On Time in Full: Recent Episodes
Designed Conveyor Systems
From supply chain to production capabilities, On Time in Full will explore how the material handling industry has many career growth opportunities.
Modular is having a moment and the motivations are clear. Modular is easy to assemble, adaptable and avoids supply chain disruptions. Now, Designed Conveyer Systems offers a modular conveyor system option. Host Tyler Kern spoke with Designed Conveyor System’s Todd Jones, VP of Project Delivery, and Meg Culler Smith, CP of Engineering on the topic of modular conveyor system pieces.
“A modular conveyor system is a complete conveyor system designed to transport a variety of products. But the trick is that it’s put together from a very few basic building blocks of conveyers,” said Meg Culler Smith, Vice President of Engineering. The modular building blocks include straight sections, curves, merges, diverts, lift gates, herringbone sections, and more. The units arrive assembled and pre-wired. Once the sections are put together and plugged in, the system is ready to be used. “These are fairly simple systems. There’s not a lot of sophisticated electronics, which is the primary driver of supply chain issues today,” said Todd Jones, Vice President of Project Delivery. The modular conveyor system comes in standard sizes. They are not made to order but readily available.
One particular DCS client opted for the modular conveyor system while waiting for its permanent solution. The modular system will be built outside of the permanent system's footprint, so the site can be up and running before the permanent elements are ready. Once the permanent system is tested and running, the company can take down the modular design, store it as a backup, move it to a new site, or resell it.
“These systems let you do more, with less,” said Jones. With fewer technical elements, the modular conveyor system doesn’t need highly skilled laborers to put the systems together. They’re easy to assemble and disassemble. The systems are cost-effective, flexible, and quick to implement. “Some people like to call them legos, any of those kinds of modular toys that you had as a child. Because these pieces are all designed to connect to each other in various configurations, so, you know, if you can dream it, you can build it,” said Smith.
Veterans retire with a variety of skills under their belt. These skills form a natural path from the military into the civilian workforce, particularly translating to project management. To talk about this overlap, DJ Hughes, a current armed forces reserve officer with twenty years of active-duty service under his belt, talks to host Tyler Kern about his transition into project management fifteen years ago.
“In my civilian career, I have done work in operations management and project management roles in a variety of companies. I have served in the Military Reserve,” said Hughes. He joined the Design Conveyor Systems team about a year ago.
The overlap lays the foundation, but Hughes has had some adjustments to make around pace. “It’s drilled into you to move with a sense of urgency in military training,” said Hughes. There’s good reason for it in the military, “but shifting can be difficult.” Project management requires a steady pace that consistently considers the overarching project goals and completes steps sequentially.
In project management and frontline work, “Leadership is critical, but we must accomplish our mission, the tasks in front of us,” said Hughes, “This mission mentality translates well into a project-based mindset because you have requirements, training that needs to happen, budgets that you must adhere to.”
Veterans are used to training and shifting from tactical to strategic levels. In project management, it’s all about planning. You have the proper plans in place. You understand what needs to be accomplished.
Communication is critical in the Army, Navy, and Air Force. “Always giving your intent, your mission. It’s clear from the person at the top to the soldier that they understand the ‘why,’’” said Hughes. Critical parts of project management outline communication expectations in the early planning stages. Through a project, communication must be clear. “We all have to understand the goal and how we’re going to execute to get there,” said Hughes.
Conflict will inevitably happen at a jobsite. However, it is not about avoiding conflict but figuring out how to handle the conflict. Brian Niccum is the director of site management at Designed Conveyor Systems (DCS). Niccum provides insight for conflicts that can arise on sites and how to deal with them properly and professionally to ensure a project gets completed safely.
“Having the smaller issues resolved in the beginning works to deescalate the larger conflict” said Niccum. Larger issues that arise in conflict require parties to remain deescalates and logical when working towards conflict resolution. The neutral space allows for mediators to not take sides and emphasize common ground. As people work together on projects the more growth will happen which then produces resiliency towards the obstacle’s teams face. Each party/trade requires an empathic approach when issues arise between multiple departments. Misinterpretations may be common among different perspectives. Therefore, all parties much be present to ensure equality and clarity among the parties.
Site Mangers and every employee partake in a disk assessment at Designed Conveyor Systems which determines a fit between your personality and work style in order to create teams that are more compatible when working closely on projects together. “Onsite confclit doesn’t necessarily make it all the way up to leadership and senior leadership” Said Niccum. Designed Conveyor Systems gave teams a two day training on conflict resolution that now has equipped members thus far with skills to address conflict and resolved issues safely and effectively.
