As we approach lockdown 2.0, businesses need to fortify their warehouse operations more than ever, says Jon Roberts, Head of Sales at OrderWise: Global uncertainty has shown the need for yet more innovation in our warehouses. Here in the UK, the weak points in our logistics already revealed by Brexit have only strained to a bursting point by COVID-19. From vast corporations to your local independent tradesperson, we’ve seen halted services, shortages and delays, massive market shifts and sadly, business closures.
Now, as businesses battle through ever-changing restrictions, a shift or drift race has emerged to secure our services and shape businesses for the future. We can’t always predict the next big storm to strike our operations, such as the one upon us right now. Yet, shifting to a more robust logistics structure can ensure resilience and flexibility when we could need it most.
Understanding your key operations
To understand how to create secure warehouse logistics, you firstly need to gain complete visibility of your business. From your supply chain and warehouse operations to your shipping and end-consumer data, you should be able to access real-time information at any moment. You need to know every action you make is informed by your own accurate figures.
With a handle on your data and quick access to all the reports you need, you can use business insights to analyse your performance and ascertain the critical parts of your warehouse processes. Not only will this highlight where you could streamline, speed up and improve the general productivity of your operations throughout, but you will be able to see the essential elements to keep your business running and know where the potentially ‘weak’ points lie.
Getting your contingencies ready
Businesses are under increased pressure to have effective contingency planning in place for times like these. A long-term shift in ‘normal’ priorities will see board rooms favour reliability and flexibility for central operations instead of choosing the cheapest available option. With contingency planning, the aim is to create more reaction time and give yourself the breathing room to stay on top of any issues that arise.
To ready your supply chain, for instance, you should prepare with back-up or multiple suppliers as competition is likely to be high. Those still available may offer terms that could affect your cash flow, time to pay, duty arrangements, and service provided, so it’s better to be prepared.
Training more of your new and current staff to handle essential operations independently is all the more valuable to keep workflows running smoothly. You can also onboard warehouse management software to automate many of your manual processes.
Prioritising your offerings
In the event of inventory shortages, processing delays or delivery limitations, you should decide which items you will store, pick, pack and ship as a priority. Here, consider factors like the supply risk, cash flow and product perishability.
Be sure to confirm which customers and products take precedence while also agreeing on a fair method of stock allocation in the event of limited supply.
Building trust through transparency
Make it clear how your employees are working and how your business is operating by updating your website and communication channels. This will reassure your partners, retailers and customers by managing their expectations. Be knowledgeable and clearly explain any affected stock and orders to your customers.
Working with your team, business partners and data can also offer performance and end-consumer information. Simple actions like checking for any changes to supplier and courier operations can help you monitor your lead times and fulfilment statuses to ensure you can deliver. Moreover, integrating your systems with theirs via electronic data interchange can help to maintain a more immediate and reliable source of data transfer, tracking and delivery information
As COVID-19 has proven for end-users and businesses alike, we’ll all go to more effort to receive our goods exactly when we need them and ensure they are of good quality.
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