Running Your Business Logistics Without The Wheels Falling Off
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If your business deals with physical goods, there’s a high chance that you’re going to be in charge of getting those goods from one spot to another. Particularly in this world that’s becoming more and more driven by ecommerce. You might not be transporting those goods yourself but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to think about your logistics. Below, we’ll look at creating the smoothest method you possibly can.
Choose the right partners
It’s like you’re not going to be running your own deliveries. If you are, you’ll need a whole other guide on running a fleet. But in choosing partners, you need to be just as careful. You want partners who can deal with the load volume you have to send. But you also want those who can provide accurate data through things like telemetric communication. The more data they can provide on your shipments, the better.
Communicate with the customer
The reason you want that data is because you want your customers to have it, too. Customers can be an impatient lot. The more detailed information you can give them on where their package is and how it’s traveling, the better. In particular, make sure they’re never waiting for a late arrival without some sort of heads-up. You need to communicate to your provider that you need to be notified when deliveries are late. That way, you can investigate why. You don’t want a customer calling up a week after the expected delivery date, only for you to call your partner and find out their package was lost in transport. You need to be able to inform customers of issues before they start calling you.
Know your exact demands
It’s important to start getting a very clear insight as to how much you’re shipping out. Particularly when it comes to the volume. You need to know whether you need a courier, a full-truckload or less-than-truckload option. The best way to do that is collecting the data yourself. Using things like 50 lb test weights, make sure your weighing system is accurate as can be. You don’t want to make a less-than-truckload order just to find out later that you’ve gone over it and will need to make an entirely new order.
Create multiple inventory paths
If you have the space, then start separating your inventory based on where it’s supposed to go. Create different sections for different shipments while they’re in storage. If you’re concerned about the cost of inventory for more than one location, then just mark them and keep them as separate as possible. That makes it a lot more efficient getting packages out and on the road.
Running your shipping stations
The area where your packaging and shipping is done should be as efficient as possible. For instance, you don’t want your people to have to travel several feet for packaging materials, so keep them stored on-site. Consider the ergonomics of the shipping room, too. People shouldn’t be twisting and turning to do different tasks. Create a streamlined space, perhaps moving horizontally from station to station suited to each step of the process, from packaging to weighing and etc.
Cost effectiveness is essential in logistics. Taking too long to ship things off or shipping them off in formats that don’t fit them can be dreadfully costly. Make sure your logistics system is a help, not a cost.
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