Tag Archives: operational excellence

logistics-wordle

Logistics trends to watch out for in 2017

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As the New Year gets underway I thought it would be useful to look at how I believe supply chain and logistics services will develop in the next 12 months.

I predict that our industry will be subject to aggressive transformation in 2017. The continuing growth of e-commerce, the increasing empowerment of consumers, the stagnation of bricks-and-mortar retail and Brexit will all play their part in influencing change.

As industry leaders we need to recognise these challenges as opportunities. As traditional practises get turned on their heads we have a real chance to innovate and revolutionise our industry.

Those who embrace change will be at the forefront of one of the most exciting times our industry has experienced.

So what are the main trends that will act as the catalysts for these changes?

Growth of e-commerce – there is now hard evidence that traditional bricks-and-mortar retail is stagnating. As you would expect e-commerce continues to go from strength to strength. Overall the trend is for Omni channel retail which in turn will mean more companies looking to add or extend their online offering. As industry professionals we should be looking to develop our capabilities and services around e-commerce logistics.

Same Day Delivery – the genie has definitely been let out of the lamp! What we used to say was impossible is now quickly becoming the norm. With companies such as Amazon and Argos trailblazing this service, customers are beginning to expect it, and other retailers will have to get with the trend in order to stay competitive. Can you offer retailers a same day solution?

Customer centric deliveries – we are living in the age of increasingly empowered consumers. They expect delivery to be about them. They need to be made at a time that suits them, to a destination of their choosing. They want to be able to change the delivery time and place last minute. They want to know the name of the driver and see a photo. They especially want to be able to track and trace that last mile.  This is a paradigm change for the industry and creates real opportunity for technological innovation and creativity.

Supply chain visibility – the growth of e-commerce challenges logistics providers. Automation, high volume, stocking products in line with demand, multiple delivery options all make traditional practises unworkable. We are entering a new world of full supply chain visibility. Companies want to be able to track their products from manufacture right the way through to the final moments of delivery. They want real time information and touch of a button reports. To keep at the top of our game we need to have the technology and skills to be able to offer service at such a detailed level.

Brexit – the full effects of this are unknown and it is extremely difficult to predict what will happen. We could see an upsurge in trading with countries such as China as free trade with European countries ceases to exist. Import and export in and out of the UK may take a hit and shipping companies may feel the pinch. I will be watching developments keenly.

I am looking forward to 2017 and am eager to see how our industry responds to the challenges ahead.

Who knows may be next year I will send you all a copy of my article using a drone!

All the best for 2017, Les.

success

PLANNING FOR SUCCESS in 2017

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The relative quiet during and after Christmas and the New Year affords a good opportunity to review our performance during 2016.

The benefits of looking in detail at what worked and being honest about failures and disappointments is of huge value.

It’s from these conclusions we are able to plan for 2017 and drive our businesses forward.

So, while you’re recovering from too much turkey and one to many eggnogs start reflect on the successes and failures.

What were your biggest achievements this year and why?

What strategies led to real results?

Which were the least and most profitable services?

What did you not do so well and how can you change things to make improvements?

Did you provide consistent excellent customer service to all customers?

Where can you improve your service?

What do you need to invest in to improve operational and financial performance?

What do you need to do you attract more customers?

Is your marketing timely and relevant?

Do your services compliment your customers’ requirements?

On your return to work in the New Year it’s time to formalise the review with your management team and workforce.

Your review should conclude with a comprehensive business plan for 2017 complete with financial targets, customer account plans, people development goals and operational improvement objectives.

The work doesn’t stop there though.

Monthly reviews throughout the year should keep your plan on track.

Look out for these tell-tale signs that things might be going wrong.

Sales figures drop – stop and analyse why this is happening immediately. It could be your service levels have dropped and you have unhappy customers. It could be your products aren’t meeting your customers’ expectations. You could have a problem with quality or may be your marketing lacks relevance and you aren’t attracting the new customers you expected.

Employee morale drops – your biggest asset is your workforce. Low morale leads to mistakes and a lack of attention to detail. It doesn’t take long for this to translate into a drop in service levels which are clearly visible to and felt by your customers. Get close to your workforce to understand potential frustrations and issues.

Costs rise and revenue falls – this is often really difficult to see as the movement tends to creep over time rather than stand out as a dramatic change. The key to staying on top of this is regular key performance indicator reviews and robust financial management.

Competition increases – keeping an eye on your competitors is essential. If you see a sudden increase in the market then it’s time to stop and review what you are doing. Making sure you are always at the top of your game and able to offer something different to your competitors is key to maintaining growth and achieving your goals.

