We live in an increasingly competitive world and the more efficient a company is in its logistics operations, the more capable it will be of adding value to its products, improving its resources and maintaining a good relationship with its customers and suppliers.
Knowing how to improve your company's logistics can be a determining factor in its success, as offering good products may not be enough to ensure customer satisfaction.
A highly relevant factor in the dynamics of logistics optimization is the ability to elevate the level of logistics service provided to your customers, creating a competitive advantage for your product compared to your competitors. With this in mind, it's important to consider certain logistics practices and adapt them to what the customer is looking for as a value-added differentiator:
Demand forecasting is an excellent tool to help with the predictability of the flow of products and materials, in order to ensure that the purchases made meet and satisfy customer demand. customersIt also helps reduce costs by avoiding purchasing excess merchandise, which can lead to waste and unnecessary losses.
The first step is to normalize historical demand to adjust the baseline. The data that drives the statistical calculations of stocks Safety buffers must be cleared to ensure that sudden changes in forecast accuracy, supplier reliability, and lead-time variability do not inappropriately alter inventory levels in an attempt to meet targets in the customer service.
Use management software to automate processes. In an increasingly technological world, innovation isn't a differentiator, it's a must.
Based on this premise, the concept of high-technology logistics already exists: Logistics 4.0. This concept fosters interaction and integration between logistics processes—that is, the movement and storage of products, services, and information—through high connectivity between machines, systems, and products, provided by a wide range of technological resources.
Speed and agility will be essential for the near future. Use the technology available to plan and execute as effectively as possible. If technology is not used in the planning to its full potential, you are likely leaving money on the table in the form of lost revenue, increased costs, and/or unproductive inventory.
Collaboration in customer relations and suppliers is more important than ever in the face of the challenges of increasingly competitive logistics.
Visibility into supplier capabilities and true customer demand has never been more important for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. It's essential to consider tools that provide deeper insight into the entire supply chain. Companies that attempt to do this alone in this market will be at a disadvantage compared to those that seek to strengthen themselves across all links in the supply chain.
A reliable supplier who meets deadlines and delivers products with excellent quality and performance is essential for your company's logistics.
Most companies choose to outsource some logistics services, so it's important to be vigilant and choose suppliers wisely, as your client's perception of your company is largely shaped by the logistics provider's performance. Therefore, learn about the services they offer, whether they have experience in your business, understand the deadlines for their services, analyze the company's financial health, and verify whether the supplier has the capacity to meet demand should demand increase.
Node link with the clientUnderstanding is essential to serving, and this is the key to the relationship, always maintaining fluid and transparent communication. If you, as a supplier, understand your customer's expected level of logistics service, you will achieve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and business sustainability.
Performance indicators are metrics that quantify your performance according to your organizational objectives. For these indicators to contribute to company control, it is necessary to have clear objectives when it comes to performance. definition of goals that must be achieved. From there, the development and management of performance indicators can be directed toward monitoring the evolution of the company's results and serving as a reference for the decision-making process and the creation of improvement strategies.
There are several types of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that provide a range of information that can be grouped into categories. Some of these include productivity indicators, quality indicators, capacity indicators, strategic indicators, cost indicators, and volume indicators. Regardless of the category, the indicators are equally important, as they provide the insight the company needs to understand its processes and establish a solid foundation for aligning them with the objectives set.
Have a good communication in logistics is fundamental to the success of the business, given that it is one of the most strategic sectors of the company.
Because it encompasses a variety of activities, such as product entry, storage, order picking, cargo tracking, and more, maintaining efficient management and information flow is challenging. Therefore, improving communication is an excellent strategy, because when there's agile and transparent dialogue, relevant information is exchanged to help make the best decisions.
By implementing efficient communication in logistics, the company can enjoy several benefits: quick problem-solving, simplified and agile processes, reduced costs, improved productivity, and achievement of company objectives.
Team training can ensure effective work and motivate employees to perform their roles even better. A company that strives to develop its team's skills and competencies achieves increasingly satisfactory results.
Train the team is to standardize activities and value the internal workforce, taking into account the company's objectives and the reference it wishes to achieve in the market, which adds value to the brand and favors business growth.
A company that does not keep its teams up to date and ready to meet any type of demand runs the risk of losing its competitive advantage in the market and facing difficulties when considering practical implementations, such as supply chain and just in time.
In addition to optimizing processes, team training allows various professionals to demonstrate their ability to deliver solutions on a daily basis. This will give the logistics sector increasing autonomy in managing operations involving supply chain of the company and support other company processes, ensuring high operational productivity.
A skilled and focused team promotes improvements such as: increased productivity, reduced errors, talent retention, increased sector quality, and improved internal and external customer satisfaction.
Sources: Mundo Logística Magazine, Administrators Blog, Voitto Group, Endeavor and IMAM.
Author: Mariele Braz – Logistics Manager at SINOBRAS
Mariele holds a degree in Accounting from UNEB – Bahia State University, an MBA in Production Management and Business Logistics, a postgraduate degree in Production Engineering, and over 18 years of experience in Logistics, PPC, Materials Planning, Procurement, and MP&L Planning and Strategy. She currently serves as Logistics Manager at SINOBRAS.
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