As you know, in the Distribution Centers there is much personnel involved, each with a specific task to be covered in a timely manner so as not to affect subsequent operations. When there are errors, it is created a string of delays that significantly affect your deliveries and above all, your budget.
Here we recapitulate the most frequent errors DC’s:
- Lack of organization and process definition
Often Distribution Centers have been developed in an empirical way, while adhering to the growing and new needs.
That development where DC’S should also have special characteristics and requirements of a warehouse, together with the fact of an economy that requires very particular aggregates and desires of customers values, demands an excellent organization for all the operations.
The Center should be designed professionally by experts, according to the size and complexity of the processes involved. It will also require a logic that meets the requirements of demand, the study and the relationship of the several processes that make up the whole.
The WMS software plays an important role, helps align processes and put assortment in DC’S.
The election of an expert company is recommended, endorsed by the close collaboration of key personnel.
- Poor interaction between internal and external areas
The market is moving to the degree of interconnection in all areas.
The fact that a truck does not arrive on time with the goods to be stocked in the following period, will negatively impact the quality of service and programming of alternate orders. Similarly, if a delivery truck is not available at the loading dock at the right time, it is affected the efficiency of the DC. Not knowing that the production plant, or the area of imports, supplies large batches of products, can involve to not have to contemplate the space available for storage.
Here the software plays an important role (depending on how critical that a process can be for your DC) because each case is unique and requires a particular solution. Within this context, we can talk then of ERP, WMS, WCS, TMS and other systems that can work individually or in combination.
- Ignore the specialized technologies
Because they are more and more specialized technologies, it is impossible to be experts in everything. However, the logistics professional should know the trends and continually need to be updated.
Actions like to study and go to specialized sources and concur to specialized events related to your core, always provide you a bigger picture.
Keeping a close link with your company’s trusted advisor is a fundamental variable. You know more about your operation and they know most of the technologies that will give the best weapons to face the complex challenges of demand and competition.
Clearly exists a wide range of technologies and there is always one that is best in each case.
- Not investing in the DC
Most times, an employer cannot measure or assess correctly the ROI, or simply not able to glimpse the many benefits of difficult tangible characteristics.
An example of this is the impact of quality and timely deliveries or independence of the human factor in the process, leading to problems of absenteeism or work demands.
The challenge here is to make a justification containing, somehow, many of those intangibles that justify investments, not directly from other financial prospects and also improve the quality of life for all who work in the DC’s.
Keep constantly advised and define your own standards, together with the metric value from the customer's perspective, it can help you decide investment in DC’s.
- Incorrect handling of stock
Often, it is not known what inventory is available, there are not routine cycle counts, adequate physical infrastructure or IT system that supports your Distribution Center. The result of these variations require tooling, the WMS is one of them.
According to the size of your operation and the complexity of it, a certain company is recommended. They are good performance and reliability packages, accessible to small and medium companies, there are also very expensive for large or complex operations. Also can be implemented with conventional software licensing plans "as a Service", SAAS.
A collateral problem within this category is the demand planning. There is software or modules that allow coordinate demand rhythms with the rhythms of stocks; it is very difficult to achieve the perfection of this correlation, but we have probabilistically controlled interactions with a range of reasonable certainty.
- Mishandling of the products
A certain percentage of the products become obsolete; either by way of storage, neglect in removals, or lack of information, offering obsolete products.
Each operation requires a specific way of handling the products when they have a certain delicacy, needing to provide the right technology and minimize manual handling. For example, if they are form a liquid nature, must be handled and stored in such a way that a particular damage does not contaminate other products.
Manual operation is usually very though and subjective, everyone treats the product according to its discretion and mood. As far as possible and according to the type of products should automate the handling and storage of products.
If you looked familiar any of the errors described above, come to us to minimize errors and increase productivity of your Distribution Center. GIEICOM has the best specialists in each process, contact us here and a consultant will give you free advice.
