I am Batman - Adaptability and Resilience
Adaptability and resilience are hard to hire for - but if you have it - you can do amazing things.
One of the most unique projects of my career was standing up a new warehouse inside a cave complex in Valmeyer, IL - and doing it in just six weeks. Yes - a cave and no I am not Batman! Oh and did I mention that it was at the height of the pandemic? And yes - it came with challenges you don’t exactly read about in textbooks.
Launching a facility like this doesn't follow the typical project plan. With six weeks the mandate for purchasing became hardware that can be purchased from Amazon Prime with the exception of tablets that had to meet the military grade standards for freezing temperatures, performance, and durability. The other non-negotiable was cold gear. The team would pick orders in a freezer and we needed the very best gear that allowed them to bend, twist, reach, and use their fingers to pick eaches.
Operating in an underground environment meant we had to rethink airflow, pressure changes, and safety standards from the ground up. Dry ice sublimation isn’t forgiving and proper CO₂ venting was absolutely critical. That meant inventing a CO₂ removal system using a small industrial motor and flexi-tubing (MacGyver would have been proud).
Communication was the next challenge. No cell service. WiFi didn't broadcast far so we had to build in far more overlapping spray points than anticipated. A hardwired solution to fed to an army of boosters, switches, and redundancies.
Finding staff was surprisingly less of a challenge despite the rural location of Valmeyer. We drew from fifty miles away. It helped that it was the height of the pandemic and many were out of work.
Standing it up in six weeks: From layout to staffing - from equipment to safety audits - from process design to go-live - the team executed with speed and precision under conditions most people would call impossible.
This wasn’t just a warehouse launch - it was a masterclass in adaptability, cross-functional coordination, and operational creativity.
When people talk about supply chain being unpredictable, this is what they mean.
You can’t plan for the Bat Cave. You can only build teams capable of tackling whatever shows up. And that’s what made this one unforgettable.