Technology is integral to staying relevant in modern supply chain logistics, especially in markets that are always on the move and projected to evolve. A Licensed engineer and Designed Conveyor Systems’ President, Matt Ferguson, has witnessed this critical phenomenon firsthand. Throughout his career, he’s observed how – when properly implemented and progress is identified – tech can be the key to achieving a customer’s goals.
But he also understands there are some difficulties and hurdles to overcome in the process.
“One of the biggest challenges with applying new technology is defining what good performance looks like,” Ferguson explained.
Join him and On Time in Full host Tyler Kern as they examine the convergence of value and technology when developing industry-specific logistics automation. They also explore how DCS creates and integrates new technology to impact their customers’ productivity as well as some of the trials involved.
With a background in systems integration, Ferguson is helping design equipment that uniquely fulfills customer needs, allowing them to actualize success and reach new levels of accomplishment.
“Let’s discuss how we can win in small ways, demonstrate that technology is going to actually solve the problem, or discover ways that it compliments how you do things now,” Ferguson said, “and then let’s begin to iterate – let’s continue to give technology a chance to improve and evolve because it has done so very rapidly over the past couple years.”
Find out how DCS is boldly pushing partners into the future so they can realize new levels of expansion.
Trade shows are back, and after virtual environments and solutions showed people the various ways they can engage with their industries, colleagues and communities, it’s as important as ever to ensure a premium experience for attendees. But what about the vendors exhibiting the show? Experience isn’t a one-way street for just "end users;" the show exhibitors need to see the benefits, too. Gary Church, Strategic Accounts Executive at Designed Conveyor Systems, joined Tyler Kern on this episode of On Time In Full to lend his expertise on timely tips for creating an unforgettable trade show experience for exhibitors and attendees.
Church remarked that attendance for trade shows is ramping up again after two years of the pandemic, and attendees are excited to come out and see what exhibitors have to offer. He cautioned, though, that companies shouldn't magically expect to generate sales just by being a vendor that sets up an exhibit.
“If you’re going to exhibit at a show, you’ve got to work on strategy, structure, and then implementation. And you’ve got to build it internally," Church said.
No matter the size of the event or the strategy an exhibitor maps out, trades hows are a prime selling opportunity, and vendors need to take every advantage a show affords and make the most of them. Church said that the pre- and post-show events could be just as, or even more important than, the main show.
Some of the same strategies and thought processes that go into a vendor’s role in a trade show apply to attendees.
“If you’re an attendee, what you want to ask yourself and for your company is number one, ‘why are we going to this show,’ Church said. “What are our goals, and what exhibitors, vendors, and suppliers do we really want to get to and talk to?”
When attendees complete a show, they should walk away with new information and contacts that can benefit their company and their customers.
On this episode of On Time In Full, Tyler Kern was joined by John Knudsen, Project Director, Designed Conveyor Systems, to discuss equipment lead times. Global supply chains have struggled with many challenges throughout the pandemic including fluctuating lead times throughout the industry. Knudsen shared various challenges that the industry faces highlighting sourcing material, extended lead times, labor, resources, and transportation to sites as severe issues within the material handling world. Knudsen speaks to the “perfect storm” Covid created throughout the industry that includes an unmotivated workforce.
Knudsen discussed how planning projects ahead of time and defining clear goals for operations are two of the best practices a company can employ during these pressing times. Planning ahead of time allows companies to be prepared to address unexpected challenges While there is a long wait on lead times, planning in advance can aid in dealing with the changes found in today’s supply chain. Additionally, planning for capacity can save many headaches in how to deal with them. Lastly, companies want to assess and define their goals to ensure they are aligned to support a company’s desired future state. Goals allow for structure with flexibility when needed to support positive outcomes.
Knudsen shared more insight into making the planning process more effective for companies. He shared that augmenting the current process by adding off-the-shelf equipment with a short lead time and using equipment until you get the point for installation were methods to address the planning process.
Listen in to learn more about solving supply chain issues with industry expert John Knudsen.
More Episodes In This Series
The Keys for Maintaining System Uptime in Material Handling
Opportunities in the Material Handling Industry
On this episode of On Time In Full, Tyler Kern was joined by John Knudsen, Project Director, Designed Conveyor Systems, to discuss equipment lead times. Global supply chains have struggled with many challenges throughout the pandemic including fluctuating lead times throughout the industry. Knudsen shared various challenges that the industry faces highlighting sourcing material, extended lead times, labor, resources, and transportation to sites as severe issues within the material handling world. Knudsen speaks to the “perfect storm” Covid created throughout the industry that includes an unmotivated workforce.
Knudsen discussed how planning projects ahead of time and defining clear goals for operations are two of the best practices a company can employ during these pressing times. Planning ahead of time allows companies to be prepared to address unexpected challenges. While there is a long wait on lead times, planning in advance can aid in dealing with the changes found in today’s supply chain. Additionally, planning for capacity can save many headaches in how to deal with them. Lastly, companies want to assess and define their goals to ensure they are aligned to support a company’s desired future state. Goals allow for structure with flexibility when needed to support positive outcomes.
