According to the Food Marketing Institute, up to 75 billion dollars’ worth of sales are lost every year because products are either out of stock or unsalable due to supply related reasons. Food retailers now want suppliers to resolve the persistent problem of incomplete or delayed deliveries. In the past, retailers were used to giving suppliers more leeway, especially since several factors which include bad weather, surges in demand, technology malfunctions and others can and often foil the delivery of essential packaged goods from warehouses scattered across the country. Brands such as Walmart are telling suppliers that on-time deliveries translate directly into more sales and profits.
Analysts assert that even the large suppliers manage to average around 75% of orders on time. J.P. Morgan food analysts note that stores that are out-of-stock on crucial items tend to lose thousands of consumers on any given day. Making the necessary improvements to meet tighter delivery windows can be time-consuming, capital-intensive and complicated.
This process is in most cases a significant strain on some packaged goods suppliers. The question, therefore, is what strategies can suppliers employ to improve warehouse efficiency and meet delivery schedules?
Sales and Operations Planning
For any supply chain to operate at peak efficiency and optimal performance, sales, and operations planning is a crucial undertaking. Sales and operations planning is an exercise that involves all the relevant people in a warehouse’s functional departments. Most suppliers and warehousing companies relegate sales and operations planning to expensive, complicated software.
In truth, it is more efficient to analyze the supply chain process first. The main task that a supplier’s planning team will want to address is the elimination of waste and redundancies in the supply chain processes. In the supply and warehousing industry, defragmentation of processes can be a costly affair. S&OP addresses concerns such as high quantities of slow-moving inventory, demand forecasting and adjusting to production schedules.
Proper Staffing
Inadequate staffing is a problem commonly associated with delays in the supply chain. An understaffed warehouse is incapable of meeting tight delivery schedules thanks to longer unloading and carrier times. Investing in a properly trained workforce or a competent, trusted unloading service is a strategy assured to allow a supplier or warehousing company to keep up with the needs of a tight supply schedule. Staffing in itself encompasses two crucial aspects; an adequate number of workers and adequately trained staff.
A sufficient number of warehouse workers ensures that all tasks pertaining the supply process are equally distributed. This means that the workers will be able to handle the workload without being overwhelmed. Training and qualification allow the supplier to assign specified tasks to the most competent individuals, this way the supplier can keep up with the demand for essential packaged goods.
Automation
The most prominent names in the supply and warehousing industry make use of technology to optimize the processes and improve productivity. This strategy has been shown to improve delivery times and reduce costs. Automation can come in the form of tracking the movement of goods along the supply chain, data sharing between manufacturers, retailers and warehouse companies and also the inclusion of robots in the warehouse.
Robotic automation has been cited as the next big thing in warehousing and supply chain management. It can increase the overall volume of goods a warehouse can comfortably handle ensuring that there are no gaps in the supply volumes.
Continuous Process Improvement
Any supplier or warehousing company eyeing to improve efficiency and meet tight delivery schedules ought to consider continuous process improvement. The process entails evaluating the existing warehouse strategies and operations and afterward looking for more ways to drive increased efficiency. The strategy should be executed on a constant basis and helps the supplier to keep up with the ever-increasing demand volumes of the retailers. Continuous Process Improvement allows a warehousing company to evolve and stay competitive in a fast-moving business world.
Evaluation of Storage Facilities
One of the most important strategies a supplier can implement is the evaluation of whether his warehousing facilities are adequate to handle increased volumes over time comfortably. It is quite simple, the quantity of stored goods versus the demand tends to rise over the course of time. Evaluating industrial storage facilities entails factoring in how the storage systems will evolve with a retail market’s needs over time. Performing a thorough evaluation of current and future warehouse storage requirements can help improve warehouse efficiency, meet tight supply schedules and also drive significant cost savings in the long term.
Many suppliers don’t have the necessary warehousing infrastructure to keep up with tight supply demands. Therefore, shipping complete orders on time is an almost entirely impossible prospect. Despite the existence of fines on incomplete orders and delays in the supply chain, there is a need for long-term solutions that will address the problem of delayed or incomplete deliveries.