The LCS Impact Awards

World Courier – New Hyde Park

Background

Building on its world-class business model, World Courier kicked off the Center of Excellence (COE) initiative at the beginning of 2022. The program focused on standardizing and improving product workflows focusing on the New Hyde Park (NYC) station. There was significant variation in processes to deliver customer product that utilized the same packaging containers.

This variation had been observed in the inconsistent level of documentation regarding work instructions impacting team member training. The operational variation coupled with other factors resulted in a wide range of performance between stations leading to dramatic variations in customer satisfaction impacting financial performance. Business metrics and visual management to track current performance was not at the level to drive clear actions, identify root causes, and implement effective countermeasures limiting the opportunity for improvements impacting customer satisfaction.

The continuous improvement efforts driven by the COE initiative has dramatically impacted operational performance at New Hyde Park and made it one of the leading stations in the network. Continuous improvement is now becoming “the way we do work” at New Hyde Park and is the foundation to create the World Courier Way. The next step is to roll out the initiative to every station around the world.

Activity

The focus of the COE initiative was on how World Courier customer packaging jobs were processed. The team analyzed the end-to-end value stream from initial customer order to package creation to product pickup and finally to delivery of the product. The team worked with various stakeholder groups across the company that were directly involved in the processes or supported the processes, such as Customer Service and Brokerage.

The working group started by developing value stream maps for each of the product workflows to identify waste and flow issues. In every process, the team began to more consistently and accurately capture defect data to drive root causes by creating pareto charts and using Five Whys and Ishikawa diagrams to perform analysis. Next the team brainstormed potential countermeasures to improve, refine, and standardize the operational processes in New Hyde Park. The team created flow in the process by moving workstations, implementing 5S+ at each station, and instituting visual management.

The team updated standard operating procedures and work instructions to standardize the process. The team also implemented pull by instituting Kanban. All team members received Lean training with many attending the AmerisourceBergen Continuous Improvement Basic Course earning the LCS Level 1a certification.

Impact

The impact to the two main customer facing metrics are On-Time Pickup and On-Time Delivery has been dramatic. Over the six-month period of the initiative both metrics have increased over 30% from 60% to 94%. Other impacts include:

• Improved the flow of packaging and implemented the 5S+ approach to reduce waste and optimize productivity as well as tracking the work completed at the site.
• Stepped up efficiencies when assets are returned including GTCs and Dry Shippers. The team also created a model which optimizes the workflow, in return, maximizing the space to improve our productivity.
• Harnessing the visual management approach to significantly improve and increase workflow and defined lanes to process the incoming and outgoing shipments.
• Defined and implemented new dispatch processes to manage pickups and deliveries and improved the workflow to include visual management during the job activities.
• Eliminated dummy gels in packaging process saving $140k and 120 labor hours annually.
• Eliminated two manual checklists saving 320 labor hours annually.
• Reduced errors in the package check-in process, streamlined return assets process, and eliminated supervisor check by separating packaging and return asset product flows.
• Reduced packaging job issues due to temperature monitor defects by 65%.
• Increased team member engagement and pride.