A sizable 57% of companies believe that effective supply chain management gives them a competitive edge. Yet with increasing pressure on supply chains, it can be hard to ensure you have the right strategies in place. So how do you optimize and improve?
There are a number of methods you can use. Read on as we discuss the best delivery strategies to help maintain profitability.
Prioritize Fast-Moving Products
You should know which of your products move the quickest in your supply chain. By giving them priority, it helps suppliers work on big orders for a few items. This improves efficiency and gives faster delivery times.
Purchase in Volume
This may be limited by how much storage space you have. However, you can take advantage of economies in scale to lower costs. This will bring in volume discounts, less administration, and fewer deliveries.
You don’t just have to buy them all in one go and store them. Blanket orders allow you to purchase at once for a price the have them delivered over a certain amount of time. Standing orders are similar but can allow deliveries to arrive in pre-determined quantities.
Use Hot Shot Trucking
Hot shot trucking involves using smaller, more time-sensitive loads within a specific timeframe. They are usually delivered on trucks with flatbed trailers. Instead of having vehicles waiting on standby for delivery, deliveries are given to private contractors through job boards.
The benefits are that hot shot trucking usually works out cheaper. As you are not paying for a fleet and drivers waiting for a job to arrive, you simply pay for the individual delivery.
Seek Local Sources
Finding local sources is an obvious solution that many people overlook. While getting from further afield may provide business profitability on paper, it never accounts for the increased possibility of disruption that comes with it. All it takes is a shipping strike or fuel hike and you could be without a top-selling product for months on end.
Create a Supply Chain Team
It is very common for the supply chain to work as separate entities. When one completes a job, it passes on to the next section. However, by making it a cohesive unit you can eliminate many of the problems that may occur.
By assigning a specific role to one person or team who deals with the supply chain you can greatly improve this. This team can work to eliminate gaps in information, communication errors, and bad processes. Additionally, if you are wondering How to manage hundreds of orders daily even more effectively, you can further streamline and automate the supply chain team’s work by using tailored tools and software such as a warehouse management system.
Share Forecasts with Suppliers
It is not always possible to predict spikes and busy times. However, if you can manage to warn suppliers and delivery firms in advance they can arrange the necessary goods or manpower to get deliveries to you. These instances may include holiday times or industry-specific occurrences that result in larger volumes of sales.
Using Delivery Strategies
Now you know these delivery strategies and supply chain methods, create a plan to instigate them. None of them should replace current processes, but should slowly enhance them.
If you found this article helpful, we have many more. From finance to marketing, we can help optimize your business in the coming year.
