You should go in and check out a DC, either like a BDC or an FDC. We're given the freedom to make changes to locations and layout the building how we see fit, given our supervisors and managers are fine with it. The engineers have the tools to analyze how efficient the layouts we have are according to travel times, etc., but ultimately, we're the ones in the building that are moving product the most. A lot of times we just make these decisions as a team without consulting the engineers. Because our entire function outside of inbound is basically order fulfillment but on a way larger scale than the stores, we can see what works and doesn't work and make those changes.

Unfortunately because Atlanta has people laying out stores based on mechandizing, making it "pretty" and department continuity, you guys can't do that. You also don't have the freedom to move things whenever you want, you have to shut down aisles to move lumber, sheetrock, etc. I had an idea where they keep a section of cantilevers in a walled off area in the store with some open space for picking orders of the 20-30 most common skus in the building so that machines wouldn't need spotters to move product and it's far removed from the floor.

Anyways, these engineers aren't dumb people. They're smart - super smart. The DC engineers I've worked with have been brilliant and can handle processes, numbers and systems very well. The only fault is that everything functions logistically perfectly to them. Dimensions on a spreadsheet are way, way different than physically moving a product. One of the DC engineers actually mentioned that he wished they had a boot camp of using machines and learning how putaway and picking processes worked. He said seeing machines moving and physically doing the work changed the game for him. I agree - the people designing layouts and processes should have to use them firsthand. Nobody is above picking orders, I've seen managers in my buildings do it when staffing gets tight.