The Staples Advantage
Through the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association, I had the opportunity yesterday to visit with Staples’ distribution facility in
As it turns out I got way more than just a technology or best practices overview. But rather it was for me a compelling example of what can happen when a workplace built on the principles of empowerment, respect, and trust meets technology and best practices.
In other words: Over the Top Performance.
And as much as the technology was effective it came down to getting the first part of the formula right: the people. In that regard Staples has a clear vision, mission statement, and purpose. And they use a variety of tools and processes. Such as Lean for identifying the waste and value in their processes; simple KPIs that are easy to communicate and track; certification programs to let people know how they’re growing and improving; and they recognize people as evidenced by the Wall of Wow and their Continuous Improvement Belt program. Incidentally I got a taste of what it feels like to be part of the Staples family when they gave all participants our white belt certificates at the end of our morning session.
Add this to Staples’ involvement with Junior Achievement and work experience for new Canadians and you end up a very unique culture of caring and performance.
Make no mistake, Staples has done an amazing job with bar coding, voice picking, and wireless technology; but it all pales in comparison to the workplace they’ve created. And with this workplace truly anything is possible including creating the best distribution facility in the Staples Advantage Canadian operations.
Bravo Staples you are an inspiration to every company!
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Monday, October 26, 2009
Partner or Perish
That the Motorola Partner Roadshow 2009 is happening in
Such is the dilemma of these companies when faced with increasing demands from the business when needs change or new requirements appear. On one hand that new ERP module is fully integrated but lacks certain key features ontop of being a costly affair and comes with an expensive support contract in subsequent years.
I am hearing and seeing of a not so quiet rebellion against upgrading ERP systems because the new product lacks key features and the costs are so high.
This brings me back to partnering and how it has changed in the last couple of years. By partnering I mean businesses teaming up to jointly offer a solution set to meet a broader and inter-related set of requirements. For example, qdata does not offer route optimization or sales order entry, however we have partnerships with other companies that work with warehouse management systems such as ours.
In the past I’ve seen customers take a best of breed approach and select the best vendor for each line of business. That has worked when the client has the internal skills and resources to do the integration; as well the desire and energy to issue multiple RFP. Now in the leaned out, reset economy; those resources are no longer available. Companies are not pushing back when vendors come together as a consortium to deliver a complete solution set. Provided integration issues are worked out, they know they’ll get the biggest bang for their dollar with this approach – a better price and the best product for each line of business.
However the challenges for us vendors are many. We need to figure out how to share confidential information (as we may be competing against each other on another deal), how to structure a business deal so everyone wins, who owns the ‘paper’, to how support will be handled.
Fortunately for qdata we’re getting over the learning curve and have figured out for the most part how to structure these kinds of partner deals. In fact our recent Gold Medal for most Collaborative Solution from CDN Magazine is proof that we get partnerships.
Motorola also gets partnerships and have been ahead of the curve for some time. In fact several of our partnerships have come from introductions through Motorola.
So as Motorola’s many partners converge at their conference in
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Friday, October 09, 2009
Better Stonger and Faster in 2010
We just returned from our annual company retreat held in
Our theme for this year’s event was around how we can become a better, stronger, and faster company. While we articulated that vision going into Roundup, the goal of our event was to define and develop actionable items around that goal.
For us it came down to better processes and more clarity around those processes. In 2009 we did all the heavy lifting by developing solutions that offered more compelling value for our customers, creating the infrastructure to deliver and support it, and finally re-training of our sales team to ‘sell the value’.
And it worked!
However we overlaid this new approach onto existing processes and the cracks started to show. Clearly its time for a major overhaul.
So what’s in store for 2010:
- Re-designing the workflow around our quote to cash cycle – too paper driven and too many hands touching that paperwork creating unnecessary delays
- Combining our incident tracking system for both hardware and software into one. With service operations across the country we have our fair share of the right hand not knowing what the left hand did
- Making our customer product tracking portal BEAM (bar code equipment asset management) more self service i.e. incident creation, get RMAs, track shipments, and repairs.
- Getting our departments to communicate more regularly and frequently. Having proper processes in place is critical, however inter-departmental meetings will be the glue that makes those processes stick and work.
We have in my view (no bias of course!) one of the best if not the best company in our industry. However in order for our company to keep growing we need to continuously improve. And with growth comes the ability to retain and attract excellent people which is the true measure of any company! 
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Thursday, October 08, 2009
Happy Birthday to the Bar Code!
