Part 4: Crisis Management and Problem Solving: When everything goes wrong, leadership gets tested
This is the fourth article in my 10-part series on the critical skills every front-line leader in distribution must master. In Parts 1 to 3, we covered knowing your operation, leading people, and communicating with purpose. All that gets tested when a crisis hits. And a crisis will hit.
Front-line leaders get hit without warning. Printers die at 10 a.m., a truck no-shows, the order cut time moves up, two people call off. The job is not to admire the chaos. The job is to diagnose fast, choose a clear path, and keep the promise to the customer.
Decision stack—use it every time, and always in this order:
Safety, Service, Quality, Cost.
When two options look equal, this breaks the tie.
When the system goes dark and the trucks keep coming
It was a Tuesday in November, peak building, when our warehouse management system (WMS) crashed hard. Screens black, scanners dead, six inbound at the dock, twelve more before noon. We had about 40,000 lines that needed to ship by end of day.
Calling IT was necessary. Waiting was not. We went manual. Paper pick lists, clipboards, two-person teams: one picks, one checks. Our most experienced people anchored in each zone. We turned one bay into a staging area and put a runner on the whiteboard to update progress every thirty minutes.
We did not hit normal rates. We shipped on time. That day proved the point: Good people with a clear plan can overcome system failure. Your team’s ability to adapt under pressure is the real test of your leadership.
Crisis management is not optional. It’s your core job.
You don’t choose when a crisis hits. Equipment fails, people call out, systems crash, trucks break down, weather delays inbound, a big customer moves a window with four hours of notice. These are no exceptions. They are part of the job. Leaders separate from managers by how fast they assess, decide, and execute when the room tilts.
Two-hour fix, two-day fix
Split every problem into two.
- Two-hour fix: the countermeasure that keeps today on the rails. One sentence, one owner, one time.
- Two-day fix: the process change that stops the repeat. One test, one adoption date. Kill it if it doesn’t work.
Field cases—real hits and clean calls
Grainger label outage–WEG Electric
Inbound from Brazil, picks running, two Grainger loads staged. If you’ve worked with Grainger, you know they require their unique part number and barcode on every item.
Fifteen minutes to pick up, the Grainger label printer stops printing. I check the power and labels. All good. Still nothing. Power-cycled. Still nothing. Cables seated right, but no data lights. I changed the cable. No change. I go to the server room. The switch port is dead. I swap the jumper at the switch. Lights come on. Labels roll. Truck loads on time.
- Two-hour fix: Swap the jumper, ship on time.
- Two-day fix: Store a labeled spare jumper in the IT closet.
Leadership note: Your crew mirrors your energy. Stay calm and visible. It’s easy to lead when everything is going right. When it hits the fan, you need to keep your cool or you’ll lose your crew’s respect.
Saturday hotshot, 15 HP motor–WEG Electric
A customer’s 15 horsepower conveyor motor burns out on a Saturday. No backup on hand. Every hour down hurts. I opened the warehouse, pulled the replacement motor, and secured a hotshot carrier with a van.
Two miles from our dock, the van broke down. No drama. I started calling backup couriers until one could take the load. They showed up in under an hour. We shifted the pallet, updated the customer, and they were back up that day.
- Two-hour fix: Switch carriers immediately, handoff at the dock, keep freight moving.
- Two-day fix: Post a call tree with at least three hotshot vendors and coverage windows. Review it monthly. Keep contact info at shipping.
Leadership note: Never let a single failure point hold the day hostage.
Held order that almost missed the truck
A full truckload clears a finance hold, but the system never pushes it to pick-ready. The truck arrives. WMS shows nothing to pick. I call HQ. They confirm the issue and manually push the order, but we’ve got a 15-minute pickup window.
I grab the dock team, hand out two lines each, print quick tickets, and put a checker at the trailer. We staged and loaded the truck in 15 minutes. The driver pulled out inside the window.
- Two-hour fix: Manual pick assignment, two lines per person, one checker at the dock, load now.
- Two-day fix: Set a clear escalation path for stuck order states. Finance, IT, DC. Write a one-page manual release SOP so no one guesses next time.
Leadership note: Set the target, cut the work into pieces, and move.
Default plays you can trust
- Label or handheld outage: Paper packets ready, small set of preprinted carrier labels, manual load sheets. One logs exceptions, one talks to IT on a timer, one owns floor updates. Keep flow. Recover data later.
- Midday order spike: Freeze non-urgent receiving, pull cross-trained floaters to packout, release smaller waves more often, post trailer times, move fast movers into the hot zone now.
- Carrier no-show: Reassign dock time in 30 minutes, move freight to a backup lane with clear signage, call the customer with revised promise time, document the miss in one line.
- Short staffing day: Staff to expected attendance, not headcount. Cross-train a portion of the crew. Post must ship and can ship tomorrow lists by 10 a.m. Use overtime as a surge tool, not a crutch.
Boring ships freight. Exciting means something is broken.
Why crisis management beats smooth operations
Anybody can manage a warehouse when the systems work, the people show up, and the freight flows. That’s administration. Leadership gets tested when the power goes out, the system crashes, and you’ve got three hours to figure it out before you miss every commitment.
Your team remembers the day you kept your cool, gave clear direction, and led them through the chaos. That’s when you earn respect. That’s how you build a culture that can handle anything.
The days you fix chaos are the days you build leaders.
Next up in Part 5: Time Management and Prioritization.
Your day gets stolen by noise unless you set a rhythm: start-of-shift plan, mid-shift replan, end-of-day reset. Protect maker time for leads.
With over 25 years of leadership in supply chain, logistics and global distribution strategy, Will Quinn is a recognized authority in warehousing and distribution operations. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, he spent 12 years mastering discipline, adaptability and leadership — qualities that have fueled his success in managing high-impact distribution networks for companies like Grainger, Coca-Cola, MSC Industrial Supply, WEG Electric and Cintas. As a former global distribution strategist at Infor, he spent four years helping businesses bridge the gap between cutting-edge technology and real-world distribution challenges. Will holds a Master of Science in Supply Chain Management from Elmhurst University.