Learning about materials handling by helping others

If you’re like me, what you do for a living probably doesn’t make much of a difference in the every day lives of others. But something we’re doing as part of the materials handling industry is touching the lives of young people considering a career in warehousing and distribution. It’s also touching the lives of their fellow students and the community.

This was driven home to me last week when I attended the Material Handling Industry of America’s spring meetings in Charlotte. If you’re involved with MHIA or have followed the industry news, you’re familiar with the material handling course being taught at the Don Frazier Supply Chain Training Center in Rock Hill, SC. There high school students are learning warehousing and distribution basics using equipment donated by industry members.

You may also be aware that the facility received national exposure a few months ago when celebrity chef Giada De Laurentis brought a crew from the Today Show to highlight the Back The Pack program.

It’s the kind of grass roots program that should appeal to anyone, regardless of their political leanings. When a local mom learned about the number of kids in the school system without enough food to eat on the weekends, she organized a program to fill the need without government intervention. Teachers, bus drivers, school counselors, coaches and others who work with students identify kids in need. Program administrators talk to parents about involving their kids in the program. Local businesses and the community donate food.

And, kids learning about materials handling receive the food at the Applied Technology Center, put it away in storage including a horizontal carousel system, and then fill orders. In this case, that involves packing food items in plastic bags that will be put in kids’ backpacks and then loading the bags in totes that will be delivered to schools for distribution. If you didn’t see the segment when it was first broadcast, you can click here.

While there will always be those who view this as another example of someone gaming the system, Dave Finley, the materials handling instructor at the Applied Technology Center, and Stephen Jones, a senior who will graduate from the program this spring, said it’s been a fantastic way for the kids to get hands on experience operating the materials handling equipment.

“Before this program came along, we were going to use painted wooden blocks to learn how to operate the equipment,” Finley said. Instead, the students are working with real products and real orders, just like in a warehouse. Since then, the students are also distributing books for First Book, a non-profit reading initiative. All told, about $1 million of inventory is passing through the center each year.

Meanwhile, Stephen Jones told us the materials handling curriculum has whetted his appetite for the industry. He feels prepared to go to work in a warehouse or distribution center when he graduates, but he’s also now interested in going to college to learn more about computer programming for the systems that run warehousing operations. He also said that he came to understand the importance of what he and his fellow students are doing when he saw a kid going home for the weekend with one of the plastic bags in his back pack. Jones realized he could have packed the backpack that provided a meal for a hungry kid.

Since the Today Show episode aired, Finley says he has been contacted by other communities interested in doing something similar in their schools. Could it lead to more materials handling programs in more high schools? Who knows? But it’s great to see our industry getting recognition for doing good.