Knudsen shared more insight into making the planning process more effective for companies. He shared that augmenting the current process by adding off-the-shelf equipment with a short lead time and using equipment until you get the point for installation were methods to address the planning process.
Listen in to learn more about solving supply chain issues with industry expert John Knudsen.
More Episodes In This Series
The Keys for Maintaining System Uptime in Material Handling
Opportunities in the Material Handling Industry
In this podcast with Designed Conveyor Systems, John Knudsen, Project Director, Designed Conveyor Systems, discusses lead times with equipment. Knudsen covers supply chain issues of material handling equipment, extended lead times, mitigating efforts, and late or missed deliveries. He then moves into interim planning, specifically covering understanding goals, planning installation, and the importance of doing so before you need it. Knudsen finishes off the episode by offering his insight for interim solutions, such as space/storage interim ideas, picking ideas, outbound ideas, and other operation ideas. Tune in to learn more!
In this episode of On Time In Full, Tyler Kern spoke with Matt Greene, Vice President of Life Cycle at Designed Conveyor Systems. Greene oversees the company’s 24/7 client support program; operations and maintenance training; spares and warranty customer service, and various lifecycle projects including expansions and retrofits.
Greene discussed various best practices in maintaining system uptime for material handling including an insightful opening into whether to host applications on sight or in the cloud. In discussing the decision-making process to host applications locally or in the cloud Greene noted that although cloud hosting is not new, it has been growing quickly with ever-increasing capabilities.
He continued to discuss the decision-making process which came down to latency problems with cloud hosting. “Typically, what we see is a hundred millisecond threshold. So, how fast do you (clients) need your decisions? And, if it’s faster than a hundred-milliseconds then we say you know you should probably be hosting locally. You probably don’t want to go with a cloud solution.”
What does this mean for somebody who is trying to put in a new material handling system?
In reality, the most frequent need for decisions under a hundred milliseconds comes in playing during scan and sort operations, high-speed sortation of products. Then, it makes sense to host locally. “In most other instances, there is a cloud-based solution that will work with manufacturer’s needs,” stated Greene.
Greene and his colleagues at Designed Conveyor Systems take a consultative approach to meeting client needs when it comes to deciding the best practices in material handling. System downtime is costly so ensuring clients have the right systems in place to meet their specific needs is critical. Listen in to learn more about what factors need to be considered in maintaining your material handling system uptime.
In this episode of On Time In Full, Tyler Kern spoke with Matt Greene, Vice President of Life Cycle at Designed Conveyor Systems. Greene oversees the company’s 24/7 client support program; operations and maintenance training; spares and warranty customer service, and various lifecycle projects including expansions and retrofits.
Greene discussed various best practices in maintaining system uptime for material handling including an insightful opening into whether to host applications on sight or in the cloud. In discussing the decision-making process to host applications locally or in the cloud Greene noted that although cloud hosting is not new, it has been growing quickly with ever-increasing capabilities.
He continued to discuss the decision-making process which came down to latency problems with cloud hosting. “Typically, what we see is a hundred millisecond threshold. So, how fast do you (clients) need your decisions? And, if it’s faster than a hundred-milliseconds then we say you know you should probably be hosting locally. You probably don’t want to go with a cloud solution.”
What does this mean for somebody who is trying to put in a new material handling system?
In reality, the most frequent need for decisions under a hundred milliseconds comes in playing during scan and sort operations, high-speed sortation of products. Then, it makes sense to host locally. “In most other instances, there is a cloud-based solution that will work with manufacturer’s needs,” stated Greene.
Greene and his colleagues at Designed Conveyor Systems take a consultative approach to meeting client needs when it comes to deciding the best practices in material handling. System downtime is costly so ensuring clients have the right systems in place to meet their specific needs is critical. Listen in to learn more about what factors need to be considered in maintaining your material handling system uptime.
Supply chains have been a key topic of conversation over the last few years. As huge disruptions occurred, it became a focus in the news and content all around the world. Companies will need new, adaptable strategies when determining future business processes. Discussing best practices for those, “On Time in Full” Host Tyler Kern spoke with Mark Kidwell, Director of Supply Chain consulting for Designed Conveyor Systems.
Kidwell has more than 40 years of experience in the material handling business, beginning as a truck driver to his current consulting role. “We’ve never seen challenges like this,” he said. “The risk of single source or reliance on sole providers, and the availability of human capital are weak spots in the supply chain.”
In addition to these main drivers of disruption, Kidwell explained that it’s difficult to get goods back in the U.S.
