Customer Delivery Time – delivery | order | on-time
Customer Delivery Time
To do this, many companies have adopted an agile supply chain, one that focuses on fast responses to customer demand. This is done in two ways. First, establish your facilities as close to your customer as possible so that your transportation time is reduced. For example, if you distribute products to retail stores and your number one customer has a lot of outlets in Los Angeles, you might lease a warehouse there. When a store places an order, you can deliver much faster because you’re so close. Shortening the distribution channel like this aligns very well with lean practices to eliminate unnecessary transportation.
The second way to have fast response times is to deliver in less than full truckloads. This ensures on-time delivery and prevents a stock-out at the retail store. Inventory arrives at the right time in the right amount. But, delivering in less than full truckloads is not lean, it’s a waste. The cost of transportation from your warehouse to a store is the same whether the truck is full or half empty. Less than full truckloads means you are making more trips, which increases your total cost of delivering the inventory. That’s a problem. The solution is called leagility, which is a hybrid approach that uses both lean and agile practices to enable you to deliver inventory just in time but at a lower cost. Continuing our example of delivering to the retail stores, there are several ways to apply this method.
First, when a partially filled truck needs to leave right away, you can often add in some routine products that the stores orders on a regular basis. For example, the truck’s departure might coincide with the store’s monthly order of office supplies. But most likely this won’t fill the truck. So a second approach is to fill the truck with an order going to another Los Angeles store.
By scheduling two different deliveries together, you can deliver on time without having transportation waste. A third approach is to combine this on-time delivery with an order going to a different customer in the area. Again, you are reducing inventory transportation costs for each of these orders by putting them in the same truck. There’s a famous story of how several small trucking companies in the Chicago area used the leagility concept to form a delivery consortium.
Each trucking company had many just in time, less than full truckload customers. Even though they were direct competitors, they combined their different customer orders throughout the area and were able to deliver inventory on time at much lower full-truckload costs.
Here are 7 ways help you to ensure that customers get their order on time and consistently thereafter.
1. Link to Order Processing – Batch Orders Together…
2. Create New Order Alerts – To configure new order email notification-Logistic Dept.
3. Create Delivery Plan Reports – Specify a Daily, Weekly, or Monthly span to include in the report
4. Continuously Optimize Transport Schedule with supplier – Keep customer update about their delivery schedule
5. Be on Top of Your Inventory – Accurate raw material & Finished good inventories, maintain realistic inventory level
6. Look for Ways to Simplify Order Fulfillment – Receiving inventory, storage, order picking, order packing, shipping, delivery and returns processing. Make sure your Fulfillment Strategies system works effectively, get your products to your customers quickly.
7. Communicate Quickly and Effectively. Communicate with The Customer – Keep lines of communication open with your customers. Build a relationship. Take the time to be professional and personable with your customers. Resolve disputes quickly. When customers trust a brand, they may be more likely to remain loyal.
Take a close look at your company’s Order delivery system. Do you deliver just in time?