Chuck LEAN Business Consultant
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What are your strategies for building peak season fulfillment?
There are ample ways to build better peak season fulfillment strategies. Instead of getting bogged down in the details, let’s focus on nine leading concepts to boost peak warehousing management, including:
- Lean inventory is not optimal for peak season fulfillment. While lean inventory is excellent throughout the year, it can lead to severe consequences during peak season. With a record of increased demand for each peak season, lean inventory strategies may fall short.
- Warehouses need to run around-the-clock through the peak. Fulfillment becomes more time-sensitive as the season progresses. Warehouses should run fulfillment around the clock. However, they must ensure that all evening and night workers receive ample time to rest between shifts, as well as amenities to encourage productivity, including on-site cafeterias and food delivery too. Yes, night and evening workers need a bit more care through the season.
- Track delivery and delivery schedules. Once a shipment leaves, warehouses should still track its progress. Failure to monitor timely delivery after shipping will result in angry customers.
- Benchmark systems to learn their maximum throughput. Benchmarking helps warehouse leaders understand what systems can and cannot do to meet peak volume.
- Reslot the peak season item areas. Reslotting peak areas can improve performance and reduce delays as customer needs evolve through the season.
- Take advantage of omnichannel inventory. Omnichannel inventory includes order fulfillment strategies that leverage brick-and-mortar stores to complete more shipments.
- Integrate systems. Integration improves collaboration and reduces the risk of errors.
- Diversify your supply chain. Working with more supply chain partners lowers overall risk.
- Tap the value of on-demand warehousing. [removed] notes that on-demand warehousing enables scalability without [removed] for peak demand.
What can you add to this best practices list?
Peak season fulfillment is a topic that strikes both fear and hope into the minds of supply chain leaders.
It can boost profitability and provide a jolt of efficiency. On the other hand, inadequate peak fulfillment can write the epithet on a company’s tombstone.
Instead of waking to a real Christmas horror, ensure your supply chain is capable of handling peak demands by understanding the problem with poor peak season planning, how the right strategies build optimization, and by applying these nine critical best practices.