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.

FOB or EXW, Which One To Use?

FOB or EXW, Which one to use? International Commercial Terms or Incoterms can be confusing for any new importers, as things to be aware of include trust, picking the best option and the best solution to ship and import. With this article, we aim towards the common incoterms FOB or EXW, which are the basic essential terms to be familiar with when importing for outside your counter.

FOB:-

FOB is an acronym for ‘Free on Board’, it is a port to door shipment. It refers to a shipping arrangement where the seller or sender has ownership of the goods only until when the are loaded.

After the loading process supplier takes ownership at the point of departure from the seller’s shipping dock. The supplier is responsible for providing transportation of the goods sold to a main shipping origin point. The shipping origin point is a port as incoterms are used for international trade which in turn imports goods through the sea.

When a buyer or the receiver gets the ownership of goods then it is considered as a complete delivery or delivery is accomplished. If goods are damaged in transit, the buyer should file a complaint with the insurance carrier. The cost of delivering the product to you are included but further, all the costs will be handled by the buyer.

So, in short, FOB means that the first seller sends the product which with the help of the supplier, and then reaches to the buyer who later has to arrange and ship it to the desired location.

Advantages of FOB:

As a buyer, you don’t have to worry about documentation in the origin country except for clearance as this goes under the supplier’s responsibility. If a buyer is withdrawing the trade the seller can still recover the goods before the goods are loaded to port, similarly, the buyer doesn’t have to pay if he doesn’t get the desired quality or quantity.

Disadvantages:

FOB disadvantages include situations when the supplier refuses to pay the cost that has been agreed upon and similar scenarios related to charges.

EXW:

EXW stands for Ex Works and it is a Door to Door shipment, all the cost, and the responsibilities are with the buyer. In Ex Works shipping term the only responsibility that the seller has is to ensure that goods are available when the buyer needs them. Ex Works term is used while making an initial quotation for the sale of goods without mentioning costs.

Advantages:

Buyer is the only one in charge, cost, risk, and transport will have to be dealt with by the buyer with which he can get the prices of all their costs upfront, Suppliers don’t add any margin to shipping.

Disadvantages:

Buyer is responsible for all the risks included within shipping to delivering at the door, Customs have different cost in countries which might lead to extra costing and the first time buyers don’t have an idea about the cost upfront.

EXW or FOB? :

Both these terms have their benefits and risks it depends on your knowledge of goods and of International commercial terms, with FOB being the most commonly used as it eliminates or splits the buyer’s responsibility, whereas in Ex-Works all costs and responsibility is to the buyer. FOB and EX Works both be used to get an idea about the costs and then make the right decision.

An Ultimate Guide to Plan Your Warehouse

Warehouse planning and implementation should be as efficient as possible to compete in the daily growing market. Fundamentals of warehouse layout designs are such that it accounts for the efficiency of operations, from stocking and refilling to order fulfillment, your warehouse design can either streamline your business processes or can slow it down. The following tips on how to plan your warehouse can help you achieve more efficiency, which can help you grow your business.

1.Define and Understand the objectives.

Objectives can be defined depending on the business such as to reduce cost and providing maximum customer services. Some need more inventory while some need more pick and packing. However, your objective must be such that it can be acted upon immediately.

2.Requirements.

Stocking and fulfillments are two of the major tasks that can either eliminate your burden or does the exact opposite. Once you get an understanding of what’s happening inside your warehouse you can organize items according to requirements, more frequently ordered products must be kept near the exit door so it gets easy to pack and pack them. Stocking must be greater than the demand to meet the supply.

3.Traffic Flow.

How great is the traffic, determines the design of the warehouse, if a warehouse with less traffic is built, it doesn’t need a large space and many employees while a place with great traffic will require much more space and employees. Traffic flow also controls the stocking and shipping from the warehouse, more traffic means more demand which needs greater space.

4.Space

How to utilize space, with a fixed length and width of your warehouse try to stack things vertically rather than organizing things horizontally. Keep similar things together and always have room for overstocking if occur, with some parts of the warehouse dedicated to office and some to working areas and empty pallet storage utilization of available space is done to increase the efficiency of the warehouse.

5.Implementation Plan

The focus should be on creating a clean and accurate warehouse, there is always a room for improvement, so Detail every step forward to create your warehouse layout design, Allocating suitable resources to tasks and projects in the plan. Checking what can be done to improve the design and when finished double-check everything.

6.What to do after planning?

Start implementing and try to manage inventory, a well planned and designed warehouse will surely help increase your efficiency and taking inventory management into factor you can deal with overstocking and stockouts. A planned warehouse will help you reduce pick, pack and shipping time and will eliminate any extra space and utilized it for other purposes.

How Tenaxx Logistics Can Help You

To know more about warehouse space utilization and optimizing your entire supply chain, go to Tenaxx Logistics and give us a call to find out which solution is right for you.