Yesterday marked the official birthday of the bar code ‘born’ Oct 7, 1952 making it 57 years old. We use this date as it was when
While the patent was granted in 1952 it was not until June 26, 1974 that the first bar code on a pack of Wrigley’s gum was scanned at a grocery store. This happened at Marsh's Supermarket in
This birthday was also marked by Goggle, as the bar code was used in place of its usual banner.
And for the technically curious, the bar code says Google and is code 128 symbology.
It’s no secret why Goggle chose to recognize the bar code - consumers are the next big wave of users. The shopping comparison tools available for Google's Android based Smartphones are just the beginning of bar code applications for the consumer. Soon you'll be able to scan in loyalty cards, gift cards, warranties and prices on product purchases through your Smartphone; basically anything ou want to stored online and available anywhere and anytime.
But back to the bar code, imagine a world without bar codes: massive check-out lines, aiport delays and closures, patients in hospitals getting the wrong medicine, and next day deliveries all but a distant memory.
The bar code has revolutionized and will continue to revolutionize how we work, process and think about data. And with the expotential adoption of mobile technologies, RFID, and consumerization of bar code - its best days are yet to come.
Scanners On!
Posted By: Jeff Lem @ 6:43:06 PM
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Friday, August 28, 2009
So What’s your Elevator Pitch?
One of the greatest best business books of all time is Jim Collin’s Good to Great. http://www.jimcollins.com/ The chapter that really resonated with me and became a two year personal quest was the part about what’s your Hedgehog. In earlier days people called it your elevator pitch. What Jim Collins did was take it to a whole new level.
Basically he defined your ‘Hedgehog’ as being three things:
What are you deeply passionate about?
What can you be the best at in the world?
What drives your economic engine?
And the really challenging part; boil it down to a simple statement – the shorter the better.
Based on the above three questions at qdata we are:
Passionate about your bar codes
Great at making bar codes work in terms of driving value and ROI
Our economic engine is derived from generating margin percent per sale dollar
And now for the hard part, our simple statement which came to me one morning as I was getting ready for work. It dawned upon me that at the end of day if our customers don’t experience a good scan then chances are they’re not going to be very happy with us. So as Stephen Covey says ‘begin with the end in mind’.
Our end result is “Scanners On”.
Making Scanners On requires more than just a good bar code scanner; it requires the right equipment (ergonomically and price wise), a good wireless infrastructure, software, and integration (you have to move the data somewhere). And let’s not end there, keeping Scanners On requires a complete service approach including service contracts, on-site, hot spares, 24/7 coverage, and support.
This has served us well because it’s now the first test for all new projects and products and has guided our thinking about where and how we should grow our business.
Which brings me back to my elevator pitch which is not “IT services around bar coding and wireless” but “Scanners On.”
See you soon in an elevator near you!
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Monday, August 24, 2009
Entrepreneurs as Recession Busters
It’s not often that I get to mix business with pleasure but that’s what happened on my recent trip to Ottawa where I attended the regional Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) www.eonetwork.org Canadian Conference Aug 12-15 while taking in some holiday time with the family.
As the Toronto Chapter President of EO I had the good fortune to speak with the Kevin Carmichael of the Globe & Mail who was sent to cover the event. While he did say most if not all attendees reported a tough go out there, he also discovered an overwhelming consensus that NOW was the best time to invest and innovate.
And while we don’t have reams of market research to support this thinking, this is not a new thing when you consider that many great companies were started in a downturn: Eli Lilly, IBM, Merck, Hershey's, Gillette, Alcoa, J&J, Chevron, GE, AT&T, Abbott, Lilly, Coors, Johnson Controls, Bristol-Myers and PPG to name a few.
So it comes down to this: when you do business with entrepreneurs you’re not only helping yourself to a great solution but you’re helping the economy recover more quickly. Entrepreneurs will be investing a portion of that revenue into creating more innovative products and ultimately jobs.
To read the Kevin’s Globe & Mail article click the link below:
http://license.icopyright.net/user/webEprint.act?id=3.8425-13733
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Friday, July 31, 2009
My 2009 Mid-Year Review
With summer here it’s time to kick back and do a quick year to date review. Certainly we’ve had our share of surprises - both good and bad. Here are mine:
- IT Spend. In a word resilient. Our industry took a hit back in Sept 2008 which carried through to first quarter 2009, but after that it was back to business. Helped by a surging Canadian dollar and low interest rates, IT spend on AIDC appears to be back and I believe it is customers' need to still improve upon productivity and cut more costs despite, in many cases, having reduced their labor forces. The dark cloud on this horizon is that banks are still very tight on lending, increasing their fees, and reluctant to increase lines of credit.
