Distribution Center Solutions for Direct Sales Companies

Famed Catalog Companies Rely on Morrison Company
The direct sale or the sometimes-called direct mail industry relies on metrics to sustain sales and profits. After years of research they know the profile of the ideal customer. Armed with this knowledge, companies like Land’s End and Hammacher Schlemmer spend millions mailing their catalog to would be buyers.

It should come to be no surprise that these companies know how to manage the details. For almost twenty years, companies like these have trusted Morrison Company to design and build integrated storage and retrieval systems for their distribution centers. The speed and efficiency with how they fulfill orders determine whether their clients decide to keep the product or not.

Chadwick’s of Boston and Victoria’s Secret are other examples of high-profile companies that pride themselves on excellent customer service. To the customer, service starts by how fast and accurately the merchandise ordered is picked and shipped. Just as they profile ideal buyers, these companies have a profile of an expert and responsive company that designs and implements integrated storage and retrieval systems.

Morrison Company, located in Cleveland, Ohio, has a long and rich legacy helping companies from all industries solve logistics and material handling challenges. Beginning in 1929, customers have discovered Morrison Company’s passion for service. Just as catalog direct sale companies rely on service and superior products to earn the trust of clients, Morrison Company has invested millions of dollars to ally with superior product manufacturers, invest in knowledgeable employees and build an ethical business culture.

When you browse the catalog of a premier direct sale company, do you believe their merchandise and service is the same as any other supplier? As you consider ordering, do you think their expertise is comparable to a general merchandise store? The answer is probably no. Likewise when searching for a company do design and build an integrated material handling solution, don’t assume all companies are alike and their products a commodity.

For the past 75 years Morrison Company has led the transformation as the material handling industry has evolved. After hundreds of projects, the Morrison Company sales and engineering team is eager to take on your unique challenges. To set up an evaluation of your facility, select facility assessment.

You Do That? - In-House Design Engineering Services

Not All Solutions are Alike
According to MHEDA (Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association) there are 400 companies that offer material handling solutions. Although this number may seem high, most do not offer engineering advise. Why is that important?

Think about your last visit to the doctor. What if that meeting was to gain answers as to the cause of a troubling pain? Even with healthcare insurance you would expect to pay for the knowledge and experience of a professional who had seen similar cases. You probably decided to just stay at home and look online for a generic answer? Right?

Working with a supplier of material handling equipment that doesn’t have an experienced engineering department makes about the same sense. Looking online and shopping for what appears to be the right solution may save money in the short term, but your long-term prognosis may be grim.

Morrison Company’s engineering team, armed with 35 years of material handling expertise, routinely helps clients think through choices, deciphers government regulations (building codes), presents options that will work when things get shaky (seismic zone design expertise), and prescribes a care plan that will work for their unique circumstances (their integrated material handling solution).

Additionally, just as your family physician must maintain knowledge of current medical trends, Morrison Company engineers are required to actively read and test various products and means to deliver safe and effective material handling solutions.

The commitment to an in-house expertise is the right thing to do for clients. Most material handling distributors rely on their suppliers engineering capability to identify whether the client’s unique need can be met with their product. The flaw using this practice is in the skill set of the engineer. Manufacturers hire engineers to design products not to design an integrated solution using several products.

Additionally, the manufacturing engineers are not tasked to maintain relationships with their end users, meaning as circumstances change in your operation, there will be no engineering advocate to give appropriate advise.

Contact Morrison Company for an assessment of your material handling needs. In-house engineering expertise is provided at no charge and through the guidance of the sales team will develop the right solution to meet your unique material handling needs.

Test Your Knowledge

Building a Business Plan for Everyone
Business planning, in its simplest form is nothing more than pragmatically addressing all issues relating to running a business. No matter what your role is at your business, all managers need to learn and practice the skill of planning. Henry Kissinger once said, “If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you there.”

Building a business plan, like preparing for a cross-country trip, includes planning for intentional actions, unforeseen problems, and expectations. An assessment of your resources is next. No one wants to be the stranded motorist watching as the world passes by, waiting for your tow to arrive. If you’ve been in that circumstance, the cost to fix the problem will probably be higher because the service provider knows you have no other options. Likewise if poor planning strands your operation, the high cost of poor performance, a tarnished reputation and perhaps your job can be a likely consequence.

Planning is part of every Morrison Company client project. Honed after thousands of projects, Morrison Company’s project management rigger all but insures a smooth execution of your project. Even before the project is implemented, the sales and engineering teams are hard at work building a plan that will address your unique needs. Don’t take for granted that other providers of material handling solutions focus the required time on this critical aspect of your project!

Need help planning for a renovation or expansion of you manufacturing or warehousing operation? Morrison Company’s team stands ready to join your internal team to develop am integrated material handling solution that is right for your company.

Contact Morrison Company for an assessment of your facility. Additionally, if you want a template of a business plan you can modify for your needs contact us for a copy.

Read Any Tea Leaves Lately?

Business Outlook for 2005
Businesses appear to be casting off their fall caution, and that's good news for 2005. Earlier this year, the oil shock and election uncertainty clouded the outlook, causing companies to delay some of their inventory-building, capital projects, and hiring until the future was a little clearer. Now, companies seem to like what they see, especially the rebound in consumer spending and the lower dollar, which will provide a boost to exports and profits.

