Once a month, we will be shedding some light on the great team that works behind the scenes here at Safety Hoist and giving you some insight into their careers, lives, and future aspirations.
This week, we'd like to introduce you to Kyle Karpew, our supply chain manager. Kyle has worked at Safety Hoist Company for two years and has been an incredibly important member of our team as he helps our company ensure items are in stock to get our customers their material hoists, part items and accessories on time.
When Kyle studied at West Chester University, majoring in business administration, he decided to take a course in production and inventory management which ended up having a major impact on his career aspirations.
“I fell in love with the course material and how it’s an overlooked field that maintains a large importance over the health of a company,” Karpew said.
While he was still an undergrad, he decided to intern at Safety Hoist in the marketing department. While he did love making content and being a part of the marketing team he had his eye on something else.
As he was approaching graduation, he decided to take a full-time position as a Supply Chain Manager.
“Aside from schooling, being able to work at Safety Hoist allowed me to branch into different sub-categories of Supply Chain Management that will shape my career in the future.”
Starting his career at Safety Hoist, he faced a few challenges early on;the biggest being the overall revamping of the company’s inventory management system. To get started, Karpewe had to make sure stock levels were up to date, take a different approach to bill material and cycle count. As he started working, he saw the stock levels on the computer didn’t match what was actually in stock. There was no way of actually keeping track of what parts were needed to make Safety Hoists.
The challenge with revamping inventory was trying to figure out how to start or where to start. Once he got to work, Kyle figured out a simple process to keep stock levels up to date in the warehouse and in the office.
First, he organized the warehouse by category so that way materials would be easier to locate when building material hoists and when tracking stock. He then created different excel sheets, took current inventory at the time and checked to see what needed to be ordered.
As he got everything under control, it made it easier to check stock at the end of each week. Revamping the inventory helped the office understand what they had in stock and what needed to be ordered in order for the company to provide customers with the right information of lead time for their product.
Every morning, Kyle comes into the office, has a sip of his favorite medium roast Colombian Wawa coffee, and starts his day.
“I love working for Safety Hoist for the simple fact that two days aren’t alike. There’s always a new project or opportunity to learn a new skill and I think that’s important in a work environment to prevent stagnation or complacency,” Karpew said”
That’s not the only reason why Kyle loves coming to work.
“Another reason I love working here is because I’ve developed a lot of great friendships here that will continue on outside of work.”
As Kyle continues to grow his career at Safety Hoist, we’re glad to have him as part of our team.