About PL Programs

How We Operate

We drive successful project execution.

We help operations executives deliver projects critical to their supply chain capabilities.

Why? We’ve worked in warehouses. We’ve experienced the problems. And we can help things be better.

New site implementations and projects are risky. We know all sorts of things can go wrong, from permitting problems, to WMS System bugs, to staffing issues, to plain mechanical failures. We’ve been through PLC cabinets on the sorter literally bursting into flames at 2AM. That’s not the type of thing you want to deal with during Peak!

Missed functionality, schedules, budgets, or just having “issues” like that at startup is costly and stressful. And those problems only get more costly and troublesome to fix as time goes on.

Nobody wants those problems. But somehow they keep popping up on projects.

And guess what? We’ve developed a way to avoid them.

Most teams need someone with the expertise and experience to bring the project together.

That’s what we do. We’ve done the leg work and know where the issues are and how to avoid them. We bring project-tested methodologies and tailor that experience to your organization’s needs.

Most importantly, we know how to work with you to do it.

With our industry background, experience with large projects and complex stakeholder environments, and pulling in the right experts at the right times, we help teams reduce risk and deliver a smooth project experience. 

Principles

We help Operations Teams operate.
  • Do the right thing: Build trust with competence, integrity, and empathy. Our clients, our company, and our partners all deserve respect, humanity, and our best efforts.
  • Start with the basics: We reason from first principles and master fundamentals.
  • Learn often, share often: We embrace learning, applying knowledge, and helping others succeed. We work to improve and refresh our approaches with deep expertise and multi-disciplinary lenses.
  • Have a point of view: No one person has the whole picture or all the right answers. But everyone has a part: bring and voice yours and listen deeply to others.
  • Make it repeatable: We build by writing down our processes, successes, and failures.
  • Get to the finish line: We finish what we start. “Done” is better than “perfect on paper”.
  • Deliver results: Everybody benefits when we do a great job.
  • Build a great team: Bring the right people on, make them the best you can.

Paul Lukehart

Principal of PL Programs

Paul has managed warehouse operations in a variety of industries. Paul has managed implementations for sites ranging from 40,000 sf to 1.1M sf, greenfields and brownfields, from forklifts to robotics. He worked for Target, Amazon, and XPO Logistics, and he has consulted for other well-known companies. He is an Army veteran with a B.S. in Civil Engineering from West Point and MBA from the Harvard Business School. Paul is the author of Practical Floor Supervision and Practical Performance Management. He also developed and launched SimpleDim Powerpoint Add-In for completing to-scale warehouse layouts in Powerpoint.

Nick DiFlora

Supply Chain and Operations Leader

Nick has over 25 years of experience in Supply Chain associated with medium-to-Fortune 500 organizations with a focus in facility start-ups and implementations. His industry experience includes sporting manufacturing, multi-channel retail, ecom, and 3PL’s. In these roles he has driven multiple system implementations (WMS), site start-ups (greens space to go live and stabilization), expansions and continuous improvement working collectively with internal and external partners. Nick has led multiple diverse teams managing “Big-Box” and automated sites driving quality, SLA’s, and fiscal accountability. He earned his Bachelor of Science from BGSU.

Adam Murphy

Supply Chain Consultant

Adam Murphy is a Supply Chain Consultant for PL Programs. He joined PL Programs after working with Pepsico/Frito Lay North America and Amazon in Operations. He has also worked with Apple in technical support. Adam has hands-on experience leading high volume distribution facilities, formerly managing in the largest Frito-Lay distribution center in the southeast. His key contributions include initiating process improvement changes to increase productivity and efficiency metrics. Adam is PMP-certified and a graduate of the University of Florida with B.A. in Business Administration. Adam also owns and operates Murphy Pro Cleaners residential and commercial cleaning service in Colorado Springs, CO.

PL Programs, LLC is a VA-certified Veteran-Owned Small Business.

Solutions:

Project Management

Our Approach:

We partner and integrate with your team to ensure project success. This means we work to understand your business, your people, and your needs. We apply the PMI standard for project management along with a tailored approach to your team’s needs. We:
  • Provide clarity for team and stakeholders on key schedule, scope, cost, and resource planning.
  • Align the team through the project
  • Provide detailed planning and follow-through
  • Integrate the project into your business and supply chain planning
  • Manage project risk and uncertainty
  • Ensure engaged, responsive communications
  • Deliver cost certainty through rigorous bid documents and processes

Engineering & Analysis:

You want to be confident that your design is done right the first time.

  • We can support your team with engineering and analyst services.
  • We partner with you to understand your business and complete analysis of your requirements.
  • We bring the right experts in to meet your needs for process design, site layouts, and technology selection.

Our approach is quantitative, detailed, and grounded in Lean principles. Our 20+ years of experience in design and operations management ensures a solution that meets real-world needs.

We embed with your team to deliver:

  • Complex site implementations from business case through stabilization.
  • Project management office setup and administration for large programs.
  • Project experience includes forward & reverse logistics, large square footage, high headcount, and from minimally to highly automated operations.
  • Technologies like integrator solution design, procurement, and installation; goods-to-person systems; robotics and Automated or Laser Guided Vehicle (AGV / LGV) implementations; and pick module design and implementation.
  • Project support like foundational alignment on charter & business case; project controls; site and process design; industrial engineering reviews of labor plans and process capacities; technology design, procurement, and implementation.