Prepare your Supply Chain for Peak Holiday Season

Experts say that most companies make more than 20 percent of their annual revenue during the peak holiday season- but when service failures occur during peak season, it can cost you a great amount in terms of delayed in customer shipments as well as stock-outs due to poor inventory management.

How retailers can address supply chain challenges?

Stock-outs put a great impact on your brand reputation and future business activities. Forcing your customers to buy a product – which is out of stock in your warehouse – from a competitor diminishes their faithfulness. The other challenge comes up when consumers who buy online and return the item in-store, called Omni-Channel consumers, put the pressure on retailers to have products both at the store and in the warehouse, in the right quantity and at the right time.
To address these challenges, retailers are trying modern distribution strategies that not only improve forecasts but also facilitate inventory movement across multiple shopping channels. Retailers may need the services of a third-party logistics provider on the basis of the distance between your store and the warehouse. Here are some tips that will help ensure good relations with your suppliers, 3PL provider, and customers:

1. Inform your 3PL vendor about new changes and purchase orders

As a retailer, you should keep constant communication with your third party logistics vendors and suppliers and inform them of any changes in purchase orders and keep them updated. For instance, informing them of advance shipping notices, or any other changes regarding receipt items, quantities, or dates on purchase orders, will give the 3PL provider enough time to prepare and deliver the item as per your needs.

2. Make room for flexibility with your carrier

You cannot always plan your project sales accurately using data from previous years. Make sure your 3PL provider takes the responsibility for last-minute, just-in-time deliveries to your store to avoid any stock-outs of certain items. To face such unforeseen incidents, you should develop a relationship with your 3PL vendor that allows for flexibility and can adequately handle last-minute changes.

3. Accurate Forecasting

Make realistic projections for order volumes and calls by hour, day, week or month in advance to ensure your orders are always available in the right quantities and at the right time and to give your 3PL provider enough time to prepare for it.

Final Thoughts

With these wonderful tips, you can get prepare for the peak holiday season and manage your inventory more efficiently. If you’re looking for 3PL warehousing services, look no further than Tenaxx Logistics. We have the space, services, modern equipment, and commitment to customer satisfaction needed to make your transition to the world of warehousing a smooth one. To know more about our warehousing services, contact us today.

Essential Guidelines for Warehouse Inventory Management

Managing inventory operations can make all the difference to productivity within your supply chain. By organizing your warehouse operations effectively, you can get benefit such as
• Maximize the use of storage space
• Save time
• Keep the record of stocks
• Fewer Overheads and increased cost-benefit

You can get all these benefits by implementing some very simple steps within your workflow. Let’s take a look at some of the best ways of achieving a more managed warehouse inventory.

• Arrange the warehouse properly

There are certain stocks which used more frequently than other stock, plan your warehouse space with these stock in mind. Always put the most commonly used items in an easy to access location. By making all these necessary arrangements, you can save the time it takes to load and unload such items.

• Demand forecasting

Some times of year will be busier than other times, especially the peak season, so plan ahead and accordingly for your business seasonal demands. Forecast the demand based on past sale records and ensure that you have enough stock for that time period to avoid any delay.

• Be Flexible to the change

Business demand change over time, what may have worked for your business earlier may not work in later years. Examine how your warehouse operations carry out every year, check your stock records and new changes in your business throughout the past few years. Evaluate every area very carefully to make the necessary changes to run it more effectively.

• Implement Cross Docking

Cross-docking is a form of supply chain management process in which the products from a supplier or manufacturing unit are shipped directly to a customer or retail chain without any requirement for the storage of goods in the warehouse in between. That means a quick turnaround for your business, saving time and money. It is not ideal for all needs, but it saves cost and time for a certain stock.

• Give the right training to your staff

A staff that understands warehouse inventory operations will keep it better and manage the business more efficiently. By having knowledgeable staff, you can ensure that your workforce maintains a properly organized warehouse inventory.

• Label your items

Put SKU(stock keeping unit) numbers on every item in your stock in the warehouse. It clear labels ensures that it’s easy to identify products, before moving or transporting them. A barcode system can also be used, depending on the needs and size of your business. Whatever you use, ensure it’s up to date and that no numbers are re-used inappropriately.

Tips to Manage Inventory for Multiple Warehouses

With great power comes great responsibility similar is the scenario with great business, a great business poses a number of challenges, inventory being one of them with multiple warehouses. Multiple warehouses are not just for multinational businesses but it is done to cover area geographically, some might have a smaller business and still have multiple warehouses, it helps to grow the business throughout the country.

Here are some tips about how you can manage multiple warehouses and get the best out of it.

Overstocking

Using effective management skills can be the boost that your warehouse requires. Inventories must be planned considering minimum level, maximum level, consumption rate at warehouses and turnover, Inventories must be planned considering these factors and an enlightened system will eliminate errors and it also ensures that warehouses have enough supply to meet their demands.

By considering geography as the main factor

While setting a new warehouse not taking geography into account will be a big blow. Look at consumption trough sales data and find out the regions and cities with a high aggregate of customers, factors such as rent cost and transport cost and the no. workers will vary while deciding the area for the warehouse. The area with a smaller population will have less consumption so no. of workers will be less but not the same case for the area with a larger population as they will need more workers, the transport cost will be less and the area required for the warehouse will be much more.

Warehouse layout

There’s always room for improvement, the process of packing and picking takes up most time which ends up making customers unhappy and even lost sales, an unorganized warehouse can confuse workers, while an organized one will eliminate the extra time for picking and packing. Warehouses must always be optimized for efficiency, which in turn is logical and easy for employees to navigate. Popular products must be kept near the exit door so employees can quickly send these orders out.

Using Secure and movable tracking options.

Mispicks happens when customers get the wrong item, this leads to nothing but wastage of time and labor, word gets around which is not good for the company’s reputation. A tracking option adds the trust that the right product will be delivered to customers, and also adds the feature of changing the destination with just a click. By tracking warehouse assets, destinations can be managed and assigned easily.

Keeping up with customer’s demand.

The best way to fulfill your stock levels is to identify what customer’s demand is at the moment and ensuring that the warehouse holds enough products to meet demands. Safety stock must be the minimum requirement and additional quantity will be according to the consumption of the product.

Little extra efforts.

Analyze the processes that can be done to cut personal costs and time for pick, pack and shipping and restocking the item. Always keep a similar team for product’s picking to restocking as they will have an idea about where they can find stuff, who to pack, why they have to ship and how to restock. This will not only save time but will be more efficient.

What more?

Managing multiple warehouses need a plan for working effectively, the plan must ensure that stocks must be available and don’t run out of supply. Customers are always the priority so make sure that the wrong item and damaged items do not get shipped, Effective skills are critical to managing and running an efficient business.

Tenaxx Logistics

If you’re looking for warehousing services, look no further than Tenaxx Logistics. We have the space, services, modern equipment, and commitment to customer satisfaction needed to make your transition to the world of warehousing a smooth one. To know more about our warehousing services, contact us today.