Innovation Blog

Case Study: Pick & Light — First Doer  Advantage

By Shlomo Maital

Meet Paul Hein, inventor.  I met him at SiloDesa, a huge pharmaceutical warehouse in Mexico City, operated by Farmacos Especializados, a wholesale distributor.  There, Hein was installing his invention — a device that doubles or triples “pick and pack” operations in warehouses.  Normally, workers walk down long aisles and “pick” products from shelves to fill orders.  This is the old way, as workers hold a hard-to-read paper order form in one hand and search for the products on the shelves to fill it.  There are errors and the process is slow.

The new way — the Hein way — is to put LED screens on each warehouse shelf slot, link them to Oracle software, and “light up” the shelf  to show the worker exactly what to take.  The worker carries a tummy bag, in order to free both hands to fill the order.  The LED light goess off when the right product is picked.  Every product has an RFID, radio frequency identification.

Hein invented this clever system in 1982.  He refused to patent it, even though he knew there would soon be many imitators.  There were —  15 in all.  “I refuse to spend three years of my life in court,” he told me, emphatically.   Soon the 15 competitors fell to only 4 — and Paul’s firm is still the leader.  “First doer advantage” is crucial.  First to invent, first to install, first  to learn — and most important,  first to become authentic. Here he was, at SiloDesa, holding a drill and installing his system himself with two workers.  There is no deeper authenticity than an inventor holding a drill.

But Hein did not want to chat with me about Pick & Light.  That is the past.  He wanted to talk about what is, for him, the future — his P.B. Hein Vineyards, in St. Helena, CA, where he makes prize-winning wines:  “Nothing less than silver medal”, he told me proudly.  Hein spoke with great passion about his wine.  I learned this from him:  Most of us live in the past, doing what we are comfortable doing, doing what we did before.  A few of us, creative people, live in the future.  They tackle new adventures rather than old ventures and they live with hope, with joy, with energy and with tremendous renewed and renewable creativity.  Hein is a prime example.

Thanks, Paul, for the lesson in life!