Do you own a trading or manufacturing company that is growing nicely? Fantastic! Is your logistics growing too, in terms of professionalism? If you believe there is room for improvement right now in your logistics, then this article has some handy tips for you.
Stick
A growing business has probably increased in size as a result of an excellent hands-on mentality. Logistics, stock control and transport are all part of that. If logistics is demanding too much from your organization, then you need to ask yourself: what is my real core business.
If you are a trader, you focus on trading activities. If you are a manufacturing company, you focus on manufacturing. Stick to what you know.
Your business has the best chance of growing and surviving if you focus your attention on your core qualities. Outsourcing specific parts of your logistics process seems obvious. However, how do you determine whether that is necessary or useful right now?
Cost savings
One good way of determining whether or not your logistics could run more smoothly and efficiently, is too look at the costs. More often than not, cost savings are related to efficiency. So if you would like to know whether you can save costs and whether improvements can be made in your logistics process, engage an external logistics party to consult with you and do the math. Naturally, Windhorst is happy to do that for you.
Take this example: if you own a car and have to deliver to several addresses in the Netherlands, you could be on the road for hours. Fuel is also expensive and obviously you will be faced with personnel and car costs. Outsourcing instead, would cost you no more than maybe a couple of tenners.
More customer satisfaction
Another way of checking whether you can take your logistics to the next level, is to look carefully at your customers. Have you noticed there are times you cannot meet their delivery wishes or demands? Just suppose your customer wants a delivery at 8.00 in the morning, but, due to a logistics overload, you can only deliver at 17.00, then this will affect customer satisfaction. In general, it is better to outsource your transport/delivery when you are confronted with wishes and demands that you yourself are unable to easily fulfil.
For example, for us it is not a great challenge to deliver your goods to different places in the Netherlands at the same time.
Complaints
Have you recently received complaints about deliveries that were not on time? This is actually a good indication that there is room for improvement in your logistics process. Perhaps it’s stating the obvious, but we didn’t want to keep it from you.
What to outsource?
You can outsource any part of your logistics process from the entire supply chain. Windhorst can take the processes from a specific order, out of your hands. This order information can be supplied to us through EDI, by means of an order portal, e-mail, fax or even phone. Although we are a great advocate for efficiency, almost every means is fine.
What can we take off your hands?
- Warehousing
- Fulfilment
- Order picking
- Route planning
- Transport & delivery
To outsource, or not?
If, after reading the information above, you believe there is room for improvement then we would advise you to contact us. We are happy to talk with you to help you decide whether outsourcing is wise for your business at this point. If not, no problem; all the more reason to focus on growth.
If it is the right time, then we can undoubtedly help. After all, that’s what we do.
