People + Process = Performance

Sometimes A Change In Cadence Is the Solution

Can changing to a quicker cadence be the right solution to resolve timing, error and safety issues in your company?   It was the solution for one client of mine.  Not only that but it was also a solution to one of my personal fitness issues too!  Read on to learn how a cadence change can benefit you.

I love being active and one of the things I really enjoy is running—or at least I did before my body broke down.  Earlier this Spring I started to have pain in my feet and knees.  Not one to just give up and resign myself to no more running, I was determined to figure out why I was having pain.  Now I have to admit I’ve had pain on/off for years while running and I used to simply go to low impact activities until things calmed down.  Well, I’m getting older and I know if I wanted to continue running as the years continue to tick by I needed to do something different. So I went to a running specialist and she took video of me jogging.  Let me tell you that was eye opening!  It was plain as day why I was having pain.  My mechanics was all off—“sloppy” would be a one word summary of my running style.  My arm swing was wide and high; my waist/hips would drop a ton with each step; if you looked at my waist with each stride it would translate up and down several inches; speaking of stride-my length was very long causing my feet to be way in front of my body; and the angles of my knees upon ground strike—oh my!  If I kept that up I’d end up with knee replacements much sooner than later.  I called my running style “a mess” and “very inefficient”. 

I was very disheartened and disappointed after seeing the video and thought running was no longer in the cards for me.  However, the running specialist wasn’t dismayed at all.  She said she’d seen worse (like that’s comforting!).  The first thing she wanted me to do was simply increase my cadence to 180 steps/min (from 158).  Why?  Because a faster cadence automatically will “tighten” things up and which in turn will resolve most of my issues.  Note that she didn’t say to run faster but only to increase my cadence.  The first time I tried running at 180 was very awkward and hard.  It seemed like I was working twice as hard.  After a few runs it became habit—and it has naturally compacted my running style—my arms stay close to my sides, my stride length is shorter, my waist height translation is normal and, most importantly, the angles of my knees are much better.  The result: I’m back to running 30 minutes every other day.  Now there’s still some tweaking, specifically to strengthen my hips/gluts to further correct my knee angle.  Intuitively, one would assume that the faster cadence has made me a faster runner.  Well, it has but not by much.  My normal pace was about 6.5mph and now I’m closer to 7mph.  The one thing I know is that it made a significant difference in my pain, efficiency and mechanics.  Bottom line:  I’m back to running.  Now let’s so how a cadence change benefited one of my clients.

 

This client is a warehouse/distributor and has over 1300 skus.  They have been in business for over 25 years and have seen steady growth in sales each and every year.  The growth, while good for the company overall, brought with it many issues in the warehouse.  The primary issues included not having enough warehouse space to store all of the products, inventory control issues (ordering to too much at one time), picking errors, pickers and packers complaining of aches and pains, and difficulty getting products out the door in time.  Their solution was to enlarge and add on to the warehouse. 

I remember my first visit and watched their operations.  The issues and some of the root causes were plain as day—very similar to seeing the video of me running!  They needed to “compact” their operations.  By that I don’t mean to decrease the warehouse size, quite the opposite.  I agreed that they needed to expand.  However, adding more space without any other changes was just going to magnify their problems.  They needed a change in cadence—which by default would result more efficient picking/packing, reduce errors and less employee complaints of discomfort.   The cadence change was brought about by modifying the layout of the aisles, switching from locating products by brand and alphabet to bin location by velocity and product size, altering shelf height and depth, slightly changing the orientation of the packing area & tables, and making sure everything that a packer or picker needed was within arms-length at most.  At no time were employee encouraged or told to rush and go faster.  Rather the cadence change happened naturally.  The picking had a natural flow to it as all products were within easy reach and there was a repeatable path to picking the most commonly ordered products.  The modifications to product location and labeling reduced picking errors.  The changes to the packing area resulted in a similar cadence increase.  The packers weren’t wrapping and packing the products faster, but since everything was at their fingers tips the packing was faster overall.  The one thing that needed a bit more tweaking than planned was the receiving, putaway and replenishing process.  The modifications to the heights and depths of shelves resulted in less product on the shelf.  So, the replenishing process had to be altered a couple times before a comfortable cadence was found.  Watching the operations today is like watching a ballroom dancing—there’s good flow and cadence to everything.  The bottom line:  60% increase in pick/pack/ship capability, 50% decrease in errors and no more complaints of aches and pain.  Their running like never before.

Perhaps you or your company could use a change in cadence?