- Mobility. To no surprise we’re seeing faster carrier networks, cheaper data rates, technological convergence and more choice amongst devices. A lot of IT departments are now putting together detailed mobility strategies that include integration, application sets, security, support, and standardization considerations. For many companies mobility is still more of an afterthought resulting in a patchwork of incompatible and unsupported technologies. Best practice companies are now bringing the same sort of disciplined thinking and action used for other IT investments with the result that we’re now seeing enterprise wide deployments of mobility.
- Technology. Our customer are investing heavily in server virtualization, VOIP, digital signage, managed services, CRM software, and are looking for the first time at the Smartphone for business applications. RFID on the other hand, while still being considered, has yet to make any significant inroads this year.
- Government. While government can’t alone spend our way out of this downturn, I’m seeing a lot more RFPs and interest by government groups in our technology than in recent years. Maybe it’s all that stimulus money finally getting into the system...I’m just happy to see it.
- Outlook. On balance I’m optimistic that our industry has seen the worse of the downturn. The recovery will be uneven and there will be continued bumps along the way, but a lot companies are using these times as a catalyst to challenge everything and even re-invent themselves. As a result I don’t see the panic like I saw in the last major recession in 1981. I believe it has a lot to do with greater access to information which is giving people ideas on how to not just cope but to create a brighter future.
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Monday, June 22, 2009
GS1 Sunrise Update for Jan 2010
“The GS1 DataBar and GS1 Application Identifiers shall be available in all trade item scanning systems beginning Jan 1, 2010.”
That was back in August 2007 and this pronouncement was made by GS1 who is the group that issues all the EAN/UPC barcodes in use around the world. Otherwise known as the 'Sunrise' date, retailers, manufacturers, bar code equipment makers, and label companies must be able to mark or read packages bearing the new GS1 DataBar barcode symbol.
However since that time there has been some refinements to this requirement in that countries not on the fast track program (doesn't include Canada and US) are not required to conform until Jan 1, 2014. And for countries like Canada and the US, the current recommendation for Jan 1 2010 is that retailers in the business of selling loose produce and those issuing manufacturer coupons ensure that their POS hardware and software support GS1 DataBar symbols and numbers. However they do go on to recommend that retailers who sell meat, poultry, fish and other small retail items like jewellery and cosmetics be also marked in this manner.
The advantages of the DataBar symbols include:
- more compact barcode takes 50% less space than the UPC codes
- very suitable for small or hard to mark products
- capable of storing more information like lot#, serial number, shelf life (up to 70 digits)
- more data means greater granularity on what's really selling or not
The good news is that most scanners sold over last 5 years are capable of scanning this barcode and/or are field upgradeable to support it. Challenge for most retailers is getting around to using this symbol i.e. labelling products that may just have a product code on it and figuring out how much data you want to capture.
For more information: http://www.gs1.org or contact your local qdata account rep.
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Friday, June 12, 2009
The Ride to Conquer Cancer
This weekend I’m participating in the Ride to Conquer Cancer here in
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Thursday, May 28, 2009
Why Connect Now! is a Must Attend Conference
With less than two weeks to go on our event and over 150 people registered; we’re busy wrapping up details like food, accommodations for out of town customers and door prizes from sponsors. If you’re still on the fence here’s why Connect Now! should be on your list of conferences to attend this spring: - A panel discussion with Dave Luton, columnist for Materials Management & Distribution Magazine, Jeff Brownlee, VP Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, and Bob Armstrong, President of the SCL Canada. Together we’ll discuss how the Canadian business landscape has changed, what’s needed to stay competitive and how we can become world class organizations that can compete with the best both here and abroad. - Keynotes from both Rogers Wireless and Motorola on the age of enterprise mobility and why this will change the notion that work can only be performed behind a desk or from 9 to 5. - Afternoon sessions from customers and vendors on how they’ve deployed AIDC to achieve dramatic labour savings with portable printing, met tough government regulations on drug traceability, and how they moved their data outside the four walls for superior customer service. - Expo floor showcase with over 20 vendors booths showing the latest and best game changing technologies ranging from wireless VOIP phones, RFID, printing, pen tablets, to software as a service, and BEAM™ (barcode equipment asset management) our new customer portal allowing our customers to track all their AIDC equipment. And if this isn’t enough – a fabulous networking cocktail hour with great door prizes and a grand prize draw of a Napoleon BBQ valued at $1500 courtesy of Wolf Steel; manufacturers of arguably the best and ‘hottest’ BBQ on the market today. So take five minutes and register now. Looking forward to connecting with you at Connect Now! June 9 at the Westin Bristol Hotel. Use my promo code for a free pass: CONNECTJEFF
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