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XPO | ARE SCMs Really Necessary

drivin4truthnow

drivin4truthnow

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Over the years I have observed managers throughout the former Con-way organization and come to realize that the benefits of their position to the organization does not seem to outweigh the company saving thousands if not millions company wide without them, I mean, take a look at what their level of involvement is to generating revenue or participating in actually actively taking a role in the operation of a service center. The internet and real-time streaming information can run the organization from one centralized location saving a unprecedented amount of costs. Currently I observe managers just doing minimal pre-shift meetings and a weekly operations meeting once a week. Other than that it's basically stair at a scorecard and hope it makes numbers for a bonus. I have witnessed many of times a shorthanded operation and the SCM takes no active role to help out (i.e. print bills, call customer appointments, answer phones, set runs up, manage labor for the day etc,) in fact it's a pre-shift meeting in the break room delaying our customer's freight even more. It was proven that service centers can run without them with the last big gathering in St; Louis. Please help me understand why waste continues?
:idunno:
 
Do sheep need a sheep herder? He looks like he's just standing around not doing anything and the sheep just herding themselves, but if you remove the sheep herder, for sure the sheep will be running around with no direction. IMO, I think their needed, I'm sure their's things all SCM's do that we are not aware of.
 
mgarcia16 said:
Do sheep need a sheep herder? He looks like he's just standing around not doing anything and the sheep just herding themselves, but if you remove the sheep herder, for sure the sheep will be running around with no direction. IMO, I think their needed, I'm sure their's things all SCM's do that we are not aware of.
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Sounds like a scm!
 
mgarcia16 said:
Do sheep need a sheep herder? He looks like he's just standing around not doing anything and the sheep just herding themselves, but if you remove the sheep herder, for sure the sheep will be running around with no direction. IMO, I think their needed, I'm sure their's things all SCM's do that we are not aware of.
Click to expand...

So why isn't the labor aware of the goings on around them? We all have a keen vested interest in the success of XPO, If the sheep are led by the sheep herder and the farmer is gone from 10AM until 3pm routinely then the herder does his best to efficiently run the farm, correct? Hardly seems logical for the herder (supervisors) to do many jobs and the farmer (SCMs) is not accountable for the proper managing of the herd accept for the final result scorecard he played a minimal role in creating . Seems like poor monitoring by the people in charge to correct this abuse of wasteful management.
 
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drivin4truthnow said:
Over the years I have observed managers throughout the former Con-way organization and come to realize that the benefits of their position to the organization does not seem to outweigh the company saving thousands if not millions company wide without them, I mean, take a look at what their level of involvement is to generating revenue or participating in actually actively taking a role in the operation of a service center. The internet and real-time streaming information can run the organization from one centralized location saving a unprecedented amount of costs. Currently I observe managers just doing minimal pre-shift meetings and a weekly operations meeting once a week. Other than that it's basically stair at a scorecard and hope it makes numbers for a bonus. I have witnessed many of times a shorthanded operation and the SCM takes no active role to help out (i.e. print bills, call customer appointments, answer phones, set runs up, manage labor for the day etc,) in fact it's a pre-shift meeting in the break room delaying our customer's freight even more. It was proven that service centers can run without them with the last big gathering in St; Louis. Please help me understand why waste continues?
:idunno:
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Yeah they don't do a whole lot... just pay all the bills at their barns , hire people, fire people, challenge their supervisors to be the best that they can be, get on dsr's who need to be motivated, oversee LEAN, and VVT, begin driver training programs, fill in for their supervisors when they are sick or on vacation, pass down directives from regional managers and corporate to us...other than these few things...they don't do all that much.
 
vetran peddleman said:
[

Yeah they don't do a whole lot... just pay all the bills at their barns , hire people, fire people, challenge their supervisors to be the best that they can be, get on dsr's who need to be motivated, oversee LEAN, and VVT, begin driver training programs, fill in for their supervisors when they are sick or on vacation, pass down directives from regional managers and corporate to us...other than these few things...they don't do all that much.
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I don't know what utopian service center you're at, but from what I have witnessed at numerous locations LEAN is BYE, BYE and most of that other peripheral business process you speak of can be done from a central location that I mentioned previously.. VVT, Training Programs and meetings are at best once a month processes that again, have no bearing on increasing revenue.
PLEASE GET A GRIP ON EFFICIENCY! :6788:
 
drivin4truthnow said:
I don't know what utopian service center you're at, but from what I have witnessed at numerous locations LEAN is BYE, BYE and most of that other peripheral business process you speak of can be done from a central location that I mentioned previously.. VVT, Training Programs and meetings are at best once a month processes that again, have no bearing on increasing revenue.
PLEASE GET A GRIP ON EFFICIENCY! :6788:
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Every LTL carrier has a person in charge of their service centers. Some centers share a manager, depending on the region, but there's always someone in charge.

Why, you ask? Because the SCM is the front man for the center's operations on the corporate side. If the center isn't making numbers, the SCM is the one corporate blames. Why? Because it's the job of the SCM to oversee the terminal's day to day operations and ensure they're running according to corporate's mandate.

That's not a job that can be reasonably done remotely by the regional operations management. Accountability at the local level, that's the job of the SCM. You wonder why so many of them are jerks? Because they get crap every time something goes wrong, and no thanks for when things go right.
 
Canadian Flyer said:
Every LTL carrier has a person in charge of their service centers. Some centers share a manager, depending on the region, but there's always someone in charge.

