Time for one order (minutes)

16.3

Number of crates

A walkthrough of the warehouse helped Jessica get familiar with the spaces where food was staged, bagged and put in crates for neighbors to pick up. She and her team collected data while timing and observing the workflow in the order fulfillment and staging areas. They looked at the food pantry’s floor plans and made diagrams. “It was a great learning experience,” Jessica said. “We tried to calculate each step and how to improve it.”

Using the data, Jessica created a model of 130 scenarios, based on how many volunteers might arrive and what roles they should be assigned to give Gleaners the highest possible output. Then, through a couple iterations, Jessica worked with Daniel Klinestiver, Gleaners2Go Coordinator, to implement some of her ideas. There were a few surprises and lots of successes, leading to a faster, more efficient process that can be scaled up to meet the number of volunteers on any given shift.

Elements of the more efficient process

• Bagging stations were set up, so fulfillment volunteers didn’t need to bag as they went and could focus on bagging and crating more efficiently.

• Directional arrows were added, so volunteers stayed out of each other’s way and backlogs were avoided.

• Visual aids were added, so volunteers stopped the flow to ask questions less often.

• Volunteers were assigned specialized roles, so they started getting good at what they were doing, increasing productivity.

By the project’s end, Jessica and her team had reduced the time it takes to process orders to 16.3 minutes and the number of crates to carry by two, which means the program is able to serve more families with fewer volunteers.

Daniel was incredibly grateful to Jessica and her team for helping transform Gleaners2Go’s operations. “Everything works so much better now,” he said.

“Our program was developed to help our businesses get better, and now we’re using it to serve the community,” said Jeannie Phillips. “It was a truly rewarding opportunity, and we hope to do more of it!”

Join the movement

Want to learn more about the Lean Six Sigma program? Reach out to the Business Excellence business partner in your area.

Jeannie Phillips: all areas

Kent Steele: HES, HIS, Monument, HRG

John Anderson: AMI

Jim Massoels: Milestone, US Aggregates & THG Corporate