Whether you’re a supply chain manager or the owner of a small business, logistics are crucial to your success. Without strength in this area, the rest of the business will suffer. Here are some small, easy to implement steps for improving your supply chain processes:
- Re-examine transport modes
Often the use of small carriers can make you considerable savings when you have multiple shipments on smaller items. Understanding the price differences for different weights and areas might surprise you. Rethinking your routes or how you ship your goods can pay off for mid-size businesses, instead of relying on large corporate carriers. For a Same Day Courier Slough, contact a professional company like UK-TDL.
- Top Sellers
If you’re dealing with physical produce, ensure you’re fastest moving items are positioned to allow for minimum processing time and faster dispatch. You also want to avoid creating a bottleneck for staff, so think about your storage carefully for top items.
- Have packing equipment close to hand
Reducing time spent picking and packing is key to a successful, efficient warehouse. Keeping packing boxes, tape and other materials close at hand in a shipping station will help speed up the process. How much time could be lost if an employee has to go to a different part of the building just to find bubble wrap?
- Pick into the box
If it’s feasible, getting staff to pick items straight into the shipping box is a great time-saving exercise. This works well when most items fit into standard boxes, and saves even more time if those boxes are pre-labelled.
- Hold a quick huddle
Before each shift begins, hold a brief team meeting to outline goals and targets for the day and to motivate and encourage. It’s also wise to end brief meeting with a reminder of health and safety issues.
- Incorporate mobile printers
If your dealing with items that are pre-packaged, at the point of picking, if a staff member can use a handheld wireless printer to print shipping labels, then you’ll be saving more time. The system is programmed to print a label when the parcel is scanned, so you’re combining two steps into one.
- Use drop-shipping
This is a trend that’s becoming increasingly popular for cutting down on transport costs and saving time. It’s the process of shipping direct from your supplier to the customer via third party billing processes.
- Packaging that’s on-demand
With more demand than ever before for a reduction in excess waste, sustainability and keeping costs down, investing in an on-demand packaging machine might be the way forward. The machine cuts the correct sized box for the order from stored rolls of corrugated cardboard.