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After 11 years as a general manager at MOM’s Organic Market, Josh Goodman decided to jump head-first into a director of warehouse expansion role that would be far more complicated than probably even he expected.
He knew the company would move its internal warehouse 3 miles away, upgrading from 5,000 to 25,000 square feet. Granted, neither he nor his new inventory manager had any warehouse experience, but Goodman knew there was enough solid institutional knowledge inside the warehouse to learn quickly and rely on veterans when needed.
“I was lucky with the team here,” he explains. “I wouldn’t have been able to make this happen without them, and their contributions cannot be overstated. We’ve had a really great group of people throughout this process.”
“This process” came to mean something far larger than an already incredibly complex warehouse move. There was the first phase that had nothing to do with a new warehouse build at all. MOM’s previous warehouse manager was preparing to switch its internal software to a new Microsoft Dynamics platform, but took a new role outside the company before they had time to carry out the implementation.
“The company’s purpose is to protect and restore the environment. So how do we incorporate sustainability into this operation and make it run as smoothly as possible for our team?”
Josh Goodman
“I had two weeks to work with the previous manager [who] was leaving, and we were going live less than two weeks after that,” Goodman remembers. “Nobody had used this program before in our company as far as warehousing or inventory management, so we were still learning, too.”
Before Goodman could move his entire organization to a new location in a part of the company where he’d never worked before, he had to learn a completely new software suite, figure out how to best implement it, and go live with it at the same time.
Goodman wound up spending roughly three hours a day on the line with MOM’s tech consultant who was six hours ahead of him in Estonia, learning how to operate and implement the new system that had the potential to completely derail warehouse operations if not utilized correctly.
But the team made it through, and it’s likely because Goodman’s voice doesn’t change much between talking about what might have been the most stressful few months of his career or what he’s planning on having for lunch. It takes quite a lot to get the director stressed, and it shows.
MOM’s began its physical warehouse move the following July, a process that just wrapped up in October 2022. While it was only a three-mile move, moving coolers that occupy a few hundred square feet was going to be difficult no matter what.
The new warehouse takes MOM’s front-facing environmental and sustainability efforts—which include almost two decades of renewable energy projects, another decades-long storewide plastic waste reduction initiative, investment in reforesting efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and partnerships with environmental nonprofits—to their internal warehouse.
“The company’s purpose is to protect and restore the environment,” Goodman explains. “So how do we incorporate sustainability into this operation and make it run as smoothly as possible for our team?”
“I was lucky with the team here. I wouldn’t have been able to make this happen without them, and their contributions cannot be overstated.”
Josh Goodman
When it comes to day-to-day operations, Goodman says the warehouse is examining the logistics of how often they need trucks out on the road making deliveries to stores. It’s just one example, but he says the warehouse move is the prime moment to build in changes with long-term environmental benefits.
The new space offers far more natural light than their previous location, and shelving was constructed so as not to cast massive shadows over warehouse employees. Goodman also credits the facilities team for integrating motion-sensor lighting to ease energy usage, and the energy used is 100 percent offset by wind and solar.
He also expresses appreciation for those MOM’s employees on the customer-facing side, the people he got to know over 11 years, for allowing the warehouse team to evolve and be understanding of the learning curve that was inevitable.
“We keep seeking out feedback, and we’ll keep getting better for our internal customers,” he says. “It’s been important to have everyone across the company involved, and I really appreciate all of the support we’ve been given.”
The director’s new role required some incredible growth in what could have been a crisis moment. But the director was too calm to let the stress get the best of him. As MOM’s continues to push ahead on the frontlines of environmental and sustainable practices, Goodman and his team will continue to find new ways to underline that commitment, from the warehouse and beyond.
Since 1996, Capitol Refrigeration has specialized as a refrigeration systems installation contractor providing services, sales of commercial refrigeration and HVAC units and parts, including showcases for major supermarkets. We proudly provide the highest quality mechanical contracting services to the supermarket and food services industries and look forward to continued work with MOM’s Organic Market!
