In the eCommerce landscape, your inventory is the heart of your business. To get the most out of it, you need to handle your logistics operations with very care and vigilance. Otherwise, you risk shortages, wasteful costs, obsolete inventory, and delivery times that disappoint your customers.
However, the question is – how should you organize your business and how can you maintain a well-functioning supply chain?
In this blog, you’ll discover how to rearrange your supply chain for efficiency.
What Is Logistics Operations Management?
Logistics Operations Management is a process where a dedicated team focuses on optimizing the delivery of goods and in-process items to customers. This involves creating and implementing a plan to oversee the operations. However, this is not a one-time task. It requires continuous monitoring, adjusting, and reinventing of the supply chain to ensure efficiency.
This process leads to a reduction in waste by eliminating unnecessary tasks. It also involves the efficient use of tools and equipment, which helps to protect employees from accidental injuries. Additionally, it can improve delivery times, potentially boosting customer loyalty. Overall, this process can foster team bonding within your supply chain team, as everyone is actively involved.
How to Manage Logistics Operations
Here’s how you’ll optimize your supply chain:
1. Plan Your Supply Chain
To manage your logistics, you’ll need to talk to your staff. They’ll help you understand how goods move through operations. And so, you’ll learn what issues they face and brainstorm ways to solve them.
After that, you’ll craft a map of orders. This is a visual aid that depicts how your goods move from one operation to the next. Specifically, it shows the most straightforward path. Then, you’ll decide on equipment, inventory arrangement, and transport mode.
2. Train Your Staff
Once you’ve decided on your goods’ route, you’ll teach your employees how the plan works. After all, your employees need to be familiar with the new logistics operations process. This ensures that they understand how to use the new tools.
3. Oversee Suppliers
After you’ve trained your staff, you can implement your plan. You’ll start with your suppliers and manufacturers. They should be reliable sources of goods. However, you shouldn’t be dependent on one company. You’ll have to find alternatives. Then, your supply chain will be more resistant to shortages and changes in demand.
Next, you’ll track the goods while your suppliers are still processing them. This will require close ties to your manufacturers. After all, you’ll be monitoring the quality of their products while they’re still working on them. Then, you’ll record and forecast your supplier’s output and timeliness. This will ensure that you can estimate lead time and prepare for any disturbances.
4. Audit Warehousing
Now that you’ve optimized the goods you receive, you’ll rework your storage system. Your inventory should use all the space available in the warehouse. The way you arrange your products and the equipment available should keep your staff and the goods safe.
Moreover, to handle your operations logistics you’ll keep accurate records of your inventory. When you analyze this data, you’ll discover how well your products perform. And so, you’ll know what goods your procurement team should buy.
5. Organize Your Fulfillment Center
After you’ve confirmed that your warehouse works at an optimum level, you’ll need to rearrange your order assembly. The way you fill in orders should be straightforward. In addition, you’ll consider where you’re delivering and the demand of the area.
For instance, let’s say you sell TVs and you have 2 warehouses. One is inside the countryside and supplies the region. The other storage facility is by a port. While you could split the inventory evenly, is that the right choice? If you have more international demand you should send more TVs to the port storage. Meanwhile, if there’s promising real estate near the other warehouse, you could bring more TVs there.
6. Track Shipping
Once you’ve arranged your fulfillment centers, you’ll monitor the transportation of your goods. You’ll ensure the shipments are accurate, quick, and efficient. Therefore you’ll arrange your goods in the vehicles to transport the maximum weight and take up the most space. Additionally, you’ll ensure you’re using a mode of transport that balances cost, time, and size of shipment.
Once you’ve fully implemented your plan, you’ll need to keep monitoring your operations. You should further cut down on costs, time, and labor. Then, you’ll start over with the creation of a plan.
Best Tips to Optimize Logistics and Operations Management
To ensure your system is efficient, you’ll need to:
- Outsource Tasks: If your staff doesn’t have the training or expertise, you should hire a third-party partner to do these duties. While you could teach your staff or higher new professionals, it might not be feasible for your business.
- Implement Inventory Management Software: You should use a computer program that: Keeps track of the flow of your goods, alerts you of shortages, reports trends in sales, and informs you when to buy products.
- Automate Fulfillment: You should replace some of your labor with machines. This will reduce the order assembly time and human error. Plus, your staff will have the time to focus on your business’s main operations.
- Offer Customers Shipment Tracking: You should extend the data you receive from your transport monitoring to your consumers. It’ll help them understand the shipping process and accept the delivery time. If there’s an issue the customer can reach out to you and your business will correct the mistake.
Conclusion
Managing your logistics operations effectively ensures the efficient movement of goods from suppliers to customers, minimizing waste. To achieve this, you’ll develop a plan based on your staff’s insights. This plan will strengthen your supply chain against shortages and demand fluctuations. You will then train your staff on this plan and implement it. Continuous monitoring and adjusting of your processes are vital once the plan is in action. Ultimately, regularly revisiting and refining your plan is essential to maintain the most effective logistics system.
