THE SUPPLY CHAIN BLOG
The Warehouse Rack Layout Aisle Width Decision
As warehouse consultants, we are fortunate to visit and improve hundreds of distribution operations. The majority, but not all, of the operations require forklifts of some sort. Upon starting my career, one of the things I expected to see in the operations was more standardization of forklift types and, by extension, aisle width. However, that is not the case.
Lean Supply Chain & Logistics Management Training and Consulting
A lean supply chain & logistics process has been streamlined to reduce and eliminate waste or non-value added activities to the total supply chain flow and to the products moving within the supply chain. Waste can be measured in time, inventory and unnecessary costs. Value added activities are those that contribute to efficiently placing the final product at the customer.
Why an Oversized Inventory Doesn’t Solve Service Level Issues
We are right now working with a great company, who supplies the retail and construction industry. They are totally devoted to quality and would go to any length to ensure that the product is delivered in perfect condition at the right time. With an annual growth of 30 – 40 % it is not surprising that all processes and support systems aren’t fully developed and rules of thumb are used instead. To make sure that an order always can be delivered on time the rule for inventory is 6 months sales in stock. Looking at statistics we saw that the service level was 95%, which is right on the average level in the US industry. Looking at the reasons behind the counter-intuitive “non-100%” service level provided some lessons.
Canadian Distribution Strategy for U.S. Organizations
For many American companies, Canada can be an afterthought considering its small size relative to the US. However, given its intricacies, it would be a mistake for American companies to assume that Canada is much the same as the US as the Canadian market and topography is very different from that of the United States. The key to unlocking the best Canadian distribution strategy is to understand these differences.
What Happens When a Company’s Logistics Network Is Optimal?
It is hard to believe, but it does happen once in a while, exactly twice in the 15 years of doing supply chain network strategy work for numerous of companies in different industries, when a company’s logistics network is optimal even though it has not been reviewed holistically for at least 5 years.
Logistics as an Investment Guide
Can companies’ activities in logistics be a good indicator of investment opportunities? Many investors are looking for companies that that grow very fast while being profitable. Fast track firms selling physical products likely outgrow their existing distribution network and need to expand to satisfy the demand for their products.
4 Reasons to Consider Outsourcing Distribution to a 3PL
In today’s on-demand economy, there is a growing number of customers ordering online and who want their products as soon as possible. When you compare this to the past, when consumers did all of their business in-person, it’s quite the contrast. From a warehousing and distribution perspective, it might as well be night and day.
Consolidating Parts to One Centralized MRO Storeroom
A modified wood products manufacturer was planning construction of an additional plant to fulfill increasing demand. The company had already developed a preliminary layout of the facility in tandem with an architect for budgetary purposes. Establish was tasked with maximizing the storage capacity of the Maintenance, Repairs and Operations (MRO) storeroom space allocated in the preliminary layout.