Category Archives: Supply Chain

Storage space too small?

Posted on by

Are you a small operator and running out of room in your store/warehouse?  You are also more than likely, at that stage where moving to a larger facility is not quite viable, but you are struggling with what you have, yes?

I found a good alternative to hiring expensive ‘specialists’ or attempting to do it solo is to get the help of racking and goods handling vendors.  It is in their own interest to review your situation and present a viable plan.  Obviously they will have a commercial interest which should not be discounted. Your goal is to either obtain more space within your facility or making your goods handling more effective, preferably both, at the best cost.

The method I use is to solicit the help from 2-3 racking vendors and 2-3 handling equipment vendors. Usually they will come back after 4-7 days with a proposal and costs.  The better racking companies will also provide proposed floor plans.  This is when the benefits become apparent.  Review their proposals and include a walk around the facility with them, asking questions and putting forward your own ideas – it is your business so you will have a good idea of what you can and can’t do.

So after reviewing their proposals, costs and timeliness, it will be up to you to select what is viable and appropriate for your situation.  You should be able to comfortably postpone moving for a quite while, if you get an extra 15-20% storage capacity, yes there will be a cost but a lot better compared to moving or outsourcing.

And having gone through the process as describe above, you will be intimate with all the proposals, the costs and the timelines.  By default you will also have completed your duty of care pertaining to the preferred business practice of obtaining three quotes/proposals and weeded these out appropriately.  You will also have decided on the variety of options that had become available, eg purchase additional or change racking and/or move racking,  you may also upgrade/change your goods handling equipment or a combination of all options.  The point is, you now have cost effective options, provided at no cost.

KPIs – Who needs them?

Posted on by

What KPIs would you suggest are the best for Customer Service and/or Supply (logistics, purchasing, warehousing, distribution, etc)?
Many people can advise the regular quantity/volume based ones but providing real quality based KPIs is much more difficult.  Not because it can be hard to define them, it is usually more to do with people’s perception at which point quality measurement should measured – this is especially so with Customer Service.

I manage this by getting a definition of what the Key Result Areas are, then getting confirmation as to what aspects indicate success in each area, only then can the KPIs be set.

But KPIs must be easily obtained, and easily monitored.  This also depends very much on cycle times.  Daily/weekly and monthly KPIs should all reflect different aspects of the business and together tell a story of how the company is functioning.

Many times I have seen reports and KPIs that actually hinder the process, using up vital resources and sometimes even sending people on exercises that are not required as the message gets diluted or worse, confused.

Good KPIs are invaluable for a business in identifying trends and gaps in process and capabilities – the not so good ones are at best, a waste of time.