With businesses all around the world having to tighten their belts and find cost savings in the last year if you’re a company that ships goods then looking at your logistics more closely can make a big difference.
Even small changes can make a significant impact on your bottom line, whether you’re reviewing your planning or looking at the services you use for business shipping to different parts of the world.
Here are some areas you need to look at:
Review Your Whole Planning
Don’t just look at one or two aspects of your freight forwarding logistics. It’s important to review everything from start to finish in the process. That includes how you obtain goods and how you move them from A to B. You want to work with your shipping company to make sure that you:
- Get shipping completed in the quickest possible time.
- Do this for the minimal budgetary outlay.
Of course, for all businesses, there is going to be a trade-off between these two factors, but the aim of your review is to help you maximise it.
Better Warehouse Management
It’s not just when your goods are in transit that matters when you’re trying to reduce costs. Look at how these goods are managed within the storage environment.
For example, you may have perishables that need to be stored and moved within a certain time. Is this being done effectively? Delays can cause losses and that affects your bottom line.
You also need to look at where your products are stored and whether this space is being utilised effectively. Better inventory management can also help reduce costs in small but important ways.
Introducing Automation
One of the ways that many businesses are reducing their overheads and losses is by introducing automation. Where this can be done it saves you costs in employing people and often speeds up the shipping process.
There have been huge improvements in inventory management and shipping automation over the last few years and they are well worth investing in if you want to make your business more viable.
Transportation
Whether you’re handling this in-house or your shipping company is doing it for you, reviewing how you transport goods is another way to reduce costs. That might also include looking at your freight forwarding company and whether they are supplying the exact service and pricing that you need.
Transportation isn’t just the vehicles that you use but the routes you take and the number of goods that you carry at one particular time.
Training Staff
New practices and better training can ensure that your staff can operate as productively as possible with the tools that they have. Investing in training may seem like an additional expense but it pays off in the long term. It also makes employees feel valued and gives them more of an incentive to do their best for your company.
Efficient Customer Service
Finally, always make sure that you offer the best service and support to your customers and keep them regularly informed. With people shopping around for better deals, customer service is one area that can set you apart from the competition.