A Red Cross consolidation warehouse in Miami, Florida, stores the relief and recovery supplies such as water bottles, food, blankets, tents, and medical kits. Human shippers operating hydraulic forklift trucks and mobile box and pallet lift jacks packed and assembled the mixed pallets. Once each pallet was loaded, an automated shrinkwrapping machine circled the pallet and encased it in clear and waterproof plastic saran wrap. A Miami warehouse Red Cross teammate named Nathan Hoig oversaw the operation of the warehouse and its eight employees and two security guards. A Red Cross field coordinator, Angelo Cardenas, had discussed with Hoig how they might speed up the collection, assembly and shrink wrapping of Red Cross pallets for air cargo planes. They benchmarked many jobs and process work practices and wanted to reduce the total warehouse packaging and shipping time. For example, they had moved inventory items in the warehouse to minimize total distance times weight travelled and had doubled the training time for each warehouse job.

Case Questions for Discussion:

1.How many minutes does it take to assemble and ready for shipment, 100 pallets for an air cargo plane assuming six minutes per pallet?

2.If Hoig and Cardenas assume an 85 or 90 percent learning (improvement)

curve, how much average time per pallet will the 100th pallet take, assuming that the first pallet takes 6 minutes? Use the Excel template Learning Curve. What is the cumulative time for packaging and shipping 100 pallets?

3.What is your final estimate of how long it will take them to assemble 100 pallets for shipment? Explain how you arrived at your answer.