What Is Logistics Management?
Logistics management is a component of supply chain management that is used to meet customer demands, reduce company expenses and improve customer services. This is achieved through planning, managing and implementation of the logistics and storage of inventory and stock from your warehouse to its final destination.
The logistics management process starts with raw materials to delivering the final product to its destination. By adhering to industry standards and customer needs, logistics management facilitates proper planning to implement the best strategy for moving goods.
Elements Involved in Logistics Management
- Choosing suitable vendors with the capability to provide transport facilities
- Selecting the most effective transportation routes
- Determining the best delivery method
- Using inventory management software to efficiently control related processes
When you make unwise decisions in logistics management, you can create various issues such as delayed or failed deliveries which lead to customer dissatisfaction. Another potential issue is damage to goods due to negligent transportation. All these issues gradually lead to profit losses that could have been prevented with proper logistics management.
How to Manage Your Logistics More Effectively
The bigger your organisation, the more steps there will be in managing your logistics and the harder it will be to control every aspect. A supply chain needs to be highly efficient when it comes to supplying different materials to multiple locations at specific times. Here’s how you can stay on top of managing your logistics properly.
Put a Proper Plan in Place
Efficient logistics all starts with a solid plan. The fewer decisions that need to be made during transportation of goods, the better. While a proper plan won’t cover every variable in circumstance, it will keep additional decisions to a minimum, thus reducing delays in the supply chain.
Always Have a Backup Plan
So you think your logistics plan is foolproof? The truth is, it’s impossible to prepare for every scenario and it would be wise to have a contingency plan for every aspect of your logistics management system.
Hire a Logistics Manager with Good People Skills
Interpersonal skills are the ones we use everyday — active listening, dependability, teamwork, leadership, teamwork, motivation, patience and flexibility. Your logistics manager should possess them if you want your supply chain to run efficiently and steer clear of logistics problems.
Proper Warehouse Management
Logistic management simply can’t be efficient without proper warehouse management. Warehouse operations will depend on the type of goods that need to be stored. For example, if you store perishable items such as fresh produce or dairy products, you’ll need refrigeration facilities. Warehouse specifications will differ according to the type of product and the logistics should consider these specifications to avoid wastage. Additionally, warehouse staff should be properly trained for warehouse operations to eliminate locating delays when orders are placed.
Ensure Efficient Transportation
To decrease the expenses of logistics, it’s vital to analyse the transport department regularly so you can adjust and revamp if needed for faster delivery of inventory items. Consider the following factors for efficient transportation:
- Determine the best (shortest but safest) delivery route. This will help you save money as well as time.
- Affordable packaging that lowers costs but keeps goods safe as well. Optimize packaging so it doesn’t increase the weight of the package and occupies less volume.
Analyse and Improvise
New logistics management strategies can’t be measured without analysis and feedback. Measurement software can easily be integrated to determine the necessary information on which your future planning will heavily depend on.
Analyse the metrics related to various operations, including:
- Cost metrics
- Cycle time metrics
- Service metrics
Learn from Past Mistakes
Depending on your company size, poor logistics management can cost you thousands of rands every year. Learning from past mistakes is perhaps the most important thing you can do when optimising your supply chain. Sit down with your team on a regular basis to discuss these mistakes and to come up with solutions and systems to implement so they won’t happen again.
Automate Your Systems
We live in a digital age where the number of ways you can automate your logistics processes are plentiful, including inventory control and tracking every delivery. By reporting the data, these systems take the guesswork out of supply chain planning, ensuring your business is better informed about inventory levels. Inventory management software enables you to fine comb logistics processes to ensure maximum profit.
What Is Stock Management?
Stock management, also known as inventory control, inventory management or stock control, is the process of storing, tracking, ordering and controlling inventory items. Great inventory management systems cover every aspect of inventory which involves every item (from raw materials to finished goods) your business uses to produce products.
Why Is Stock Management or Inventory Control Important?
Inventory represents capital that’s tied up, which is a major asset in your business. Effective inventory control enables your business to free up some of that capital.
Efficient inventory control requires knowledge about various types of stock as well as the demands they hold to keep them at a suitable level to avoid over- and understocking. You can also ensure that items are sold in time to avoid stock going past their sell-by dates or spending too much on unnecessary stock that only take up space in your warehouse when you implement an inventory control system.
