I can see both sides of the coin (management and hourly) for many things but this is not one of them having done this job not too long ago. They say whatever we're doing isn't working...well no kidding we've been doing the same damn thing over and over and expecting a different result. Isn't that the definition of insanity? stupidity? I forget which (maybe both). PAS isn't the greatest thing in the world (it could be, but it isn't yet), its time to man up and admit that. It needs help in many centers (not all, some it works very well). We need to see what the centers that it works well in are doing vs what troubled centers are doing.
One thing I know that kills our service is that the unload absolutely kills the SPA people and they can't keep up....hello out of sync PALs. Sticking two unloaders on a SPA person who is new? yup we've done that. Sticking two unloaders on a SPA person who is really good but has one of the new printers that prints slower than previously? Yup done that to (this one on a daily basis). We don't LEARN. Its really simple, if the equipment itself can't keep up with the flow, what do we expect the SPA person to do? Use the force? The production numbers should be altered to reflect the equipment change....but we know it won't. You need manageable flow for it to work correctly and reliably, not walls of packages coming at you. We keep doing this hoping and praying they'll stay in sync....thats just plain stupid. Finally they listened to reason somewhat and added an extra SPA person to our sort isle (our building didn't have the room to stick them by the unload doors, it is done in the sort isle on "TROLLEYs" as they're called) in attempts to better manage the flow...I haven't heard the official results yet (just started last week) so we'll see if it made a difference. In the same token though, they probably sent even more flow down the isle due to the extra person...negating the proposed benefits of it.
its funny though red, we're told to get our hourlies to GO GO GO GO!! and then when we see the misload report they're like welll what the hell happened? Most of us PT supes get why it happens, we're all on the same page (for the most part) in my building but we're just powerless to change it. This tells us that the company really doesn't care about misloads all that much. If they did they'd actually do something about it OTHER than discipline. If you're expecting someone loading 1200 pieces in under or just over 4 hrs to never make any mistakes...well I've got some ocean front property in montana I'd love to sell you (not you personally). Yes some people MAY be able to do it, but thats the exception, not the rule. I know the people who come up with this stuff certainly can't do it. I even had an open challenge with one of our IE guys back when I was a loader...he never took me up on it. Though he did end up loading at one point...7 misloads in one car halfway through the shift (he was audited just like we all were then).
Previously, someone with that kind of piece count got to start at 330....they're lucky if they get 415/430 now. I know if loaders had more time the loads would improve....but we both know how likely that is to happen.