It’s the end of 2021. Some of us would add “finally” after that and put our head down and just push through to next year.
And there are reasons to do that: Insurance costs have gone through the roof; our electricity bill jumped 25 percent earlier this year, and it’s going up again. That hurts to type.
But, as we leave the turkey (and hot dogs!) of Thanksgiving behind and parade into the Christmas season, we need to stop and recognize achievements that made this year special.
For us, it’s our Key Performance Indicators. This is something we at ACS — as well as our client partners — look forward to every year. These KPIs track our accuracy rate as we store and, eventually, find and pull products for our customers to ship. We track these numbers by order and by unit. For 2021, we had a 99.98 percent accuracy rate, higher than the industry average of 99.9 percent.
The difference between those numbers may look small at first glance, but considering we average 600,000 pulls a month and it quickly becomes significant. We proudly share these numbers with our customers and, because of these numbers, our customers know we take great care of their goods.
However, the KPI numbers take on a particularly special meaning for me this year because they reflect the hard work and dedication of the workers. I am so proud of them this year. They’ve faced challenges that no one could predict and, as our KPIs show, they’ve exceeded the industry expectation.
There have been changes in our workforce this year, but there is a long-serving core that has helped lead, train, and retain the new talent that has come through our gates. We are so grateful for everyone here at Adams Cold Storage.
My father had a saying: “Create jobs, take care of people, and they’ll take care of you.” I’ve tried to adopt this into the fiber of ACS. Therefore, this month, despite the rising prices of nearly everything and the stress of whatever loomed over us this year, I want to take care of the people who make ACS an industry leader.
So we’re going to celebrate this month. Because that’s just what we do. I hope you do, as well.