Efficient Stock Control and Inventory Management
As you already know, inventory management plays a vital role in how your business operates. Often, the warehouse management system (or lack thereof) is responsible for the biggest losses and profits. So efficient inventory management helps keep your profits high and customers happy.
Inventory control can be tedious, especially if you don’t have an inventory management software solution in place. If you do inventory control manually, it will take much longer and leave more room for errors.
Check All Incoming Stock
You can improve efficiency by checking whether the stock delivered is, in fact, what you ordered from your supplier. Depending on their inventory control system, suppliers can sometimes get stock orders wrong too.
Store Inventory Wisely
While it might be easy to just put stock wherever it fits, having an organised warehouse is vital if you want to increase efficiency. Without proper inventory control, it will be harder to track inventory levels. And if some products have similar packaging, your employees might make a lot of packing errors which will cost you time and money to rectify.
Identify Products With Labels
Product identification is easier with proper labelling so make a point of it to always have clear labels on your products with a basic description, quantity, corresponding product number, vendor name and any other important info.
Track Expiration Dates
You could face hefty fines if you offer expired products to your customers. Take charge of your inventory control and make sure you keep track of expiry dates to avoid getting stuck with expired goods to stay on top of customer service.
Avoid Compounding Problems
Manual inventory control opens up more opportunity for mistakes which can mess up operations and records as well as cost you money.
Set Threshold Stock Levels
Every business is different and has various peak times for sales. As for suppliers, they also have various lead times. So, if you want to operate your business optimally and avoid running out of stock, it’s vital to establish the minimum stock level and how long you have to restock normally before stock levels get exhausted.
Manage Returns Properly
A big issue many businesses face is inefficiencies with quality control. This happens because they don’t document returns effectively. This can also affect other aspects of the business like sales, accounting and customer support.
Monitor Stock Consistently
Real-time inventory control is important if you want to stay informed of exactly what you have in your warehouse at all times. It also gives you an idea of how much opportunity you have for sales and profit. Whenever you work with stock or inventory, it can either be turned into profits or losses.
What Is a Stock Control System?
A stock or inventory control system, also known as an stock or inventory management system, involves every function associated with the control and maintenance of stock or inventory. An efficient inventory control system takes care of everything, from product tracking, purchasing, and storage inputs to product turnover, receiving and shipping and re-ordering products.
They primary purpose of inventory control is to slimline stock and the costs involved in storing items while ensuring sufficient stock to meet customer demands.
Benefits of a Stock Control System
- Accurate data recording
- Projecting inventory demands
- Recording inventory variations
- Products retrieval from warehouses
- Customer histories
- Sales information
- Integrated accounting data keeping
- Connectivity of database mainframe
- Supplier management and handling of agreement
- Real-time data recording, connectivity and storage
- Report generation
- Automatic replenishment of stock
- Automatic order placement for fast selling products
Enhance Business Efficiency with a Stock Logistics Control System
It’s no secret, technology is a key player in increasing the efficiency of any business. By automating business processes with inventory control software, you can optimise your logistics process. Stock control software can be integrated to provide timely updates about product movement.
Good Inventory Management Software Should Be Able to Do the Following:
- Improve cash flow, reduce costs and increase profits
- Keep track of stock and inventory in real-time
- Enable you to forecast product demand
- Eliminate inventory and production shortages
- Prevent excess raw materials and stock
- Enable quick and easy inventory analysis on smart device
- Be accessible from your retail point-of-sale
- Optimise employee efficiency and warehouse organisation
- Offer fast and effective barcode scanning to speed up the product intake
- Allow for multi location inventory control thus tracking items across several locations or warehouses
Choose Netgen to Develop the Best Stock Logistics Control System in the Industry
If you are looking for ways to trump your competitors and keep current and future customers satisfied, adopting the latest technologies for inventory control is one way to start. The key objective of effective logistics management is to enhance the efficiency of the operations, increase productivity, and ensure customer satisfaction. The best solution is to invest in inventory management software that allows for real-time updates and lets you manage your inventory from anywhere in the world. To order an efficient inventory control software that’s right for your business and that will enable you to take care of all your inventory-related needs in a straightforward, uncomplicated and automated manner, get in touch with the team at Netgen today!
