Warehousing Distribution Planning
Diverse Targets For Warehouse Cost Reduction
I recently took a step back and tried to determine what type of company would use our warehouse consulting services. We try to help businesses with their warehousing needs by providing a variety of consulting services. Our goal is to help businesses cope with these challenging economic times by making recommendations for controlling their operating [...]
Healthcare Projects on the Rise
Over the past few months, we have noticed a new trend occurring in the type of clients contacting us about our warehousing and fulfillment consulting services. We typically consult to Business to Consumer (catalog, Retail, E-Commerce), or Business to Business companies. More recently, in addition to completing a fulfillment assignment for one of the largest [...]
Post Holiday Warehouse Assessment
It may seem like an odd time to review your warehouse operation just after coming out of the Holiday crush, but it is the perfect time to dissect what worked and what didn’t during the peak season. A systematic review of the warehousing and fulfillment functions can yield big savings for the upcoming year, as [...]
Changing Your Warehouse’s Culture
On one of our recent warehouse projects, something struck me that I knew existed but always seemed to lurk in the background. This particular project brought it to the forefront. It is a simple observation but one that can cause havoc in an organization. What I observed was the staking out of territory to the [...]
Establishing and Running a Hot Pick Zone in Your Warehouse
The idea that all items are created equal just does not fly when you are slotting SKUs in the warehouse. An often overlooked attribute of SKUs is their sales velocity. This simply refers to the number of physical shipping units of each SKU that are sold and shipped daily, weekly, monthly or annually.
It is very [...]
Warehouse Capacity Improvement
Probably the most frequent lament heard from our warehouse clients is the “I am running out of space in the warehouse”. Unless you are that rare company that has control over your forecasting and inventory management functions, you have probably said the same thing.
The first reaction from the warehouse is that you have too much [...]
Improve Warehouse Productivity by Measuring and Posting Numbers
A common theme we run into daily as we work with warehouse operations around the country is how to reduce labor costs. Labor usually makes up 50% or more of the total cost of operating a warehouse when you consider direct and indirect labor, occupancy costs, and packaging materials. Given this high cost, it is [...]
How Well Is Your Warehouse Treating Your Customers?
It never ceases to amaze me how companies will spend untold time and money to source product and find someone to buy it and then provide poor enough fulfillment services that the customer never comes back. If you consider the cost of acquiring a customer, it makes sense to me that you would do everything [...]
Utilizing Bar Code Technology in Your Warehouse
If there is one technology that can help improve warehouse operations, it has to be the utilization of bar code scanning. Those warehouses that employ a wide use of this technology reap significant benefits. Improvements in productivity and accuracy are possible. Since these two areas are usually the focus of most warehouse operations, it makes [...]
Reducing The Risk In Using Third Party Logistics
As we work with clients looking for a third party logistics option to meet their needs, a few recommendations come to mind. One of the greatest fears in giving your fulfillment function to someone else is the unknown factors of how your customers will be treated and what your cost will be for their services. [...]
