Figured out how much I work

[Van]

My job requires its employee's to work 9 - 12 hours doing a mix of intensive cardio and light to heavy lifting based on two time frames, one timer runs based on the time you punch in and out for the day while the other starts and stops for each trip that you complete and both are combined to determine your productivity for the day.

How it works is lets say your shift has a gross of 88,637 cases to ship out to 48 stores within a 4hr driving distance from your distribution center. Each trailer will hold 18 standard pallets, each pallet varies in weight from 500lbs (+/-) to 3,000lbs (+/-). Most pallets are 68 - 69.5 cubic feet in volume and will vary in height based on the dimensions of the cases that the manufacturer and the pickers ability to stack boxes. A time frame is setup based on the vlume and the number of pickers on the shift and based on the above gross and the amount of pickers a time of 10 hours is set for the completion of picking above said amount of cases, this means that the last trip must be asigned by the 10 hour time frame, a trip is a pallet that is to be filled based on one part of an order per store though with some stores a trip will encompass two pallets.

Each trip time varies based on the amount of product to be pulled, you may have one trip that is 70 cubic foot that gets a time frame of 30 mins while another of the same size or within .5 cubic foot will be 17 mins. The rather large variation will come from the trip requiring large numbers of the same product such as 30 cases of pillsbury frozen french bread loafs, these cases each wiegh about 28lbs and most pickers can grab two at a time.

I was curious to figure out the average amount of product I move in a given weekend so after taking the average weight from all the trips I pulled in a day and the number of trips I pulled I was able to figure out that in three days I move by hand I move on average 100,000lbs (+/-). By no means is this alot for me, I used to work for a construction supply company years ago and would have to move pallets of shingles and sometimes would move upwards of 250,000lbs of shingles and siding in a 5 day week. Some of the guys I work with move on average 180,000lbs or more within the three days though.

 

[mdonnelly]

Hope my employer doesn't find out how much I work.

 

[navychop]

My back hurts.

 

[Van]

Usually the first day I have off I am beat and try to rest, however acording to the wife Im a lazy a$$hole so I try to acomodate her by being as lazy as possible.

 

[Paul Wozniak]

Why does work never end?

 

[Van]

Theres always something that has to be done, you need money to survive unless you know how to live %100 off the land but even then you still need to get something from someone else at some point.

 

[TheForce]

Van- It's been many years since I managed a fleet of trucks as a fill in for my Traffic Manager at the Chemical company but as I recall the term of the job was a "lumper" All our loads were palletized and were loaded by a forklift. Not difficult work, IMO as I have done that too. But the lumper is one we hired for our backhauls of produce. Typically freeloaded (non palletized) sacks of fruit and vegetables. The lumper would offload the sacks weighing 80-100 pounds from the pallets into the trucks and when at destination, a new crew of lumpers would be hired to palletize the sacks once again. As I recall the weight of the 20 pallets when replaced by the product was worth what we paid the double lumpers. As I recall a good lumper could move about 2 3 truckloads of sacks a day. But rarely did we have that many to do on a regular basis.
It sounds to me like you load pallets with a forklift. Been there done that and it's really not such a tiresome task when you are 20-40 years of age. The lumpers were mostly paid by the job and our drivers would find them at street corners out side the produce pickup sites. It seems they got $30 a TL but I may be off on that since it was a few years ago.

 

[Van]

Not lumpers, we are order fillers, head down one or 16 isles pulling product and stacking it as we go. The transport is a barrett double jack that can carry two pallets and about 6,000lbs in weight if I remember correctly. There are several things that seperate order fillers from lumpers and Ive done both and though order filling isnt as rough as lumping the time frame to complete each trip is what makes it the hardest. The guys that are always in the top 5 in production cheat the system in various ways, one of them is they drop the completed trip in the isle next to where they are at and start a new trip in 30 seconds, one of their friends comes in from the dock and grabs the pallets and takes them out wich isnt how its supposed to work. Another is pulling through the first and last break but mostly the first one as percentage is more greatly affected earlier in the day as opposed to later in the day. If I have a 27 minute trip and pull through the 20 min first break I get 20 mins adjusted off the time wich pushes the percentage on that trip up to something huge like %350 if I completed it in say 24 mins.

Im not sayin I work harder than anyone else but liftin and bendin and liftin and bendin for 9 - 11 hours a day and walkin up and down 200ft isles talkin to an automated system that doesnt understand you half the time does wear on a guy same as lumpin 80 - 100 pound bags of potatoes or onions would.

 

[TheForce]

Fascinating, Van. I had order fillers too. But, I never considered T&M studies on them because they usually were waiting on Production who filled the containers (55 gal drums to 4x1 gallon cases of liquid products. ) My T&M concern was always Production since that was the bottleneck in my plant. However, I could relate to your job description very well. We could produce the mainstay products efficiently but the little special oders that our idiot salesmen would take drove me nuts. Like Need 15 one gallon bottles of Pink handsoap but the customer wants it blue. Meanwhile this was being done, the same size crew would crank out one TL of liquid floor wax. BTW we shipped to one of the GSA depos in your neck of the woods.

 

[Van]

I would probably be hapier with lumping ( sometimes a low thought job goes a long way ) over this but Im doing well enough that I regularly get asked to take on QA responsibilites as well as shipping clerk duties when she goes on leave for a day. When this happens Im usually handling 60 - 90 routes wich is soooo much fun.

 

[Paul Wozniak]

All this work talk is making my back hurt.

 

[TheForce]

So Van- since you have done a smack good job of analizing your work load- what do you think of this-

Start out at 6 AM- drive to the location about 2 hours. Then rush to do iunterviews with a 25 pound camera on the shoulder. Climb up ladders and traverse rooftops and crawl into tight spaces too with it all the time making sure the camera is protected from dust and water. No break for lunch, but I get a rest when I can convince the director to let me use a tripod ( about 20 pounds worth of additional equipment I need to haul around, but then I have to carry them both to the location to get the reward of not shoulder shoooting. The shoulder shouting lasts about 15 to 20 minutes where I have to hold the camera very very steady with controlled movements to match the discussion. Then as soon as he is done with the Q&A, I then shoot filler shots (b-roll) of stuff at the location for the editor to use to cover the cuts. I get about 10 to 15 minutes to get all I can. Then I have to run to the van load up the equipment and be ready to roll behind them so I don't get lost along the way for the next location. I get to grab a bite to eat while driving. Sometimes I go 6-7 hours without a potty break. I carry a canteen on my belt along with about 5 pounds of spare batteries and a spare tape, extra microphone and model releases. Then at about 6-7 PM we wrap it up and I drive 2 hours home.
Now keep in mind I'm pretty fit, but not like I used to be, especially when I was a mixed gas deep exploratory diver some 15 years ago. But I'm near 60 now so those days are indeed over. In January, I did this routine 6 days straight and ended up in the hospital. I claimed exhaustion but the doctors tried to say heart attack. However the tests said no heart attack.
I don't do this every day but that will be my schedule tomorrow and Wednesday.

Some days I think I was better off working in the Chemical Plant, then I think twice, and pick up that camera with a smile!

 

[Van]

hahaha, in some regards not to diferent from installing satellite for customers really, just no camera gear to worry about dust but my double bagged tool belt usually weighed about 25 - 30lbs no including the drill.