Strengthen Your Supply Chain Logistics Through Assessments
While working on hundreds of supply chain consulting projects over the years, there has always been one statement that continually resonates through all of the warehouse projects. Make sure the basics are in place before moving on to more complicated or advanced issues and solutions. Running a warehouse is like building a house. The foundation has to be in place before you consider building a media room with a home theater system with surround sound and a 54 inch plasma TV.
It is wise to call a timeout and regroup to conduct a warehouse assessment in order to evaluate your current supply chain logistics before considering making changes to the way you do business. Taking a look to make sure the basics are in place can make your foundation stronger. If you have never officially stood back and assessed your operations, we suggest taking a look at a couple of these basics to make certain these are in place and how well they are operating. They are:
- Slotting – Make sure that you spend time placing items in the most beneficial place in the pick line. Consideration of sales velocity and product characteristics when locating items makes a big difference in the efficiency of the warehouse and supply chain logistics. Although this function is viewed as background work, it is essential to developing an efficient operation.
- Replenishment – After products are properly slotted, the next fundamental step is to make sure the replenishment process insures that there will be sufficient quantities in the pick slot to meet picking demand. A combination of the min – max process and a demand review of each pick wave should be employed.
- Inventory Control – Knowing the location of your entire inventory is critical to running a warehouse. You should have a warehouse management system that records and has available information showing every location in the warehouse and the SKU stored there and the quantity of each. If you can easily locate all of your inventory, it makes it possible to perform functions such as replenishment, put away, and taking physical inventory in an effective manner. Without knowing what you own and where it is located, too much time is spent searching for locations or product that are unnecessary.
If you take care of the fundamentals, like a couple listed above, it will make your life running your supply chain logistics a lot easier and productive.
If you’re interested in more information regarding warehouse assessments or other supply chain strategies, contact Jeff Barry at jbarry@fcbco.com, or call (804) 740-8743. F. Curtis Barry & Co. is a national consulting firm that works with eCommerce, catalog, retail, manufacturing and wholesale distributors on projects focusing on supply chain strategies, order management systems, warehouse management systems, inventory management, third party logistics, and to reduce freight costs.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
