


While we often intentionally (and valuably) start operations based on phone calls, emails, and Google Sheets so we can learn quickly and pivot when needed, this system becomes unsustainable at our scale and needs a creative, technical solution: Missed and unprioritized parcels would wreak havoc upon our overall network. It also worsens the visibility problems we currently experience.
DEVIANTART GRAND AGES ROME DRIVERS
That’s certainly too many drivers for our current number of dispatchers to manage over constant phone calls. When assessing our projected order volume increases over the next year, combined with the fact that new suppliers are added each day, we estimated that we’d have a more than 100% increase in drivers by the summer of 2019. This is actually pretty common in the trucking industry, but the problem becomes very apparent when you look at it through the context of operational scale. The drivers need to be told where to go and what to pick up, and the dispatchers need to know what was actually picked up versus what wasn’t. These drivers are managed by dispatchers who spend all day on the phone relaying information back and forth. This process is accomplished across several “pool point” facilities in our network by a dedicated fleet of truck drivers, who pick up items from a large number suppliers. big and heavy items) volume goes through a process called “pooling”, where items are picked up from their supplier’s facilities and brought to the closest Wayfair facility.

The need for network scaling is nowhere more pressing than in our supplier pickups space we call this “first mile” transportation as it is the first step to getting something into the network. A well-scaled supply chain will instead lead to lower costs, shorter delivery times, and better reliability for our customers (sound familiar?). If we don’t get this right, the customer experience suffers. This requires constant thought and dedication to properly scaling our supply chain alongside its associated processes, tools, and workflows. Wayfair is a rapidly growing business and we need to be able to handle rapidly increasing order volume in our network. While purely technical scaling is indeed important for our ability to function, we tend to care a lot more about the scale of our operations. We think of scale very differently than a lot of other companies, and even very differently from other teams at Wayfair. This passion is what led me and four of my teammates to design and implement a transportation-focused project for this summer’s hackathon, WayfairHacks. On the TRNS team we are passionate about moving things and are constantly working on improving the capacity and throughput of our network in order to provide a better customer experience. Superior delivery speed, reliability, and low costs are paramount to Wayfair’s success as a business, and these areas are the main concerns of my team, Transportation Engineering (TRNS). They also don’t realize that Wayfair actually maintains and operates a massive supply chain network of carriers, warehouses, and delivery agents that have to work perfectly in sync in order to get your couch to you by Friday. Many people don’t realize that UPS and FedEx won’t bring a dresser or a dining table to their house. What they don’t think about, however, is how that furniture gets to the customer.
DEVIANTART GRAND AGES ROME TV
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