When Kidwell works with customers on building a supply chain strategy, the first thing he stresses is alignment with business goals.
“The analytics behind this are important, so we start there in assessing an operation. The question is, ‘What are you measuring and how?’ Then, it’s about the alignment of measurables to the overall company objectives,” Kidwell explained.
Kidwell noted that departmental goals could often be competing or conflicting. For instance, there may be an inclination to buy at volume when procuring raw materials; however, that could have large downstream implications for inventory management goals.
Today’s supply chain strategy includes lessons learned from the past few years. Kidwell explained, “There are some hard lessons learned about the reliance on headcount because labor isn’t always available. There’s also the fragility of some processes meant for certain activities but now need to be more flexible.”
Tyler Kern welcomed Satyen Pathak, an Account Executive at Designed Conveyer Systems (DCS), and they discussed the opportunities that exist within the material handling industry. Pathak started as an installer of letter-sorting machines, eventually moving to technical support and research in customer service and ultimately rising to his current job at DCS.
Pathak is thankful he’s had so many roles climbing up the employment ladder, which allowed him to gain a variety of experiences and travel throughout the U.S. Now at DCS, he manages one of the company’s key accounts.
“I think I built around different facets of differing roles,” Pathak explained about his career trajectory. “I certainly think that everything I’ve experienced and had exposure to has certainly kind of well-rounded me out to where I am in my career today.”
Pathak explained the various lucrative avenues that exists within the material handling industry, from inside the four walls of factories, to sales and business development, human resources, engineering and project management.
“There are obviously hundreds of roles that exist,” said Pathak. “A lot of key ones are very solutions or concept based. How can we do something different?”
Material handling is an industry that is rapidly expanding, so Pathak explained just how much room for growth there is for those considering this industry for their career journey. “Anyone who’s interested can definitely dip their toe in it and take off,” said Pathak.
There are many ways for someone to begin in the industry, be it as an intern, full-time employee or even a higher-level position with a post-graduate degree. Some companies are even aiding employees with higher education.
“Everyone has an opportunity,” explained Pathak.
Supply chains have been a key topic of conversation over the last few years. As huge disruptions occurred, it became a focus in the news and content all around the world. Companies will need new, adaptable strategies when determining future business processes. Discussing best practices for those, “On Time in Full” Host Tyler Kern spoke with Mark Kidwell, Director of Supply Chain consulting for Designed Conveyor Systems.
Kidwell has more than 40 years of experience in the material handling business, beginning as a truck driver to his current consulting role. “We’ve never seen challenges like this,” he said. “The risk of single source or reliance on sole providers, and the availability of human capital are weak spots in the supply chain.”
In addition to these main drivers of disruption, Kidwell explained that it’s difficult to get goods back in the U.S.
When Kidwell works with customers on building a supply chain strategy, the first thing he stresses is alignment with business goals.
“The analytics behind this are important, so we start there in assessing an operation. The question is, ‘What are you measuring and how?’ Then, it’s about the alignment of measurables to the overall company objectives,” Kidwell explained.
Kidwell noted that departmental goals could often be competing or conflicting. For instance, there may be an inclination to buy at volume when procuring raw materials; however, that could have large downstream implications for inventory management goals.
Today’s supply chain strategy includes lessons learned from the past few years. Kidwell explained, “There are some hard lessons learned about the reliance on headcount because labor isn’t always available. There’s also the fragility of some processes meant for certain activities but now need to be more flexible.”
Tyler Kern welcomed Satyen Pathak, an Account Executive at Designed Conveyer Systems (DCS), and they discussed the opportunities that exist within the material handling industry. Pathak started as an installer of letter-sorting machines, eventually moving to technical support and research in customer service and ultimately rising to his current job at DCS.
Pathak is thankful he’s had so many roles climbing up the employment ladder, which allowed him to gain a variety of experiences and travel throughout the U.S. Now at DCS, he manages one of the company’s key accounts.
“I think I built around different facets of differing roles,” Pathak explained about his career trajectory. “I certainly think that everything I’ve experienced and had exposure to has certainly kind of well-rounded me out to where I am in my career today.”
Pathak explained the various lucrative avenues that exists within the material handling industry, from inside the four walls of factories, to sales and business development, human resources, engineering and project management.
“There are obviously hundreds of roles that exist,” said Pathak. “A lot of key ones are very solutions or concept based. How can we do something different?”
Material handling is an industry that is rapidly expanding, so Pathak explained just how much room for growth there is for those considering this industry for their career journey. “Anyone who’s interested can definitely dip their toe in it and take off,” said Pathak.
There are many ways for someone to begin in the industry, be it as an intern, full-time employee or even a higher-level position with a post-graduate degree. Some companies are even aiding employees with higher education.
“Everyone has an opportunity,” explained Pathak.