FAQ

General

What year was Productiv founded?

Productiv was founded in 2006.

What is Productiv’s culture like?

Productiv’s culture is based on 3 core principles we refer to as the Productiv Way: aligned incentives, lean principles and servant leadership. We provide support for our clients to grow their businesses while at the same time treating all of our employees with respect and providing growth opportunities for their development.

Is Productiv a member of any professional organizations?

Yes, Productiv is a member of the Warehousing Education and Research Counsel (WERC) and the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA).

How does Productiv benchmark itself?

Productiv uses the WERC DC Measures Annual Survey and Report to see where it falls among world class organizations with the goal to be world class in the Top 12 Metrics including:

Percent of Orders with On-Time Delivery
Order-picking Accuracy (Percent by Order)
Part-time Workforce to Total Workforce
Dock-to-Stock Cycle Time
Inventory Count Accuracy by Location
Inventory SKU Accuracy by Location

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What information is needed to get a quote and how long does it take?

The type of program and/or project will determine what information is necessary to provide a quote. Once information has been received, a quote typically takes 1 - 7 business days.

Client Embed Programs

How does Productiv’s Embed Program differ from a staffing agency?

The goal of Productiv’s embed program is to align incentives with Clients. With a unit rate model, as opposed to a staffing mark-up, Productiv is incentivized to maximize efficiency since its Productiv, not the client, who is responsible for labor payroll, overtime and any rework.

Productiv’s Embed Program has three main characteristics:

Work is quoted and invoiced on a unit rate (also known as a piece rate)
A Productiv operations manager is onsite with the Productiv team and manages all aspects of the work
Productiv’s engineering team works with the Client operations team to track key metrics to help bring down program cost

What metrics does Productiv target?

Productiv aligns its metrics with Client goals. Typically the goals are (1) shift output, (2) quality control error rate and (3) downtime. In tracking downtime instances, Productiv also shows reason codes and works with the Client to go up and downstream in the manufacturing process to improve site OEE in total.

How does Productiv find staff in a tight labor market when others struggle to keep us staffed?

Producitv’s approach to labor recruiting and retention is built on 3 tenants:

Lean engineer the process to reduce the total labor needed
Use servant leadership management style, competitive wages and a gainshare program to retain employees
Productiv is an expert in recruiting and building a labor pool having been doing continuous improvement on the recruiting and onboarding process for over 15 years

Where Productiv operate?

Productiv operates in Virginia, North Carolina, New Jersey, Texas and Illinois. Productiv is an agile business and can start-up a new Embed site throughout the US and has been doing so since its founding.

What is Productiv’s safety program?

Productiv manages its own safety program, company wide and also adapts to its clients safety program. At the onset of an engagement, Productiv incorporates the standards of its clients safety program into the Productiv program so that both standards are met.

What are Productiv’s hiring requirements?

Similar to safety, Productiv manages its own hiring process and adapts to its clients requirements for background checks, drug testing and experience. At the onset of an engagement, Productiv incorporates the standards of its clients' hiring practices into the Productiv program so that both standards are met.

3PL & Value-Added Services

What types of clients does Productiv’s 3PL service fit best?

The clients that come to Productiv are looking for a high touch service at competitive pricing. Productiv's 3PL service is ideally suited for clients who are in a growth phase and seek a strategic partnership with a flexible and scalable logistics provider. Our expertise lies in effectively addressing the daily challenges inherent in supply chain disruptions, making us the perfect choice for businesses looking to streamline their logistics operations.

Typical clients come to Productiv looking to:

Consolidate multiple 3PL services into 1 provider
They’ve outgrown their internal warehousing capabilities and want ot scale with a supply chain specialist
Expand sales channels to include new retailers, wholesalers or a DTC channel and need to be able to onboard each quickly
Have seasonal programs that require creativity in space utilization and workforce staffing

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Can I view my inventory? What about my order status?

Yes, all of Productiv’s clients have portals into the Productiv IT system that show real time inventory and order status.

How does Productiv ensure Inventory Accuracy?

Inventory accuracy is the core of warehouse efficiency and attaining high SLAs for on-time and accurate fulfillment. Productiv’s approach includes:

Standardized cycle count programs with:

Dedicated cycle count teams at each warehouse
Weekly cadence of SKUs / locations counted

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Annual physical
Vimaan robotics machine vision system
SLA reporting during QBRs

What are Productiv’s SLAs?

Productiv’s SLAs can be found here. Productiv works with each client to drive SLA performance through continuous improvement programs.

How do you design your small parcel shipping programs?

Productiv designs parcel shipping programs on a client by client basis. Productiv has agreements in place with national and regional carriers in order to best fit each client to a shipping strategy. This starts out with receiving PLD (package level detail) data from a Client, analyzing the data and proposing a strategy that optimizes for time in transit and cost.

How do you design your LTL and FTL shipping programs?

Similar to small parcel programs, Productiv designs truckload programs on a client by client basis. Productiv has agreements in place with national brokers and carriers in order to best fit each client to a shipping strategy. Productiv also looks at retail compliance and retailers preferred carriers in order to fill out a carrier strategy for a client.

For retailer B2B orders, who does the UCC labels, packing slips and routing?

Productiv handles this process from start to finish. Retailer orders are sent to Productiv via EDI connection and Productiv handles the order picking, labeling, staging for shipment, routing in the retailer system and transporting the goods to the retailer with a focus on OTIF SLAs.

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FAQs

General

Client Embed Programs

3PL & Value-Added Services