Profile of Success: Educational Pursuits
Profile of Success: Randy Brough, supply chaing manager, Lifeway
Greatest initial challenge: Making the distribution center (DC) a core competency for the company. “LifeWay’s DCs were treated as a forgotten part of the organization. … It was basically a necessary evil to be dealt with.” For the first few months, Brough, who joined LifeWay in 1994, and his boss even researched the possibility of outsourcing the entire operation.
Plan of action: The long-term costs of outsourcing outweighed the benefits, so Brough and the logistics team implemented the following tactics:
1. Built a better management team. Since 1994, the management staff increased from eight to 16, including three full-time industrial engineers.
2. Provided better tools. Brough oversaw the installation of a warehouse management system, a transportation management system, and the design and construction of LifeWay’s second DC.
3. Reduced headcount. Brough and his team reduced the number of DC employees from 310 to 195 full-time equivalents, even as sales grew from $257 million to $429 million in the last decade.
4. Incentivized DC employees. He also put in place a program that allows employees to increase their pay by 9 percent based on their performance.
Key point to his success: Staying educated. “In a lot of organizations, training seems to take a backseat, but to me it’s often what gives a person or organization a competitive edge.” To that end, he completed his master’s degree in organizational development.
Current goal for LifeWay’s DC: As a 115-year-old company and a catalog that’s only a few decades younger, Brough says LifeWay has developed a number of entrenched organizational silos and barriers. He points to his and his employees’ continuing education as a potential solution to the problem. “For our organization, if you’re a salaried position, depending on where you are, you’re required to have between 20 to 40 hours of external training per year,” he notes.
Success tip: “Stay familiar with the best tools possible, but understand that the supply chain is only as good as the relationships that hold those links together. So be relationship-oriented as well,” he advises other catalogers.
How he got started in cataloging: A part-time job with Service Merchandise during his sophomore year in college convinced Brough to embark on what would be a 10-year stint with the jewelry, gift and home goods cataloger. “I thought [cataloging] was the best of many worlds. I saw retail and all of the other business aspects in addition to cataloging. It’s that diversity that kept me involved.”
What drives him: “I love that it’s becoming a very competitive business. And it’s great to see the catalog industry as a whole is utilizing new and exciting tools, attracting new customers and satisfying the growing demands of unique customer bases.”
About Lifeway
Catalog established: 1919
Primary merchandise: faith-based books, music, supplies and gifts
Annual circ: 20 million
# of SKUs: 17,500 (online access to more than 100,000)
Locations: corporate offices and original DC in Nashville, Tenn.; second DC in Lebanon, Tenn.
Size of DCs: Nashville, Tenn.: 165,000 square feet, 14 bays; Lebanon, Tenn.: 250,000 square feet, 23 bays
Randy Brough, supply chain manager, LifeWay