Important customers leave – losing key clients tends to be a sign that something isn’t right. Proper account and relationship management should be an early indicator. Take time to understand what has gone wrong and address the issues quickly to avoid future losses. Proactive communication to customers is key. Keep the customer at the heart of your business.

Growth is quick and exceeds expectations – now don’t get me wrong this is a good thing; but don’t be caught out by it. Rapid growth can put serious strain on your people, systems and resources. If you’re pulling in the cash make sure your infrastructure can sustain the growth long-term.

Quality time spent reviewing and planning has a direct relationship to your company’s success.

I wish you all a wonderful New Year and a 2017 filled with growth and prosperity!

warehouse-1

Top Tips to Problem Free Christmas Logistics

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The Christmas period is valuable to a 3PL both in terms of revenue and reputation.
Our customer’s peak sales season has a direct impact on our bottom line creating a challenging spike in activity.
The festive season with all it demands and challenges also provides us with the opportunity to impress customers.

Exceptional service levels across the busy period drive home and emphasise skill and competence. A successful Christmas highlights and strengthens your relationship with customers and kicks off the New Year on a high.
Here are my tips for problem free Christmas logistics.
1. Start planning early – with Black Friday and Cyber Monday the seasonal Christmas spike begins as early as mid-November. For 3PLs involved in gifts it may even have started as early as September. Planning should ideally begin in August.

2. Appoint a project team – a trusted and experienced leader and team will enable focused planning without affecting your standard day to day operation.

3. Review previous year’s volume and performance – in order to plan effectively it pays to review previous year’s volumes and estimate expected activity levels. Analysis of past performance, challenges and triumphs will enable the project team to design a targeted plan.

4. Set goals – a clear set of goals for the season helps to focus planning and motivate teams. It ensures emphasis is placed on strengthening areas that may not have been up to scratch in the past. Perhaps you need to improve picking accuracy, or on time deliveries?

5. Weekly review meetings – schedule regular review meetings to update managers and teams with plans and actions.

6. Manpower planning – appoint key team members and brief with accountabilities and responsibilities. Schedule additional shifts for weekends and evenings. Recruit and train seasonal staff in advance of demand. One KPI regularly affected during peak periods is pick accuracy. This is often simply down to the use of untrained inexperienced temporary staff. Early planning and up front training is a quick and easy way to remedy this.

7. Materials planning – order in extra materials whether that’s pallets, packing cases, fork lifts, pump trucks, tape guns or shrink-wrap. Nothing brings a process crashing to its knees quicker than a lack of materials.

8. Prepare for returns – reverse logistics can see a huge spike over the festive period. Ensuring you have a robust returns process will guarantee returns won’t become a distraction and affect your outbound operation.

9. Communicate with customers – begin to talk to customers as early as possible. What are their plans? Are they running any specific promotions? All this data can then be factored into your planning. Update customers on your plans. Tell them who is heading up the Christmas team and what additional services are available. This is a real opportunity for you to impress and inspire your customers with confidence. Make the most of it!

10. Communicate with suppliers – organise additional collections with Royal Mail and your parcel carriers. Brief hauliers and contractors on increased requirements. There is no point getting all the orders picked on time if you haven’t organised the additional resources to deliver them.

11. Don’t forget customer service – the seasonal period always sees a huge spike in emails and calls to your customer service team. Where is my parcel? What’s the tracking number? My parcel is damaged! In order to maintain a high standard of customer care, why not appoint a person or small team to work solely on this throughout the busy period. You will be able to give customers a clear process and point of contact that will reassure them and you can avoid this increase in work affecting your normal day to day workload. It’s also worth investigating automated tracking number notification with your parcel carrier.

Providing exceptional service levels through peak periods is what defines great 3PLs.
Make sure you stand out this Christmas.

black-friday

10 facts you didn’t know about Black Friday

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Love it or hate it Black Friday, Black Fiveday and Cyber Monday are here to stay.

This year Black Friday falls on 25th November.

Black Fiveday kicks off on Thursday 24th November and runs through to Cyber Monday.

Cyber Monday falls on 28th November.

Here are 10 facts that you probably didn’t know about the event and its history.

Black Friday used to refer to US stock market crashes in the 1800s.                                              

Although it is now known as the biggest shopping day, in the US the term “Black Friday” originally referred to very different events.

