The supply chain and your approach to logistics needs to be monitored and considered – just because it’s one of the most critical pathways to your company’s success, but it doesn’t need to be complicated. Think, look and see smarter – simple solutions save time.
1.Team talk? How often do you talk to the team, what do they know day to day? Are there any big jobs on the horizon that need to be prepped? Anticipate, communicate and motivate. A couple of communication minutes can save business hours.
2. Layout – items that move quickly need a sensible location to ensure process time is kept to a minimum. Don’t create a bottle neck and clog up your outbound goods.
3. Strategic placement – keep on top of management of inventory as a whole; especially when operations are based over more than one location. The slowest moving items require an area where storage and workforce costs are lowest.
4. Packing – how far is your team travelling? Keep distance covered to a minimum by positioning boxes, tape and materials at workstations. Sometimes situations evolve just because an object is left in the way and the team works around it. Watch out and ask why.
5. Are you making best use of a box? If items are a sensible size are you packing directly into a pre-labelled shipping box? Multiple box use when packing isn’t always necessary.
6. Are you wireless print enabled? When items are picked are you printing labels at the same time? Your warehouse team can wear the printer and combine two steps in one. If items are suitably packaged it’s a solution worth considering.
7. Think ‘out of the box’ – size can make a considerable difference, that impacts on transport and routes. Small parcel carriers may be more economic than sending a truck, but how many half pallets are going out? Keep tabs on the cost comparisons, there may well be a change in break points on your shipping.
8. Think ‘in the box’ – get the right size custom packing and save on shipping too. It can also make a significant difference on damage limitation as well as ticking the sustainability box too.
9. Can you ship direct? Do you actually need goods to come to you or could you ship directly from the manufacturer - saving transport time.
10. Keeping track – technology now helps us respond quickly. Be sure to communicate with customers promptly. Tracking throughout the process ensures a better customer experience.
If you are thinking of a full-scale supply chain analysis, contact us…
Learn how our customers streamlined their supply chain processes here