by Angela Labrecque, Marketing Department
Russell “Russ” Foley has served in Andersen’s shipping department for three and a half years. He initially came on board as a Shipping Assistant and was promoted to Shipping Manager just two months later.
“I like shipping because it is different every day,” he shared. “It’s never the same task over and over like an assembly line. We never know what order request we’re going to get from customer service. I love that about the job.”
Russ now serves as Materials Manager and leads a team of “five and a half.” As Russ explained, Ann Holt, Office Coordinator, splits her time with another department.
The shipping department also includes Cole Lee and Devon Keel, Shipping Assistants, as well as Shawn Healy and Jenna Kirkland as Support Specialists. Cole, Devon and Shawn are forklift certified. Russ plans to add Cole and Devon to those who are Department of Transportation (DOT) Hazmat certified.
Jenna, the newest team member, was brought on board to bring order to Andersen’s spare parts. Their reorganization is underway, by bin size and by spare part number.
“I tell my team all the time, organization is the key to our success,” said Russ.
The department also handles international shipping, receiving, warehousing and inventory management, any relevant quality control issues, re-packaging and labeling some accessories and managing the spare parts inventory.
Getting daily domestic orders out the back door is the department’s biggest task.
“But we can’t make light of international shipping,” added Russ. “Each container takes weeks to build. Every gas kit requires five labels.”
The shipping department works very closely with Jim McDermott and Linda Lashendock in International. They send (gas) via air pack and (everything) via shipping container. Most recently the team has prepared a 40-foot container for Andersen Limited in the United Kingdom.
“It’s not about me,” Russ said when asked if there was anything he’d like the rest of Andersen to know about Shipping. “I appreciate my team. In the past three months, Cole and Devon have brought shipping errors to a screeching halt. Shawn, Ann and Jenna have intercepted and corrected all receiving errors too.”
Russ also wanted to mention that the entire team did an amazing job on year-end inventory. “Our variances have improved greatly from one year ago and I’m excited to see how much we can improve in 2024.”
The shipping team’s efficiency has resulted in significant cost savings for Andersen as well as elevating customer satisfaction. The proof is in this very well-organized pudding.