The first time the term was used was on 24 September 1869, when two speculators attempted to corner the gold market on the New York Stock Exchange. The government stepped in flooding the market with gold, prices plummeted and many investors had a very black day and lost large fortunes.

Black Friday now references the huge profits that are generated on the day.                                 

Many retailers see their biggest profits of the year on Black Friday. Black has always been associated with profit whereas red has always been associated with loss.

Black Friday is always the Friday after Thanksgiving which is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November.                                                                                                                                                    

Tradition denotes the Friday following Thanksgiving marks the official start of the Christmas shopping period. The department stores in New York City embraced this concept and in 1924 the world famous Macy’s Christmas Parade began.

Black Friday didn’t officially become the biggest shopping day of the year until 2001.                        

Up until 2001 the biggest shopping day was the last Saturday before Christmas. Black Friday has cunningly converted us from shopping procrastinators and last minute buyers to early organised bargain hunters.

Black Friday has now become Black Fiveday.

In an attempt to maximise sales and profit retailers have extended the original one day event to a 5 day bonanza starting on the Thursday and going all the way through to Cyber Monday.

Cyber Monday was the online version of Black Friday.

Black Friday was historically a bricks and mortar event. As e-commerce sales grew e-retailers created their own version of the mayhem and called it Cyber Monday. In reality the whole 5 days of madness is now available both in store and on online.

Retail consultancy Salmon are tipping 2016 as the best so far for consumers using smartphones to bag their deals.

They are predicting approximately 5 billion pounds of sales over the five day period, 2.55 billion of which will be generated by mobile devices.

Research network  SimilarWeb have revealed the biggest profit makers of 2015.

HouseofFraser.co.uk, Debenhams.com, Newlook.com, Etsy.com and Boots.com

If you are looking to grab a deal this year the hot retailers we are being tipped to watch are;

Argos, Amazon, Currys, Marks and Spencers, John Lewis, Tesco, Gam and House of Fraser

According to a Royal Mail survey:

52% of people spent more on Black Friday 2015 then they did in 2014 with an average spend per person of £191.00 and an average purchase per person of 5 items.

However you feel about Black Friday its impact on our economy and businesses is undeniable.

I recommend we embrace it fine tune our own sales and promotions to make the most of it and don’t forget to bag a bargain or 5 for ourselves!

Group of multi-ethnical people celebrating their new start-up business.

5 BENEFITS OF WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH A 3PL

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Small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) are reaping the rewards of the boom in e-commerce and the growing interest and passion for independent brands.

At the same time consumer attitudes to service and delivery are rapidly changing. Customers are more demanding and expect delivery on their terms. They want to receive their order quickly and at a time and place of their choosing. E-commerce logistics is becoming delivery led not delivery last.

These changes provide real challenges for SMEs. Without the budget or logistics expertise of the big brands they have to work hard to deliver a customer experience that allows them to compete with their larger competitors.

The answer for SMEs is to partner with a 3PL who can become an extension of their business and provide best in class logistics solutions.

3PLs provide the following benefits:

Cutting edge delivery expertise                                                           

3PLs are delivery experts. It’s their job to know, understand and access the best delivery solutions available. Whether its same day, next day, timed, tracked or international 3PLs will have a range of services to suit all. This combined with excellent rates and experience handling paperwork, customs, taxes and duties means an SME working with a 3PL can expect to save time and money while offering their customers a first class service.

Industry know-how                                                                                      

Many 3PLs specialise in a specific sectors such as toys, healthcare, beauty or chilled & frozen foods for example. Their specialism allows them to amass huge amounts of industry specific expertise and knowledge. Utilising this knowledge 3PLs apply the best industry practices and processes. By tapping into this an SME can focus on growing their brand confident in the knowledge their logistics partner will be able to handle any opportunity and challenge.

Safe, secure, suitable storage

Long or short term secure storage, bulk movements, pallets, cartons or unit pick. Retail, wholesale or e-commerce direct to consumer, there is a 3PL to suit every business and budget.

Technology                                                                                                                                             Exciting developments in IT mean companies can access and track their stock and orders through on-line portals. Batch code traceability, inventory levels, order progress and inventory tracking throughout the supply chain. Most of this technology is available on mobile devices and tablets giving customers instant access anywhere at anytime. All this is are now available at the touch of a button reducing the complicated and time consuming record keeping and administration management that businesses used to have to complete.

Peak season capability                                                                                                                                              3PLs have access to flexible space, resources and manpower. This enables them to react and ramp up quickly to meet seasonal peaks and promotions. 3PLs provide businesses with the ability to fulfill increased volumes at short notice while maintaining delivery excellence.

