November is one of our busiest months of the year… Yesterday was our second-largest day of the year in sales. Here’s a look at some statistics from the day and what our team members did along the way.
One of the challenges about a Monday for us is that Monday actually starts on Friday evening. Any order we receive over the weekend has the same internal time lines as one received during the day on Monday, meaning a lot of work is flowing through the system. This time of the year, most departments are working weekends simply to get a jump on Monday’s work. While some places use weekends to recover from the previous week, our team members do a great job of working ahead.
In Columbia, we received 4,175 orders consisting of 155,778 files on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Of those orders, 23 didn’t make it to invoicing by the time we left last night. I don’t have all the specifics yet this morning, but approximately 90% of that 23 we purposefully held back for a call to you.
In Pittsburg, our Pic-a-Pac team members were the first ones to arrive, with much of the department here by 5:00 a.m. On an individual basis, we have one person in Columbia who arrives around 3:30 a.m. to get started on color correction. The majority of our 421 team members in both facilities arrive between 7:00 and 10:00, with times staggered as the production work flow dictates.
The last team members to arrive are typically the folks in Shipping. Many of that group will arrive between Noon and 2:00 p.m. So, our early-arriving color corrector is gone by the time this group arrives! By the time FedEx left, they restocked, cleaned up, and generally prepared for today, they were done around 11:00 p.m.
As we continue to get busier over the next 6 weeks, those times will simply stretch out. What we’re currently able to accomplish with almost no overtime will simply become more difficult and will require more work. Simply stated, we are prepared to do whatever it takes! We’re fully staffed, so all 421 of us will simply work more. For many (most) of us, though, it’s the best time of the year!