Most business analysts are espousing this conclusion. Business Week magazine adds detailed rationale to the argument. Corporate America is gearing up once again. Just look at the rising trends in industrial orders and output, suggesting that companies are responding to the stronger pace of demand. More important, companies appear to be interested in expanding their operations, not just in replacing tired old computers or machinery. Growing payrolls are another key sign that, despite the high cost of hiring, businesses are feeling better about the future and are willing to expand. All this is supporting economic growth this quarter, and the momentum should carry over into the New Year.

The reason businesses are increasingly willing to shell out more for equipment and payrolls is evident in the details of the Commerce Dept.'s Nov. 30 update on third-quarter real gross domestic product. Based on more complete data, Commerce says the economy grew at a 3.9% annual rate over the summer, instead of the 3.7% pace originally reported last month. And while the overall revision to the past was small, the underlying data show a sharp upward shift in prospects for the future.

Despite the recent interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, financing this spending won't be a problem. Corporations have enough cash flow to cover all their capital outlays and then some. True, profits will grow more slowly as costs rise, but that's compared with the super strong pace of recent quarters. Third-quarter profits from current production, as measured by Commerce, fell 2.4% from the second quarter, and the growth from the previous year slowed to 8.4%, vs. 19% in the second quarter. But hurricane-related payouts by insurance companies and uninsured losses subtracted nearly $80 billion from the total. Excluding that, profits last quarter would have grown 4.4% from the second quarter and 16% from the year before.

The continued upbeat trend in demand, the ongoing rise in capacity utilization, the excellent financial condition of corporations, and the rebound in outlays for traditional machinery all support the notion of a positive outlook for capital spending. And historically, capital spending and job growth have moved in tandem. Given that combination, the economy is most likely on its way to a happy -- and prosperous -- new year.

Picking Apart the Pick Module – White Paper

Why They Exist Today and Where Did They Originate From
Interlake Material Handling and Morrison Company have partnered on countless projects to provide storage and retrieval systems for manufacturing and warehousing clients. This white paper is intended to provide guidance and information about the workhorse of a picking operation – the pick module.

While today’s operations in busy distribution centers do not appear to be that simple, in reality there are only a few extra steps in between and a few options along the way to further satisfy today’s material handling demands.

To satisfy these demands, the best tool for just about any job is a pick module. Pick modules are constructed with racking uprights and beams, which are common to just about every material handling operation, and more importantly a combination of subcomponents that help move your product from point A to point B more efficiently. Let’s take a look at the individual components that make up a pick module and evaluate their importance.

Racking Components

Although commonly overlooked, the racking material is in reality the backbone of your operations. With a properly designed and fabricated racking system, you will have a pick module that will last as long as you need it but more importantly will provide the level of safety that will keep you and your employees from unwanted accidents.

The differences in quality and workmanship are the key to good solid racking. Some typical deficiencies found in racking are:

• Out of square frames


• Inconsistently placed horizontal & diagonal bracing


• Inconsistent and sometimes missing welds


• Raw material flaws and inconsistencies

Structural Subcomponents

We have already mentioned the most important structural item, the racking material, but without the stairs and the flooring there would be no access to the floors above and no means of getting to the product from the stairs. A typical pick module flooring system is usually comprised of beams spanning between rack uprights, metal decking, and a wood-wearing surface. Additional items that need to be considered are hand railing, toe boards, lighting, emergency lighting, exit lighting, and sprinkler systems.

Obtaining a complete copy of the white paper can be obtained at Morrison Company.

Security Strategies for Warehouses

Inside Information on the “Inside Job”
Walk into most distribution centers today and you immediately get the feeling that you’re under surveillance. There’s a reason for that! Companies are loosing six or seven figures worth of goods each year.

One company lost more than $70,000 worth of inventory to two employees – one a driver and the other a worker from the shipping department even though it had guards stationed at the complex’s gate to inspect all departing trucks.

While using alarms, closed-circuit television and uniformed security personnel may help deter theft companies have found there are other strategies that are much more effective.

One is place an untrained undercover investigator, who appears to be just another worker, inside the operation. By working alongside warehouse personnel, the undercover operative can observe the theft first hand.

Another effective technique is establishing a toll-free tip line program for employees. Study after study has shown that honest employees don’t want to work alongside thieves. However, most are reluctant to come forward, out of fear of having their identities leaked. The availability of the tip line that offers employees complete confidentiality is often the incentive an honest employee needs to come forward with their story.

Another good strategy good strategy is to establish sound loss prevention policies for inbound and outbound product. There are many steps companies can take to prevent and detect collusio0n on the shipping and receiving docks. They include:

• Always insist that drivers stay with their trucks. Allowing then to wander around the dock makes it too easy for drivers to slip products being staged nearby onto their trucks when one’s paying attention.


• Keep overhead doors closed until an arriving truck has completely pulled into the bay. An always make sure overhead doors are closed and secure before you allow trucks to pull away from the dock.


• Periodically audit your outbound shipments. If you don’t have checks and balances in place, there is no incentive for your dock personnel to remain honest.

Too many companies have accepted dishonesty-related loss as an unavoidable cost of doing business. There is no reason to adopt a victim mentality when theft can be controlled.

© 2003 Morrison Company. All Rights Reserved.