Industrial Engineering #1

Guest: Ryan Hannon | VP - Industrial Engineering and Corporate Innovation, Pitney Bowes

Welcome to the new Schematic Ventures' series focused on navigating technical software decisions within industrial companies. From optimizing infrastructure choices and leveraging DevOps best practices to harnessing the power of cloud technologies and improving data workflows, our guests will highlight how they've considered these decisions and implemented new solutions across their organization. If you're similarly excited about leveraging technology to empower our national industrial base and/or building solutions focused on this category, please reach out to ananya@schematicventures.com – I’d love to connect!

Our guest this month is Ryan Hannon, VP of Industrial Engineering and Collaborative Innovation at Pitney Bowes. Ryan brings over a decade of expertise in the logistics industry, having worked in various roles at companies specializing in parcel delivery and third-party logistics. Throughout his career, he has played a key role in implementing automation and technology projects totaling over $500 million. In his current position, Ryan provides strategic leadership to enhance operational profitability within PB’s network. Leading both the Industrial Engineering team and the Collaborative Innovation group, he focuses on continuous improvement initiatives and explores emerging technologies to optimize efficiency. A graduate of Elizabethtown College with a BS in Industrial Engineering, Ryan currently resides in Southern New Jersey.

Ananya: In your role today, you manage and use a broad tech stack. Which tool has had the biggest impact on your engineering workflow, and why?

Ryan: The biggest impact to the team via a tool has to be our LMS (Labor Management System), which we have just launched across our network over the past 12 months. This tool has provided valuable details into where inefficiencies are occurring in the operations. Using these details, the IE team can deep dive into specific areas of the operations to correct behaviors. Previously, our data and metrics were building-specific, leading the team members to spend time deep-diving the operations to get a clear picture of areas of need instead of focusing on solving the problem. The system has allowed the IEs to increase their productivity 2x.

The LMS that we selected is from an outside vendor because after considering a few options, we found that this gave us the most flexibility and was a better fit for our business. From there, we linked it up with our internal data systems, and our internal IT and development teams connected both sides.

Now the LMS is a key day-to-day operations tool, along with an industrial engineering tool to figure out where errors and issues need to be addressed inside the warehouses.

Ananya: As you consider where to find such new systems, what are the typical sources you consider? Are there industry standard tools you test first or industry conferences that you prefer?

Ryan: We mostly find new solutions through going to industry events like Modex/Promat and Automate each year, as well as industry-standard solutions that our team – especially the leadership staff – has used in the past. We’re all members of A3 and go to those events; the business forum in Orlando, along with Automate, is valuable for us to find new technologies.

Ananya: Once you find a tool you think is interesting, can you share any details on the typical process companies should expect as they start engaging with your team and any advice as they navigate this journey?

Ryan: It starts by clearly finding the problem and figuring out what you're trying to solve. If you try to do too many things at once, nothing will get done successfully.

“My mantra is always to start small, whether it's one facility or one part of an operation in a facility, and get that working completely. This goes for any type of system you put in place, whether it's automation, LMS, data systems, or anything else. I always recommend trying to start small, make it work, use that as a learning experience, and then expand from there.”

Once you get the data behind the pilot that shows that it's successful and it's helping, share that with your customers, whether they are internal or external customers. Make sure everybody's on board every step of the way; the worst thing you could try to do is roll out some form of technology to the entire network without knowing that it will work and have zero buy-in.

You should start that smaller pilot as quickly as you can and start learning from whatever problem you're trying to solve. I go back to previous pilots that we've had where we put technology in the wrong place, but we're able to see that the technology worked and move it to a more opportune spot in our facilities. 

If you just sit on your hands and let the pilot run and run without making decisions and not learning, you could get into this black hole of an endless cycle of piloting ideas and trying to see what else is out there. Do your due diligence upfront on the technology, automation, robotics, or anything else needed to start the pilot and go from there.

Ananya: Are there any new categories or types of software your team is currently evaluating or looking at solutions for?

Ryan: Our IE team is currently in the process of reviewing new time study software. Formalizing our time study process is key as our team grows to make sure the IEs are following the same process. The time study software we use today is built internally with some external help, especially for the real-time data view. We're so early in the process and trying to find different vendors that can support our internal teams so we’re still figuring out exactly what we’re looking for.

Ananya: What is one piece of advice about technical architecture choices that you would share with engineers who are looking to build solutions to address some of these pain points?

Ryan: You have to get yourself involved in the operation.

“You need to understand what, not only the facility leaders or the operations leaders, but also the operators and the employees who are doing the job, day in and day out, are complaining about, concerned about, or struggling to do. Make sure you understand that before you try to solve the problem.”

I have seen many times when people solve problems that weren't technically problems. You thought that was a problem but when you get into and understand the operation or understand the process flow, it was just a side effect of whatever truly was the problem. And then you end up having major issues and spending money where it doesn't work.

As an industrial engineering leader and somebody who looks at automation technology and robotics, my team and I are always in the operations, understanding the process and understanding what the true bottlenecks are, and working backward.

It's always good to get a fishbone diagram up on the wall – a 5 Whys project may turn into 20 Whys – but make sure you understand what that true problem is and not just some of the more visible side effects.

Ananya: Is there any specific technology trend that you're following right now or anything in particular you're keeping an eye out for?

Ryan: I've been very interested in humanoid robots and how those can add value to 3PL warehouses. It seems interesting but I think it’s still 5 – 10 years away.

There’s not much on the software side I’m watching right now. At least in my current role and the previous few roles I've had, software has been tailing behind the actual automation and robotics in the warehouses. Over the last 12 to 18 months, it's been pulled together and you see a lot more integrations happening between different vendors and making it easier on the end user.

“We’re at a spot today where we have the technology we need and we have the automation we need, now it's just about tying everything together.”

The opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent the views or opinions of the organization they are affiliated with. Any references to products, services, or entities are not endorsements unless explicitly stated.