Re-Inventing The Wheel

So today at work we had a shipment that was just under 5,000 units. Nothing was new and we had plenty of people to finish the shipment, but we didn't get finished. When I left there were 3 carts of shipment left to do (we use big shopping-type carts to get shipment from the backroom to the sales floor). It's depressing.

Trish came into the store for about 45 minutes today and will be out of town until Thursday, which take some of the pressure off. But Lisa, my direct supervisor, wasn't happy that we didn't get finished. On my way out, she asked me why things didn't get done. I really didn't have an answer for her. We got through most of the shipment, but then things seemed to come to a screeching halt when everyone was in the boys department. We have a really good team, but they do tend to be a bit chatty. I hate having to be the one to tell everyone to just shut-up and get back to work. I try to be nicer about saying it of course.

On the drive home, I was trying to come up with some grand idea of how to make shipments go easier and the only thing I came up with was to not re-invent the wheel. The company has set up shipments a certain way, and I feel that if we just do things the way the company has them set up, things will just fall into place. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to be the bad guy when it comes to talking and being sure that everything gets done on time. So what if nobody likes me, it's my butt that will get chewed-out if things don't get done.

I'm feeling a lot of pressure to get things done now, when things aren't so busy. We have to get things done now and be super-efficient before all the huge pre-Christmas shipments start showing up. If I don't get things under control now, it's going to be a very, very long Holiday Season.