On July 17, 2012, we, the class, took a fieldtrip to a warehouse and distribution facility. We went to the Oklahoma’s leader in distributing office furniture for businesses. They are located in North Oklahoma City off the Broadway Extension, just south of Wilshire. Scott Rice is not just a furniture dealer, they can also make the customers life easier as they have numerous project manager on site to assist in a company’s expansion, remodel, or brand new built. Scott Rice is a company of just seventy-five employees. The employee body is mainly project managers, interior designers, sales man and women, financial accounting, and lead logistic heads that control the warehouse organization. Scott Rice contracts the manual labor portion of the setup, build and other issues regarding licensed individuals (plumbers, electricians, etc.). With the company employing a small staff generates great opportunities within. For example, the company’s largest customer ever is the erection of the Devon Energy Center in downtown Oklahoma City. Scott Rice has to furnish the fifty two story building. As briefed, it will take four hundred and twenty plus semi-truck trailers of furniture to stock the tower with the means to accommodate the two thousand plus staff of Devon Energy. They must work around the clock to finish the task on time. The contractors are able to unload and build three semi-truck loads a shift. This job will generate thirty eight million dollars and this company benefit is that it is a profit sharing company. With a small employee base, that is more money they will receive for their Christmas bonus.
Scott Rice has been in business for decades. The company of two men started off in the twenties as a Steelcase furniture dealership and later delivering office supplies. The company grew over time and expanded nationwide. The company had many divisions, and in the nineteen eighties, the company was taking a nose dive. The company disbanded and sold, breaking up into franchises. Without selling office supplies no longer, today they are a power house in furniture distribution and contracting to fit any customer’s needs.
Through our tour of the twenty thousand plus spare foot warehouse facility, evidence was shown that they are a busy company that held a lot of overhead products. The facility was packed to the top on every shelf. They had a fast turnaround on their merchandise, as they were receiving just as much furniture as they were distributing. The warehouse side was divided into three sections. The first we saw held furniture that would be shown to potential customers, so they could get an idea of what their product would look like. The Second area was not so neat. This section was the loading dock that held the incoming pallets that needed to be checked for quality, added to inventory and organized in the right location. If the product was not staying long and the customer was close to needing it installed, the product would be housed as a group in the next section of the warehouse; it was the largest of the three. But if the merchandise came early or the customer’s office(s) where not ready for some time, due to delays, their products would be shipped to Scott Rice’s other sixty thousand square foot warehouse on the Southside of Oklahoma City. That facility was not available to us that day. The third and final room was lined in groups of the customer and of their merchandise, anything from their future office chairs, desks, cabinets, and could have been waste baskets. Any section had the means of trailers to back up and haul whatever was need to go out.
Scott Rice’s employees rolled out the red carpet to educate our class on the topic of warehouse and distribution. They showed us a positive attitude to their careers and how fun and exciting the work environment was. The one concern that may have crossed many of our minds is what is next for Scott Rice after their completion of their biggest customer? The company itself will defiantly slow down and they will be waiting for their next big job. With the Devon Tower close to finish in its installs, Scott Rice has shown that they are the best and can handle any enterprise that migrates to this great state of Oklahoma.