{"id":2081,"date":"2019-03-27T16:15:36","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T21:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev-mhisolutionsmag.officialdirectory.com\/?p=2081"},"modified":"2019-06-19T16:19:30","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T21:19:30","slug":"mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/","title":{"rendered":"MHI SOLUTIONS COMMUNITY: Tips for Staffing the Automated Distribution Center"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/dev-mhisolutionsmag.officialdirectory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Solutions_450x300.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2085\" src=\"http:\/\/dev-mhisolutionsmag.officialdirectory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Solutions_450x300-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Solutions_450x300-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Solutions_450x300.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>* By John Paxton *<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Rupesh Narkar offers a silver lining for parents who are sick of seeing their kids\u2019 eyes glued to their smartphones, tablets and video games: That comfort with new technology will make them ideal candidates for the warehouse and distribution center jobs of the present and the future, so in a sense, some of them are preparing for their careers.<\/p>\n<p>Narkar, the director of sales in production intralogistics for MHI member Swisslog Logistics Inc., said that as distribution centers become increasingly automated, the repetitive tasks performed by employees will be shifted onto the automated system, and employees who are comfortable with touchscreens, digital displays and control systems will have a leg up in the automated workplace.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have an automation system, usually you have to divide your staff between technical and nontechnical warehouse operators,\u201d he said. \u201cThe technical operators are responsible for keeping the automated systems running, and the nontechnical operators are responsible for finishing up the tasks that are not part of the automated system, such as final packaging.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you take away the monotonous, non-value-adding tasks from employees, now they have the additional bandwidth to get trained on more technical skills to take care of the automated systems, so it\u2019s kind of a reassignment of their time for more value-adding tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With online sales booming and the unemployment rate near historic lows, distribution centers are finding it difficult to staff their facilities and respond to increased demand. That lack of resources was identified as one of the top barriers to implementing new technologies when the Solutions Community conducted a poll of 75 members at the most recent MHI Annual Conference.<\/p>\n<p>I spoke with Narkar and two other MHI Solutions Community members about the best strategy for staffing the automated distribution center, and they offered the following tips&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutions-digital.com\/mhiq\/0219_volume_7_issue_2\/MobilePagedArticle.action?articleId=1475612#articleId1475612\"><em>Read More&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* By John Paxton * Rupesh Narkar offers a silver lining for parents who are sick of seeing their kids\u2019 eyes glued to their smartphones, tablets and video games: That comfort with new technology will make them ideal candidates for the warehouse and distribution center jobs of the present and the future, so in a &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":2085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[34,32,31,33],"class_list":["post-2081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solutions-spotlight","tag-john-paxton","tag-mhi-solutions-community","tag-rupesh-narkar","tag-swisslog-logistics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MHI SOLUTIONS COMMUNITY: Tips for Staffing the Automated Distribution Center - MHI Solutions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MHI SOLUTIONS COMMUNITY: Tips for Staffing the Automated Distribution Center - MHI Solutions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"* By John Paxton * Rupesh Narkar offers a silver lining for parents who are sick of seeing their kids\u2019 eyes glued to their smartphones, tablets and video games: That comfort with new technology will make them ideal candidates for the warehouse and distribution center jobs of the present and the future, so in a ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MHI Solutions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-27T21:15:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-19T21:19:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Solutions_450x300.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Melinda Runkle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Melinda Runkle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/\",\"name\":\"MHI SOLUTIONS COMMUNITY: Tips for Staffing the Automated Distribution Center - MHI Solutions\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Solutions_450x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-27T21:15:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-19T21:19:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/75c7b64e8c837441fbd28bb800c1252c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Solutions_450x300.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Solutions_450x300.jpg\",\"width\":450,\"height\":300},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MHI SOLUTIONS COMMUNITY: Tips for Staffing the Automated Distribution Center\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/\",\"name\":\"MHI Solutions\",\"description\":\"Improving Supply Chain Performance\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/75c7b64e8c837441fbd28bb800c1252c\",\"name\":\"Melinda Runkle\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/92959c758b90d2ef7150661fcf30fefe1962b390dd4d94d9cf21ec6ca8e79af7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/92959c758b90d2ef7150661fcf30fefe1962b390dd4d94d9cf21ec6ca8e79af7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Melinda Runkle\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/author\/mrunkle\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MHI SOLUTIONS COMMUNITY: Tips for Staffing the Automated Distribution Center - MHI Solutions","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MHI SOLUTIONS COMMUNITY: Tips for Staffing the Automated Distribution Center - MHI Solutions","og_description":"* By John Paxton * Rupesh Narkar offers a silver lining for parents who are sick of seeing their kids\u2019 eyes glued to their smartphones, tablets and video games: That comfort with new technology will make them ideal candidates for the warehouse and distribution center jobs of the present and the future, so in a ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/","og_site_name":"MHI Solutions","article_published_time":"2019-03-27T21:15:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-06-19T21:19:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":450,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Solutions_450x300.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Melinda Runkle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Melinda Runkle","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/","name":"MHI SOLUTIONS COMMUNITY: Tips for Staffing the Automated Distribution Center - MHI Solutions","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Solutions_450x300.jpg","datePublished":"2019-03-27T21:15:36+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-19T21:19:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/75c7b64e8c837441fbd28bb800c1252c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Solutions_450x300.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Solutions_450x300.jpg","width":450,"height":300},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/27\/mhi-solutions-community-tips-for-staffing-the-automated-distribution-center\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MHI SOLUTIONS COMMUNITY: Tips for Staffing the Automated Distribution Center"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/","name":"MHI Solutions","description":"Improving Supply Chain Performance","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/75c7b64e8c837441fbd28bb800c1252c","name":"Melinda Runkle","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/92959c758b90d2ef7150661fcf30fefe1962b390dd4d94d9cf21ec6ca8e79af7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/92959c758b90d2ef7150661fcf30fefe1962b390dd4d94d9cf21ec6ca8e79af7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Melinda Runkle"},"url":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/author\/mrunkle\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mhisolutionsmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}