Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Shipping for more profit and effective Supply Chain Management

By Larry Emsweller

You have to make sure that your supply chain management is at full optimization. Using a sophisticated and new direct plant shipping software program can minimize costs. The right software program can redirect multiple SKU orders. One is simple, but when you multiply the number of SKU orders, it can get complicated. A good software program can make all the difference.

Old software would not allow anything but a complete order to be shipped. Sending out an incomplete order became a very difficult task. Too difficult for most companies, so they give up, which inhibits their ability to make up current market share. Introduce AutoScheduler - sophisticated software - which solves these problems and makes handling incomplete orders (to difficult to handle) easier and allows you more options.

But KISS is high cost. On local campuses consisting of a plant and several warehouses, companies like Procter & Gamble have realized there is a better way. In their extensive supply chain management program, P & G uses a distribution master scheduling system called AutoScheduler from Transportation l Warehouse Optimization to optimize their direct plant shipping by:

A. Maximizing DPS by pre-positioning inventory; B. Identify the best place to ship from; C. Ensure the shipment is complete by re-deploying the inventory; D. Define the customer service goal of on-time, every-time and establish the dock and staff schedule to make sure this happens

This requires more timely decisions. Many management systems use the KISS principle. It is easier for the user of the system. The creation of optimized rules to determine where orders will ship from is often done by strategic location analysis. This is done every few years and looks at a variety of functions. The end goal is to make the system as efficient as possible - saving time and money. Supply chain management requires constant scrutiny.

Most tools that exist "over the counter" are for catalog shippers. Those that tackle the more substantial issues of ship point optimization in companies shipping truckloads of consumer-packaged goods, have been custom built. There is an exception - AutoSPA (Automatic Ship Point Assignment). This is also available from Transportation l Warehouse Optimization. AutoSPA is a timely, capacity-balanced optimization tool that performs the right sourcing analysis to determine where the order should ship from and looks at the total cost of delivery.

AutoSPA can also limit the number of shipments made from any site.

You can save nearly twice as much as DPS alone on ship-point assignment in supply chain management. It is worth doing.

Sign up for the exclusive free Truck Loading Manual that can SAVE YOU MONEY and offer you the perfect Operator Manual for truck operators at www.TransportationOptimization.com. While there, request a call back from one of the premier transportation consultants in the industry, Tom Moore or one of his associates from Transportation | Warehouse Optimization. Working for many companies in the top Fortune 50 - like Procter & Gamble and BP - they understand your unique problems and can help you solve them. Transportation l Warehouse Optimization - Solutions that work. Solutions that save.

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