European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 10, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Learning from . Bean people not robots Arete secret of Success Vertie Pettengill pict ii merchandise from thelver aided by a computer that aug itt want to if yrs t in her route through the Maine wan Hovie. Roganne her tart and by Steven e. Prokesch new York times e Ach year some 2.5 million people whore outdoors enthusiasts or just want Clook the part make a pilgrimage to Lubean inc s famous retail store a landmark the Small Maine town of Freeport. With visions of Down vests Chamois shirts and rubber bottomed Maine Hunting shoes dancing in their heart most probably do not even notice the sprawling met skinned building that stands unidentified Oil route 1, just about a half mile Down the Road from bean Soloi but in recent years this nondescript building has attracted a different kind of Pilgrim corporate executives from companies As diverse As ism and a Penney Xerox and Eddie Bauer digital equipment a time inc. This 315.000-Square-foot building is . Bean s distribution Center the Backbone of its might1 mail order business. From this building bean annual sends out 5.6 million packages that contain some 11 million items Worth some $260 million or about 86 percent of its total sales. What these corporate giants have come to study i not merely bean s remarkable efficiency but the was bean has achieved that efficiency by relying on Peor. Rather than robots. Here is a conventional warehouse that is very efficient and Only sem automated marvelled Robert Camp manager of business analysis for the Xerox corp., which looked to bean for ways to improve its own copier supplies warehouses. Bean makes no apology for us limited use of Modi technology. Our technology has never been state-ol-1 Art or on the cutting Edge said John Findlay bean s senior vice president for operations. He is a data processing expert and one of the Many professional managers recruited during the last decade by Leon a. Gorman the company s president and grandson of its legendary founder Leon Leonwood bean. Bean s approach May sound like heresy in an age when scores of american corporations see autom Alii As the Way to regain a competitive Edge Over the japanese. But Many companies Are now discovering that automation Alon 3 not a remedy it s not automation that enables you to survive said Hugh d. Kinney managing partner of syst econ Atlanta based consulting group that specializes in manufacturing technology and distribution systems. It s the creative use of technology to enable people be  in fact some experts maintain that businesses tha make Good use of workers have a Buill in Edge. Companies that have developed disciplined people systems Are very difficult to compete against said John a. White director of the material handling research Center at Georgia Institute of technology. Under Gorman who became president after his Grandfather died in 1967 at the age of 94, this Mains mail order House has meshed Man and machine to create just the kind of system that Kinney and while describe. In the last decade. Bean s sales have grown Len Fol the number of items it stocks including variations colors and sizes increased sixfold to 51,430. Bui number of permanent employees Rose less than five to 1,650, irom344. Moreover bean still manages to get orders out tin door within 4 Vij Days. Many Catalon companies take two to three week said Roj it d. Kestnbaum a consultant to the direct marketing Industry. Just As important As its Speed is bean s accuracy sends customers exactly what they ordered 99.89 percent of the Lime. It s hard to be More accurate ii that Kestnbaum said. Many companies Havana 1 percent to 2 percent inaccuracy  bean s performance is especially remarkable in i of not Only the tedious nature of Many jobs at its distribution Center but also the Large number of seasonal workers that bean uses. To handle the Christmas crush. Bean doubles the size of Tho hourly work Force at its distribution Center to 700. Company wide the number of hourly workers swells from 1,400 to nearly 2,800. To be sure computers bean bought its first in 1974 have played an important role in improving a productivity and accuracy. But while other compan Luiggi. Page 14 the stars and stripes monday