Case studies: General warehouse manager: Allan

Allan completed a degree in chemistry. He now works as a general warehouse manager for Ocado

After a BSc in Chemistry at Newcastle University, Allan spent 18 months travelling before returning to the UK to apply for graduate management training schemes. He had no strong career interests and was successful in his application to the BOC Graduate Programme, with a subsidiary logistics company called Gist.

The scheme involved three placements. The first was an eight-month role in transport at an M&S warehouse in the North West, where he eventually became a stand-in section manager. This was followed by an M&S food site in the South East, again as a section manager, but this time in the warehouse. He spent 12 months here and worked on a significant network project to introduce new supply chain systems. His final placement was again in the South East, lasting 12 months, when he was a section manager in an automated M&S general merchandise warehouse. The automation consisted of cranes and an automated hanging garment system. His role involved the management of people, processes, working to tight deadlines and targets and IT warehouse management systems.

After this placement, Allan decided to apply to GIST Consulting, an internal consulting division within GIST looking at the optimisation of warehouse processes and layouts, network modelling, transport rationalisation and cost reduction projects. One project involved some work for the BOC group looking at their global helium supply chain.

At this time, the online grocer Ocado, the supplier of Waitrose products, opened a temporary site in Hemel Hempstead while their final site was being built in Hatfield. The 'Customer Fulfilment Centre' in Hatfield now has around a million square feet spread over four mezzanine floors and GIST was employed as the third party warehouse operator for the Hatfield operation. Allan was seconded to Ocado to work on some warehouse projects and subsequently decided to stay with Ocado as an operations manager, while remaining a GIST employee.

Allan was involved in running the warehouse (two operations managers per shift) overseeing goods in, picking and packing and, finally, the van out load where the shopping is loaded onto the vans. This involved long unsocial hours across nights and days, seven days a week. Allan did this for three years before moving to a business development role with Ocado after transferring from GIST, when their third party contract ended. He was involved in improving systems and processes, and in implementation of new conveyors connecting the various work zones.

The inside of the Ocado Customer Fulfilment Centre has changed significantly since it first opened, and there are now over 15 kilometres of conveyor belts inside, connecting the four floors and temperature-controlled chambers. The warehouse still has the capacity to expand considerably and growth is currently around 18% per annum. This role gave Allan greater commercial exposure. He had to deal with third party contractors and suppliers, looking at the legal issues regarding contracts, along with extensive data analysis. He really enjoyed this role but after only six months, the role of general manager became available and Allan decided to go for it.

While he doesn't have to do shifts as he did when he was an operations manager, he still has to work long hours and is on call every other week - and the warehouse is only closed on Christmas Day. He now has the challenge of being ultimately responsible for everything operational within the Customer Fulfilment Centre.

Allan and Ocado are heavily influenced by environmental factors and there are huge initiatives within the organisation to be as green as possible at all stages of the supply chain. An external consultancy proved that it was greener to order goods in this way than to walk to your local supermarket to get your shopping.

Allan now manages a team of 10 operations managers, 40 section managers, 110 team leaders and 1,200 personal shoppers. He finds the people management challenging but very rewarding. He likes the variety of his work - every day is different, though the hours are long and challenging.

The recent graduates he has recruited come from all subject backgrounds. He feels that it is important to have an eye for detail, stamina, a thorough approach, clear concise communication, analytical skills and some numeric ability. Allan is pleased that in a general sense, some of his scientific skills have been useful. He does not feel there are many downsides to his job and has no plans to change.