How Can You Reduce Your Supply Ch ...

Supply Chain Management

It is imperative to keep track and control of your supply chain management costs. Many companies utilise the same logistics provider and strategy without shopping around to see the different services that are readily available to them. Logistics costs should be monitored more closely to ensure that businesses are operating in a lean and efficient manner. Issues affecting costs can be fuel, employment, insurance and ports – which continue to experience delays. As a result there are higher transportation costs, slower delivery times and an overall ineffective process. Below are the top 5 tips to reducing your supply chain management costs.

1) Eliminating the variability out of transit times

Ensuring consistency of delivery times for your customers is vital to success and repeat business. There are a variety of things that can cause inconsistencies with transit such as the quality of freight used, the implementation of building buffers of inventory and the quantity of the pallet. Logistics specialists are able to understand and enhance these dynamics to reduce freight costs, increase the reliability and deliver consistently.

2) Consolidate

By consolidating your shipments as much as possible, you can streamline your logistics process and reduce overheads. However if you have LCL (Less than a Container Load) shipments coming out of one country then try and find another LCL importer of goods from that country. To make this work you may need to partner up and consolidate to make it a more cost-effective FCL (Full Container Load) shipment. A logistics company will already have an established network they can use regardless of the size of your shipment. This can reduce costs and increase the success of your deliveries.

3) Control your express shipping costs

If a company runs into a supply chain issue, often the entire shipment will be expedited, resulting in a cost increase. A simple calculation can determine the number of goods that would be required immediately. This means you can pick and choose what needs to be sent on an express level of service leaving the remaining goods to be sent on a standard delivery – which is more cost effective. An established logistics company can also resolve supply chain delays and will have strategies in place that allow them to react quickly. By pre-empting such occurrences, they are able to implement these fail safes to increase cost and time effectiveness.

4) Automate compliance processes

Having an automated compliance process can speed up the times associated with tasks being performed manually – for example document preparation. Using automated compliance procedures will bring fewer delays at border crossings, resulting in on-time delivery, avoidance of fines, adequate inventory levels and most importantly increased customer satisfaction.

5) Is insurance needed?

Insuring the delivery of your own goods can be a time consuming and expensive process. By utilising the insurance an external specialist ensures that your goods are correctly insured with far less hassle and at a reduced price.

These 5 top tips will help carrier services reduce their supply chain management costs a will result in an increased efficiency.

Find out more about ways to reduce your supply chain management costs by getting in touch with UCS today. Call us today on +44 (0) 8448 793229


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