Why, you ask? Because the SCM is the front man for the center's operations on the corporate side. If the center isn't making numbers, the SCM is the one corporate blames. Why? Because it's the job of the SCM to oversee the terminal's day to day operations and ensure they're running according to corporate's mandate.

That's not a job that can be reasonably done remotely by the regional operations management. Accountability at the local level, that's the job of the SCM. You wonder why so many of them are jerks? Because they get crap every time something goes wrong, and no thanks for when things go right.
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In my area Saia has a terminal that is dispatched and managed remotely from a central location.

With XPO Logistics/Con-way , have you noticed that everyone has been scanned traveling less? That's because we're behind "plan" and as a cost saving measure management is traveling less. Conference calls. E-mail. Old fashioned telephone calls. Save a few dollars too.
 
Con-Way got really bad with the needless management positions in the last few years. Does a 2-sector terminal really need an SCM, an FOM, and 6 FOS's?

When I went over to Saia, it was a huge culture shock because I went from overbearing micromanagement to the very opposite at Saia. Most of the smaller terminals here don't have a dedicated manager, they will have one terminal manager oversee 2-3 terminals. They also don't have an equivalent to the FOS at most smaller terminals, the DRIVERS are the ones who run things (Con-Way used to be that way). They will have one or two designated drivers that run the inbound and outbound before or after their run.

Seems to work great, saves tons of money, and things go smoother because it's drivers running the operations instead of some college educated idiot who knows nothing about the trucking industry.
 
icuicp said:
With XPO Logistics/Con-way , have you noticed that everyone has been scanned traveling less? That's because we're behind "plan" and as a cost saving measure management is traveling less. Conference calls. E-mail. Old fashioned telephone calls. Save a few dollars too.
Click to expand...
That makes perfect sense if the company is making cut backs to save money. The question is......why weren't those cuts made a long time ago if it helps with efficiency and has financial gains for the company.
 
Managers are needed in my opinion, especially at the larger barns. Someone has to gather the numbers to report them to the higher ups. And since most of the supervisors aren't up to the task of reporting to the big shots, and capable of analyzing the problems that caused the failures, the managers will always be needed.

And like Vetran Peddleman said, there are a lot of things that a manager does that the employees never see.
 
icuicp said:
In my area Saia has a terminal that is dispatched and managed remotely from a central location.

With XPO Logistics/Con-way , have you noticed that everyone has been scanned traveling less? That's because we're behind "plan" and as a cost saving measure management is traveling less. Conference calls. E-mail. Old fashioned telephone calls. Save a few dollars too.
Click to expand...


You mean they were taking advantage of company cars and corporate travel ? Huh. I'd have never guessed that.
 
mgarcia16 said:
Do sheep need a sheep herder? He looks like he's just standing around not doing anything and the sheep just herding themselves, but if you remove the sheep herder, for sure the sheep will be running around with no direction. IMO, I think their needed, I'm sure their's things all SCM's do that we are not aware of.
Click to expand...
One problem. We aren't sheep, we are human beings with intelligence. Just like, if not more so than our fearless SCM leaders IMO. I need my FOS's to coordinate and run the operation. But as as driver I don't need a guy making 90k a year who can't do my job standing over my shoulder all the time holding a cup of coffee just to " make sure" I do mine...
 
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RodeoClown said:
One problem. We aren't sheep, we are human beings with intelligence. Just like, if not more so than our fearless SCM leaders IMO. I need my FOS's to coordinate and run the operation. But as as driver I don't need a guy making 90k a year who can't do my job standing over my shoulder all the time holding a cup of coffee just to " make sure" I do mine...
Click to expand...
 
drivin4truthnow said:
Over the years I have observed managers throughout the former Con-way organization and come to realize that the benefits of their position to the organization does not seem to outweigh the company saving thousands if not millions company wide without them, I mean, take a look at what their level of involvement is to generating revenue or participating in actually actively taking a role in the operation of a service center. The internet and real-time streaming information can run the organization from one centralized location saving a unprecedented amount of costs. Currently I observe managers just doing minimal pre-shift meetings and a weekly operations meeting once a week. Other than that it's basically stair at a scorecard and hope it makes numbers for a bonus. I have witnessed many of times a shorthanded operation and the SCM takes no active role to help out (i.e. print bills, call customer appointments, answer phones, set runs up, manage labor for the day etc,) in fact it's a pre-shift meeting in the break room delaying our customer's freight even more. It was proven that service centers can run without them with the last big gathering in St; Louis. Please help me understand why waste continues?
:idunno:
Click to expand...
you need top read my post from the other topic about scm's! at my barn the 2 dispatcher's we have collectively have less of an i.q then a pebble.they waste time and money on a daily basis.how their work is justified is beyond me
 
vetran peddleman said:
[

Yeah they don't do a whole lot... just pay all the bills at their barns , hire people, fire people, challenge their supervisors to be the best that they can be, get on dsr's who need to be motivated, oversee LEAN, and VVT, begin driver training programs, fill in for their supervisors when they are sick or on vacation, pass down directives from regional managers and corporate to us...other than these few things...they don't do all that much.
Click to expand...
You can train a monkey with down syndrome to take over those "duties"
 
why dont the tm and the asst tm do their own jobs that will cut 2 foms from our barn then we can cut the team leads that do their jobs which i beleive we have 2 of them and maybe get rid of a couple fos which we have 11 or so can anyone get the pic. lots of wasted money here just to play on cell phones and talk fantasy football
 
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