Brian Preston
BS ISE 2000
Cornerstone Consolidated Services Group, Inc.
West Chester, Ohio
Cornerstone Consolidated Services Group (CCSG) is a warehousing and distribution company. They don't sell their own products, but instead handle order fulfillment for different five catalog and on-line retailers.
In my first position at Cornerstone, my main responsibility was assisting in the implementation of an incentive program based on individual performances. My other responsibilities included equipment recommendations; ROI [Return-on-Investment] analysis and purchasing of equipment for the distribution center; updating and maintaining the facility drawing using AutoCAD; and the supervision and training of co-op students.
Several of my ISE courses, including work design, industrial plant design and material handling systems, related directly to my initial responsibilities in developing the incentive program. These classes gave me the foundation needed to perform tasks such as facility layout, department layout, line balancing, time study set up and data collection, best method analysis and standardization, as well as exposure to different material handling equipment.
I really enjoyed this position because it was a high profile position for the company and it received a lot of high-level support. The recommendations and changes I made carried a lot of weight with the management group and I could see immediate results from those changes. As I made changes to an operation, I could see the improvements in the production rate increase, costs, safety, and the overall morale of the associates.
After 1½ years at Cornerstone, I was promoted to my current position as the Returns and Merchandise Prep Manager. Under me, there are 3 supervisors and 100 hourly associates on two shifts. My responsibilities include staffing, annual labor budgeting, equipment needs and budget, training, and meeting the departmental goals for costs and throughput.
My position includes all aspects of the returns process for the five catalog companies we service as well as the re-packaging of new receipts to prepare them for shipment to the end customer. My daily responsibilities include working with members of management from the five catalog companies on high-level opportunities and changes. I also work directly with hub managers from carriers such as UPS, FedEx, Yellow Freight, and Bekins to ensure returns are being delivered to our distribution center in a timely fashion and in good condition.
I’m constantly reviewing the returns processes and procedures to try and identify new equipment or methods to improve our throughput and reduce costs. I also spend a considerable amount of time reviewing vendor packaging so that we can design and recommend changes to decrease shipping damages and improve the overall customer experience.
The most important lesson I learned in the ISE program at OU was learning to work as a team on group projects. Several of my classes had group projects during the quarter and professors always encouraged us to work together to solve problems and teach each other. CCSG is a very team-oriented company. The majority of our projects are done by groups that are made up of individuals from different departments and management levels. The experiences I had working in a group atmosphere at OU prepared me for dealing with different personalities, communication challenges, project management, and keeping the group focused on our goals.
One of the things that I really like about my career in industrial engineering is the flexibility my degree. Industrial engineers are used in a wide variety of fields and our educational background allows us to work in the engineering side of business, but we can easily move into an operations position.
I would highly recommend pursuing a degree in ISE to anyone that is interested in engineering. I have met industrial engineers who work in almost any field and industry you can possibly imagine, including transportation, logistics, manufacturing, distribution, health care, computers, electronics, aviation, and automotive. The one thing that they all share is the number of job opportunities that they have open to them due to the flexibility of their degree and the increasing need to be more productive in today’s global economy.
