While robotic, automated warehousing and electric, driverless trucks might be grabbing the headlines, most logistics managers and supply chain directors need to find and leverage more down to earth solutions to reduce costs and improve service. Let’s consider three.
Can You Cross-Dock Instead of Storing?
As a solution-focused logistics partner, Wavepoint 3PL has 14 food grade warehouse facilities located throughout the Northeast. This regional footprint, together with our national transportation service, offers the opportunity to cross-dock inbound and outbound loads:
- Breakbulk, pallet mixing, order rebuilding, and no-touch flow through
- Eliminate storage costs
- RFID tagging, barcoding, and relabeled scanning for load visibility
- Consolidate outbound for higher cubed trailers
- Build display packs to serve retail promotions
- Create and efficient truckload in, parcel out ecommerce solution
Take a look at a hub-and-spoke cross-docking strategy as a central location to pull different parts from different sources, assemble new products or repackage existing products, and then ship to customers. Information sharing and collaboration among your trading partners are critical for successful cross-docking which, in turn, provides the means for supply chain synchronization.
Leverage Technology to Reduce Transportation Costs
Heading into the peak transportation season, it’s important to set aside time for strategic planning for 2023. As simple as it sounds, many transportation teams, especially those encumbered by manual planning and execution, are simply too busy tackling day-to-day tasks to set aside time for long-range planning. Best-in-class transportation teams take the time to be proactive by asking – Where can you look to determine the savings within your transportation process?
Wavepoint 3PL can help. As logistics specialists, we can develop a transportation strategy that can save you move while improving service. Our goal is to deliver:
Competitive rates: Customers save on average 20% of shipping costs when they switch to Wavepoint.
Easy-to-use technology: Our web-based TMS is second to none in the industry, user-friendly with best practice tools for greater efficiency in shipping and receiving.
Comprehensive coverage: Easily tender LTL, Partial, TL, Expedite into our web-based TMS.
Transparency: No surprise accessorial charges, no hidden or additional charges.
Tailored solutions: We can assure we give you value-added services.
Take the time now to develop a plan to control transportation spend while avoiding significant constraints in the months ahead.
Outsource Final Assembly: Develop a Postponement Strategy
It’s an interesting strategy, postponement: assembling, mixing, packaging, kitting the final product at the point closest to consumption. Postponement reduces your costs (and pain points) in several ways. You ship economical truckload into our warehouses, outsourcing the labor needed for final product assembly, and eliminate the risk associated with final goods overstock.
How to start? Call Wavepoint and we’ll work closely with you to analyze the best outsourcing point in your manufacturing process, vendor network, location and shipping lots, order cycle times and replenishment requirements.
We’ll then provide a comprehensive solution for optimum supply chain efficiency.
Remember, a successful postponement strategy can deliver savings to both production and logistics.