Stop Mismanaging Your Supply Chain

If you are having trouble and problems with your supply chain and manufacturing in your business, then I may be able to help. I am a super experienced plant manager who has seen a lot of different businesses come and go. It always seems to be the case that a company will be doing really well, then all of a sudden make drastic and unnecessary changes to either their supplier lineup, their supply chain management, inventory, or some sort of manufacturing process. I have seen it happen time after time and it never ceases to amaze me how naive some business professionals can be. Since I have years of experience working with and managing industrial supplying for manufacturing and production, I thought it would be appropriate to write this article to describe a few ways in which you can improve your supply management as well as your processing and shipping efficiencies.

The first thing you need to know when improving your warehouse shipping is that it may take some time to figure out what the problem is. This means that you may have to start measuring, analyzing, and controlling your shipping processes. It’s important to see what kind of output your business is reaching and what the warehouse is capable of. This will make more sense when you are trying to piece together different costs and overhead, and will ultimately lead to better decision making going forward. In the long run, identifying ways to improve is going to be extremely beneficial for your business, but there is no doubt that the process is never fun. 

The next thing you are going to have to do is try to cut costs somewhere. I don’t mean just changing your supplier of shipping supplies or something like that. Sure, shipping supplies is important and a big cost, but we are looking at things much bigger. I’m talking about employing more technology throughout the entire plant or warehouse. Here’s the thing about technology - it is almost always better than what a human can do. To be honest, humans are not very impressive and will always fall short of certain benchmarks. That’s why we must replace all of our employees with robots. Will John not be able to buy his kids presents during the holiday season now because you replaced him with a robot? Maybe - but that’s not your problem. Your problem right now is cutting down warehouse costs, and this is one way to do it. Using robots is a lot more costly up front, but over time there is no doubt that they will pay off due to speed, efficiency, and lack of mistakes. 

Another big shipping mistake I see a lot of companies make is not having a simple, standardized labeling system in place to ensure that every package is labeled accurately. When it’s all said and done, labeling should be the simplest and most routine function of your warehouse, and you should not have to go to great lengths to make sure your team in the labeling department is working effectively. Again, fire some people and replace them with robots if you have to. I know that, from personal experience, robots are almost always the way to go. In fact, the warehouse I work at does not employ a single person on the warehouse floor.

Keep your Shipping Department the Best in Class

There are lots of different types of companies but when it comes to shipping the processes are rather similar.  So why are some companies absolutely dominating in the shipping game and others are not doing anything? There are a whole lot of variables and after working for several billion dollar companies I have noticed trends in the large companies and the answer to creating an amazing shipping department is having systems in place.  The more that is left to chance the more that is left to failure in a shipping department.  Now that e commerce is becoming the fastest growing kind of company and in many States the only type being allowed to run normally.  So let's go over a few things to help shipping departments thrive during this covid-19 season.

The first thing is rather simple and that is to know and plan everything out the best way possible.  Knowing all the items that you use on a daily basis.  Now break that down to every roll of tape, every type of box and how many.  Look at trends in selling and find what size boxes or bags you are going to be using the next month.  These are all the things that you need to know.  Because having the right shipping supplies on hand means you can ship them the most efficient way.  If this can be done then you can purchase your shipping supplies in the best financial way.

Being fiscally responsible is also how you get ahead in the shipping department game.  If you are purchasing the products from a supplier that is giving you the best price for the quantity you actually need then you are right on track.  That is important because it is not worth spending extra if it will sit so long and that cash flow is now gone for a month.  Being wise with your spending is important and most companies that are saving the most use a supply chain that delivers the right products at the right time.  That is the type of department you need to run and it is simply started by being nerdy.

Now you have the right products for the best price you must ensure your employees are working in the best and most efficient way.  Have competitions to see who can do the most of something the best with the least amount of product.  Then award a winner for the team or person that finds the best system.  Now take that system and use it and improve. Keep finding the fastest, best and least expensive way to do things.  This is how Ford created the assembly line and it was the big leap that make our manufacturing system take off in the United States.  The ability to innovate and be efficient is what makes us great.  Now also reward those who do well and who have created the processes.  Give people the incentive to be better and work better and share in the profit that it creates. Incentive is what makes our country great and what can drive people to succeed and help  your shipping department succeed as well. Don't count out the manual labor workers who have been doing something for years. Give them a reason to do the fastest job possible and I bet they have the knowledge and skill to find it and do it.

 

 

 

Warehouse shipping work is hard to manage.

Being in the form of work that puts you in a warehouse is a whole different form of business.  Things like customer service look differently and managing people is a little more stringent or it can be.  The management of warehouse work has a ton of things that can go wrong and in many ways the efficiency of the warehouse matters most. 

This means that now having the right products or systems in place and that is what many companies pay millions of dollars to create is simply systems to make things more efficient.  So if you do not have that amount of money to do the studies, you must end up creating them yourself.  Now that E Commerce is the new king of business shipping has become the most important part of the warehouse workers and for many it really is a new concept.  So creating a shipping department in a warehouse is the next step.

First off is to create space.  Warehouses need to be converted to be efficient now that e commerce is creating the majority of business in the country.  That means that you need to have the space to get items, pack the items up and place them in a place to be shipped.  Creating space in a warehouse can be unthinkable or really complicated.  But it needs to be done.  Temporary storage can be created by using shipping supplies.  This means go and grab your tape and boxes and markers and start moving things around until you can create paths for the items above.  Think amazon and depending on the products you sell you will need the ability to get items fast and shipped and in order.  So think about spacing.

Creating space and spacing are important distinctions.  The spacing between isles needs to be able to fit  your products and have a easy way to move them from one area to the next for shipping.  If all items are small enough to be moved on a cart. Make sure your carts are built for the isles or vise versa.  Then makes sure you have the right shippingsupplies on them. Most major companies use metal carts and boxes to store items in for finding, packing, and shipping.  You need to make sure that your company has the right products for its employees and I suggest being efficient. I have worked for several billion dollar corporations and they use cheap cardboard boxes for everything in the back end of the store.  That is because they are replaceable and not expensive.

Now that you have the area to work in, make sure you have the right systems for people to follow.  This means that they area working efficiently and effectively.  Have a system for each person to find items and keep inventory in pristine condition. Give them the ability to take items out of the system and create a way to make is so simply a child can do it.  That is the key. Simplicity in all things warehouse makes it easy. Also build in ways to fix errors.  If the wrong item was shipped make it simple for the employee to figure out how and why. Then put a fair and not evil system of reprimand in place. I hope these tips help you in your new endeavour!