In a crowded market place 3PLs level the playing field between big brands and SMEs providing smaller businesses with the opportunity to offer cost effective industry leading logistics solutions that deliver exceptional customer service.

Woman signs parcel in post office

ARE YOU READY FOR BLACK FIVEDAY?

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Black Friday is nearly upon us. This year its falls on Friday 25th November, that’s less than TWO WEEKS AWAY!

It doesn’t stop with Black Friday though. We now have Black Fiveday which starts on the Thursday before Black Friday and culminates in Cyber Monday.

I just did some research and the facts and figures are mind boggling. Did you know?

  • Consumers are expected to spend 5 billion over the 5 day period.
  • Black Friday 2016 will be the biggest day of online spending the world has ever seen.
  • 1.1 billion is predicted in sales on Black Friday alone.
  • 3.3 billion is predicted for the 3 day weekend.

As a 3PL, especially if you offer internet fulfillment services, you’re at the sharp end of this annual event. The statistics speak for themselves, we need to take this event seriously and have a clear strategy in place to maintain our service.

If you haven’t started your Black Fiveday planning yet, here’s a checklist to get you on track.

  1. Identify which of your customers are hosting Black Fiveday deals.
  2. Ascertain whether their deals are on specific stock lines or across their whole stock offering.
  3. Request details on the volume of orders your customers are expecting.
  4. If order volumes are expected to rise significantly speak to your customer about increasing the number of order files you receive from them during the day and the following days. You may need one an hour!
  5. Determine the exact length of Black Fiveday promotions. Is it the full 5 days or just the Friday or Monday?
  6. Clarify the delivery promises your customers are making to their customers, (next day delivery, within 3 days etc.)
  7. In order to maximise productivity, output and service levels decide if and when to run night and weekend shifts.
  8. Check you have enough packaging, boxes and labels available.
  9. Liaise with your IT support company or department to ensure you have access to their assistance should it be required.
  10. Notify your parcel carriers and Royal Mail about the increased volume and arrange additional collections or larger collection vehicles if required.
  11. Pre-print Royal Mail franking labels if applicable.
  12. Calculate staff numbers, devise shift plans and organise additional training.
  13. Arrange for products on offer to be retrieved from bulk storage and placed in an accessible area.
  14. If a customer’s deal is just on one or two items, arrange to pre-pack a certain volume of these so they simply need mailing labels and despatch paperwork adding when the orders start flooding in.
  15. Make customers aware of any additional charges for night or weekend opening.

And most importantly

16. Have FUN and ENJOY IT! Fast paced, logistics and warehousing  challenges are what get us up in the morning. This is an opportunity for your business to excel. This is what we do best!

young business team putting their hands on top of each other at conference and smiling

OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE – DELIGHTING CUSTOMERS

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Today’s rapid advances in mobile technology mean customers are better informed, more demanding and have greater expectations for a faster and more accurate service.

To a business this means new challenges in the form of greater visibility and reduced order lead times.

Operational Excellence is the key to meeting these challenges.

It can

  • deliver great customer service
  • enable business growth
  • improve financial performance
  • enhance employee satisfaction and retention

Successful implementation relies on

  • strong leadership
  • high performing teams
  • well-designed processes
  • robust review mechanisms

Operational Excellence does not have to be complicated and it can be applied to any size business, division or department.

Strong leadership

To succeed the leader of the business must communicate a clear vision, be committed to making change happen, be engaged with the work force and determined to continually improve the business.

High performing teams 

High performing teams are well informed, fully understand the direction and needs of the business, are aware of customer requirements and challenges, and understand, value and take pride in their part of the business process.

The leadership of the business needs to be fully engaged with employees and all stakeholders in order to deliver the required results.

Well-designed processes

The key business and support processes must be well defined, simplified, documented and trained to all staff involved in the process.  Appropriate process measures should be in place to monitor performance and identify efficiencies.

Robust review mechanisms

Continuous improvement is achieved by reviewing appropriate KPI measures, undertaking internal and external benchmarking and regularly reviewing key processes.

Process performance needs to be measured in terms of time, quantity and quality. In turn these measurements should be used to monitor progress, identify improvements and used to feedback to teams.

Feedback from employees, customers and other key stakeholders is also vitally important in order to adapt, change, improve and perform better. This feedback must be used in a regular review process resulting in appropriate action plans.

To be successful your business needs to adapt to change or it will be changed.

Standing still is not an option.