Due to Hurricane Ike, the previous dates for the WERC (Warehouse Education Resource Council) were cancelled. The Council has rescheduled.  The new dates for this intensive 3-day seminar are November 10-12, 2008. WERC typically packs useful, solid information into their seminars, so if you’re in South Texas or feel like traveling there, this one may be worth your time. According to WERC, attendees will learn:

• How to identify the precise problems that are the most troublesome in your warehouse
• Which operations require your attention and how to prioritize work demands
• Why leadership and communication skills are important to managing people, boosting morale, and solving labor/management conflicts
• How to lay out your warehouse for good space utilization, material handling compatibility, and optimum flow efficiency
• Which equipment and technology enablers best suit your operations for storage and handling as well as order picking and order selection.

See WERC.org for complete information. Those who registered previously do not need to re-register.

Just a quick look at the continuing education opportunities that are available to you over the next few months. None of them are endorsed here, but we are passing along links for anyone who might find the topics of interest. It can be a very mixed bag, but there are times that just one point you carry out of an educational seminar can more than pay for the whole thing…

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WERC (the Warehousing Education and Research Council) does some great work.The group offers a terrific online research library with tons of links to web pages and PDF’s on everything from case studies to equipment analysis to facilities issues, people, processes, metrics and tons more. Another excellent resource is always WERC’s annual conference (May 2009 in Chicago) as well as local conferences like the ones we have attended in Dallas the last couple of years. The national event has Stephen Covey, author of The Speed of Trust this year.

Its self-study guides are good, and inexpensive at $14.95 for members and just $29 for nonmembers, with detailed information on personnel, processes, and more.

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