Warehouse Fulfillment – Move Material to the People, Not Vice Versa!

“Here Come The Bots!”

Wow!  This was the headline caption on the presentation I was about to see.  I had just joined the company.  I had just spent the last few years in Retail.  I had done a lot of research on how to improve efficiencies and productivity in Online/E-Commerce Fulfillment Distribution Centres.  And I had lived through the agonizing process and resource challenges of fulfilling E-Commerce orders during the Holiday season, which is far and away the busiest time of the year in Retail.

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Managing Your LLC (Limited Liability Company): Essential Tips for Success!

Starting and running a Limited Liability Company (LLC) is a significant achievement many entrepreneurs strive for, symbolizing vision and perseverance. Though forming an LLC may seem like crossing the finish line, it’s truly just the beginning of the journey.

LLCs have become a preferred business structure due to their flexibility and liability protection. But setting one up is merely the first step. For ongoing success, effective management is crucial.

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Unleash Your Employees’ Ideas to Truly Change the Game!

Organizations that are either considered high performing or who aspire to become high performing understand that their employees are their greatest asset.  A company can only achieve its overall objectives if their employees are aligned, on board and driving toward those goals, and if their ideas are heard.

At its core your employees understand how well or how poorly the day-to-day processes in your company run better than anyone else.  They also have tremendous ideas on how to improve those processes, how to improve your metrics, and how to achieve your objectives.

So how do you tap in to that intellect, unleash those ideas, and empower your employees in an organized and efficient manner?  How do you get your finger on the pulse of what is on your employee’s minds?

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Valuable Ways to Improve Supply Chain Efficiency!

Supply chains might one of the most important elements in running any successful business. If your supply chain isn’t functioning correctly, then you can’t deliver goods to your customers on time, adhere to changing peaks in demand, or outshine the competition.

Unfortunately, managing these environments in an efficient, consistent, and productive way is often easier said than done. As customer expectations and global environments continue to evolve, supply chain management is no longer a set-it-and-forget-it concept. 

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Trust! The “X” Factor!

What’s the difference between a productive, healthy, high performing organization and a toxic, destructive, and volatile organization?

Trust!  Or rather, the lack thereof!

I have, as have others, joined companies and have taken new jobs based on trust.

I have, as have others, left companies and have left jobs based on distrust.

Trust, and distrust, are more than just “motherhood and apple pie” words.  

They are the “X Factor” in determining whether you enjoy or despise going to work every day.

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How to Establish Your Company in a New Area!

One of the challenges of running a successful business is to keep it growing. A stagnant business is a dying business. You need to keep at the cutting edge of innovation, which means constantly looking for new ways to grow and improve your business. 

For example, it might be a good idea to establish a branch of your company in a new area. This opens up another box of complications and challenges to overcome, but it’s often worth it.

But why is expanding to a new area such a good idea, and how can you ensure success for your company?

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4 Areas to Target When Streamlining Your Operations!

Trying to figure out where your business could improve isn’t always as easy as you would think. Being firmly locked into your own perspective makes it unclear which aspects are thriving and where you need to be streamlining your operations through reworking them.

You can remedy this by incorporating the voices heard via customer feedback, or looking at your business analytics, but while these might be able to identify specific weak spots, they might not as clearly illuminate areas that need streamlining. 

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Best Ways to Optimize Factory Floor Operations!

Factory floor operations are diverse and vary hugely in size. Most factories have unique outputs that take an idea, make it, and get it out to consumers. It is on the factory floor where several operations take place to ensure the efficient production of goods. 

Many people work on the factory floor, and there are many steps on any given production line; this being so, a high level of efficiency is needed in order to ensure that the production line runs smoothly. Managers are always looking for ways to optimize operations, prevent delays, and ensure their staff are well trained. 

This blog will give those in charge of factory floor operations some tips to maximize their workflow, help reduce waste, and improve efficiency. 

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Struggling with Process Ownership? Is it a Failure to Communicate?

Does your business struggle with process ownership? Are your process improvements not “sticking”? The failure of an organization to have in place well-functioning process owners is a common occurrence these days.

The root causes (if anyone cares to do a full postmortem) are numerous. We’ve heard it all before; “the organizational structure won’t allow for it”, “incentives are misaligned”, “leaders don’t understand what it takes to be a process owner” etc. I’m sure we can all relate to some or all of these statements.

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How to Improve Your Supply Chain Efficiency!

With the current rate of inflation in the UK rising exponentially, conserving time and resources is more important than ever before. Whether you’re only just starting out in your industry or you’ve been working in your industry for years, it’s always useful to know how to improve, refine, and enhance your supply chain efficiency to better serve your business.

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How to Streamline Logistics!

Looking to streamline logistics? This is something that many organizations are looking to do right now, especially those that have experienced supply chain issues.

Supply chains have been heavily disrupted ever since the pandemic, and this is creating many difficult challenges for businesses. Fortunately, there are a few steps that you can take to streamline logistics that should facilitate the smooth flow of goods and materials and increase efficiency. You might also find that some of these steps help to lower your costs too.

Interested?

Keep reading to discover how you can streamline logistics for your business.

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Inventory Turnover Breakthrough … Go Back To The Basics!

I had accepted a career changing challenge … how to change the company’s Inventory Turnover performance from being perennially worst in the Industry to being one of the best.  And I had to do it all within 1 year!

I had seen many very smart people tackle this problem over the years.  Yet they all seemed to come up short.  Sure they improved some aspect of Inventory levels or turnover but in aggregate these all seemed to amount to incremental, step function changes.  We needed game changing results!  We needed a game changing approach!  And we needed it now!

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Integrating ERP with TMS and WMS in Logistics!

An ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system is the central element of almost every business today. Sometimes referred to as the “Accounting ERP”, these systems are necessary and integrating ERP is often even mandated by law, no matter how large or small the business is.

However, the ERP functionality is rarely enough to cover all the aspects of a full-fledged transportation management business. That is why logistics companies often look for some additional solutions with broader functionality.

In this article we talk about the integration of the ERP software in logistics and custom integrating it with the transportation management systems (TMS).

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Key Areas Where Your Business Could Use Professional Help!

Every business is doing their very best to tighten their belts right now. It has become impossible to ignore the headlines about the rising cost of living, the supply chain issues, and the unpredictable markets without professional help.

Even as the British government announces plans to help consumers and business through these difficult times, it would be deeply unwise to simply assume that everything is going to be fine.

If you own a business, you are going to be worrying about how you can continue to grow without spending any more than you absolutely have to. 

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Shiny New Technology or Back to the Basics? What is Your Strategy?

We hear about all of this cool and exciting new technology every day. Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Drones and Autonomous Vehicles, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, Big Data and more.

As such it’s easy to become enamoured with the prospects of implementing these brand new technologies in your company.

But for many companies they are struggling each and every day just to get the basics right. Ensuring deliveries are on time, making sure purchase orders are placed, changed, and acknowledged, keeping track of and reducing inventory levels, managing forecasts and forecast accuracy, and training and retaining resources are just a few of the basics that companies are working vigilantly to address every hour of every day.

Given pressures to reduce costs, improve productivity, increase competitiveness and increase asset velocity what should your strategic focus be?

Shiny new technology or boring old basics?

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