to it. So if you're working out there in those spaces, check that show out. We think that you will enjoy some comic relief. Uh, on that, on that for sure. So as this podcast goes, thank you again to Nufarm. I will see you guys next week for episode number 39. God bless.
