At Merit Logistics, we’re all about creating smarter, more efficient solutions for our clients—and nothing demonstrates this better than the recent success story from our Batavia location. By refining our unloading process, reducing idle time, and optimizing man-hours, we’ve achieved a level of efficiency that’s reshaping how we do business.
Identifying Unloading Inefficiencies
The journey started when we identified a key area for improvement: unnecessary man-hours spent during idle periods between breakdowns. Our Lean Program was already in place, but we knew we could push further to eliminate this wasted time. The solution? We had our supervisory team conduct time trials to evaluate our associates during their unloading of freight. These trials allowed us to assess not just speed, but also the quality, cleanliness, and organization of the process.
Revamping Procedures for Faster Turnaround
Being an AHEAD Site means we operate with urgency and precision, meeting our own high standards as well as those of our client. Our client also runs a Lean Program, which sometimes resulted in us being the “hold-up” in their processes. To remedy this, we acted. By increasing our dock presence, refining time trials, and offering targeted coaching, we were able to implement new unloading and breakdown procedures for live loads and backhauls—ultimately ensuring we no longer caused delays.
Measurable Improvements
The results were clear: throughout June, we significantly decreased idle time and reduced overall man-hours. One of the key goals set by our Site Manager was to keep total hours below 1600. We successfully hit this target by the end of the second quarter, despite facing challenges such as holiday volumes. Thanks to strategic planning and the incredible dedication of our Batavia team—who even volunteered for six-day work weeks—we accomplished this goal while maintaining our commitment to outstanding customer service.
Unloading Process Feedback and Continuous Improvement
Our client played an important role in this success by providing daily and weekly updates, which played a pivotal role in enabling us to enhance our unloading process. We met these challenges head-on, making improvements that are now considered standard expectations for our team. Today, we’re able to unload, break down, and wrap trucks in under 30 minutes for breakdown loads—a significant improvement that has made our unloading process more efficient than ever.
In addition to increasing speed, we’ve also placed a stronger emphasis on cleanliness and organization. A clean, organized dock creates a more efficient work environment and conveys the professionalism we want our clients to see. Our philosophy is simple: when our customers win, we win, as our success at Batavia attests.
One Team, One Fight: Our Commitment to Excellence
At Merit Logistics, we believe in one team, one fight. We’re dedicated to continuously improving our unloading services to drive success for our clients, our team, and our operations. With our innovative approach, we’re not just meeting expectations—we’re setting new ones.
If you’re ready to see how Merit Logistics can revolutionize your unloading operations and help your company achieve its supply chain goals, we’re here to partner with you for success. To explore how we can assist, please reach out to Bill Appolloni, our VP of Sales, by phone at 614-557-3797 or via email at bappolloni@meritlogistics.com.
Let’s join forces to drive your business forward! Let’s win together!