Top Logistics Tricks To Increase Your Competitiveness

Find out about the best ways to optimize your logistics, reduce costs and maintain quality product services.

Fremont, CA: Good management in supply chains, transportations, and inventories are integral parts of a company’s logistics, and the company must maintain optimum operation to ensure its distinctiveness in a competitive market. A business model remains futile if the quality of services isn’t up to the mark. Improving the logistics, its management, and administrations can be a great way to ensure that.

Mentioned below are the best ways a business can improve its logistics and become more competitive:

1. Involving technology in supply chain management: A company can utilize tools that ensure transparency in the supply chain so that every member of the chain has a clearer understanding of the process. Given below are a few tools that could be used:

ERP (Enterprise resource planning, for management of business processes and resources), RFID (Radio-frequency identification, allows tracking of the entire supply chain), and TMS ( (Transport management system, for collaborations with vendors, carriers, and customers).

These tools could be utilized to accelerate the logistics process, efficiently maintain inventory, and ensure that the products reach the customers on time in a hassle-free manner.

2. Management of Inventory: One has to have all the materials and products available to meet the customer demands. The key is to define an efficient process to manage these products. For that, one could

• Use different codes to identify different products and materials. This will help efficiently maintain inventory.

• Classify different products into different categories.

• Adopt a just-in-time approach to ensure optimum occupancy in the storage while reducing the cost.

• Allow suppliers to manage their inventory (VMI, Vendor management inventory) which improves the manufacturer's service.

• Use APS (advanced planning systems) to solve the issue of the supply chain.

3. Management of Warehouse: The average cost of a warehouse across the US is $20 per square foot. Hence companies have to manage their inventory in a way to reduce warehousing costs. To do this, one could

• Use automatic collection systems that reduce manpower and increase efficiency.

• Strategize the supply chain and find economic ways for transportation of the products from and to suppliers and customers respectively, while ensuring the quality of the products.

• Use a shared warehouse to reduce the cost. This trick is useful for SMEs which provides them flexibility in maintaining the inventory.

• Set up buffer stores that allow timely distribution and quick deliveries.

4. Management of Transport: Transportation consumes a large amount of the expenditure of a company, hence optimizing it is essential. The following methods are some of the best practices and strategies:

• Maintain traceability and security in the supply chain: One could track the trajectory of the product to coordinate among the distributors for on-time delivery.

• Utilize cross-docking: This will allow companies to reduce warehouse costs while conducting the deliveries smoothly. This also cuts additional costs of transportation.

• Use multimodal transportation: It is done under one contract, hence it is easier to track and secure. It requires less time, costs less, and the deliveries need fewer efforts. 

• Shared loads in rail and road: Several companies could move their products via rail and road in a shared manner, which reduces the cost and reduces risk.

• Outsourcing the transport process: Outsourcing your transport process will ensure better productivity, lesser manpower, and efficiency. The specialists employ technology to strategize a plan that works best for a particular company and cost them less.

• Implementation of reverse logistics: This could be implemented to recover value from the assets and increase profits. This strategy could boost the efficiency of supply chain management while ensuring quality services.

5. Metrics and Feedbacks: Logistics needs feedback and measurements to ensure that Inventory, Transport, and Warehouse are aligned in an optimum manner. To ensure this, one could:

• Employ SCOR (Supply chain operations reference) model which helps in communicating within the supply chain and addressing the issues.

• Set definite goals and objectives to ensure efficiency.

• Take customer feedback, and their opinions to improve the delivery process.

6. Maintain good relationships with suppliers: A company must have good relationships with its suppliers to ensure smooth operations and productive discussions. One must have assigned staff to manage these relationships, take feedback from them, foster cooperation and have a long-term business partnership.

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