Acie McMillan
Acie McMillan is a proud Detroiter and Michigan State Grad. McMillan doubles as The General Manager for S&S Activewear as well as the Founder & CEO of The Elite Standard. Carrying 14 years of experience in supply chain, he has established himself as an expert in operations management and leadership.
Through this article, McMillan emphasizes the importance of developing leaders over personal accolades, effective communication in operations and adapting to future trends like AI and robotics. He shares strategies for optimizing warehouse operations through auditing and constant touchpoints and offers advice for advancing in the field—stressing that people are the greatest asset. McMillan's leadership approach centers on understanding team members' personal goals to drive success and foster lasting professional relationships.
The True Measure of Success: Developing Leaders
I've had the opportunity to work on projects and lead kaizens that saved companies significant money and improved productivity. I once turned a site from last place to the top-performing DC in the company, becoming a "go-to" person. While those accomplishments are rewarding, I believe my career progression has been driven by my ability to develop leaders. There’s nothing better than seeing someone I’ve mentored and led get promoted, fully qualified and ready for the task at hand. Individual accolades are nice but meaningless at the same time. What makes Lebron James great is that he makes the people around him better, and understanding that early is what I think prepared me for not only the role I’m in but my next role as well.
Strategies for a Seamless Supply Chain
In operations, there’s no such thing as "seamless." Hiccups happen—it’s part of the game. What keeps things manageable is constant, open and effective communication. When different parts of the business aren't aligned, problems arise. For example, most ops runoff forecasts. We use that information to staff, budget, etc. Let’s say your business model looks at a rolling 4-week period to staff based on forecast. You staff to that, and suddenly, you get a spike in orders that you weren’t prepared for. You come to find out purchasing made a huge buy to support a major sale that the marketing team is promoting. If you’d known, you could have adjusted staffing or planned around it. In the ops world, things will always happen, but great communication keeps them as smooth as possible.
Optimizing Warehouse Operations
Individual accolades are nice, but what really matters is developing leaders. There's no greater feeling than seeing someone you’ve mentored grow and succeed, fully prepared for the challenges ahead
Well for starters, auditing is your friend. Again, I will repeat. For any leader who doesn’t like auditing, take it from me—it is a necessary tool and your friend. We call it “trust but verify.” So many hands touch so many parts of the operation. I have nearly 400 associates. There is no physical way I can be everywhere and ensure everyone is doing everything the right way all the time. The problem is that the operations are dependent on everything to fall in line as designed. Through auditing, you can find discrepancies. And even then, you won’t find everything, but the thought of possibly being audited helps keep people honest. In addition to auditing, we have daily and weekly touch bases. That way if there is an issue, we tackle it right away and not let it build up into a mountain.
The Future of Supply Chain: Trends and Team Adaptation
A.I. is the future. And if I’m being honest, I’m not the biggest fan. There are some things that I don’t particularly like about it, but regardless of how I or anyone else feels about it, it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. My advice is to study and learn all you can about it. There is some cool technology out there that can help you optimize efficiency and accuracy. My company is currently going from traditional picking to utilizing robots called ‘Pop Pick’. Like all things, there are issues, but the sites that have already converted have more than doubled in productivity. The world is constantly changing, so you can adapt or get left behind.
Tech in Ops: Boosting Efficiency
We are currently in the process of implementing Pop Pick into our business. This will allow for quicker, more accurate picks. It will tremendously help improve safety. But even besides that, we have internal WMS that we use to manage our day-to-day business. We utilize multiple conveyor systems to move product throughout the warehouse until it finally lands on a truck, amongst other things. Again, the world is changing and technology continues to advance and you have to change with it if you’re going to be around for the long haul.
Advice for Advancing Careers
The best advice I can give you is your no.1 asset is people. I stole a motto from a mentor of mine, which was “Business First, People Always,” and it has never left me. You should have some type of rapport with your direct reports. You should have a rapport with your team. While some say not to get personal, I find it almost impossible not to, considering how much time we spend together. You need to know something about those you lead to truly connect and motivate them.
A very common mistake that most leaders make is that we shove our goals and our company goals down our subordinates’ throats. While that is extremely important and what we get paid to do, we don’t take the time to understand what our individual team members' goals are and it isn’t fair. When I have one-on-ones with my team members, I ask them what they are trying to accomplish. This way I can make sure that I am doing my due diligence in giving them what they need and showing them I care. This has helped me foster some really great relationships and has driven people to go the extra mile when I need them to.
Yes, they receive a check for doing a job. But know that one can truly value someone’s time because time is priceless. As a leader, you owe it to the people who trust you with their time to lead and develop them so that they can accomplish their goals as well.
