When your company is faced with a new or unique-to-you supply chain challenge, what’s the next step? You could look internally for an individual or team to dissect the issue and propose a solution, or you could go to someone who has seen it before. There are many reasons to hire a logistics consultant. Expertise, objectivity, and cost efficiency should be your first considerations.
1. Knowledge & Expertise
Your team is solid, but everyone has their own core competencies and a full workload. Instead of taking your employees out of their comfort zone, sometimes it makes more sense to look outside your organization for a supply chain consultant. Bringing on a third-party logistics consultant means unlocking their experience and depth of knowledge with your situation.
If it’s your first acquisition, hire a logistics consultant who’s made their career managing them. Maybe you’re looking forward to your biggest product launch ever. Reduce stress with an advisor who has helped dozens of businesses scale with ease.
Regardless of your project, the right logistics consultant can advise you in these areas and more.
Warehouse Set-Up
Decisions like racking or floor loading and whether to stack items can be unexpectedly complex. An experienced logistics consultant can help you discover the most effective use of your space and labor. For example, some operations may benefit from stacking higher and utilizing more labor while others will be better off using more space and employing fewer material handlers.
Warehouse Optimization
Your logistics consultant will have learned over many projects the right questions to ask to get to the core of inefficiencies. Simple questions about material weight, shipping constraints, or velocity can be the difference between slight improvements and major optimization.
Staffing & Material Handling
Outside of your physical space and day-to-day operations, a logistics consultant considers staffing and material handling equipment utilization in their evaluations and recommendations, which offers a more holistic approach to helping your business.
Safety Protocols & Precautions
Safety is of the utmost importance in warehousing. A logistics consultant can guide you on everything from effective pole markings, signage, and the best technologies for ensuring pedestrian safety to OSHA requirements and documentation, hazardous material storage, and local codes for sprinklers. This is especially helpful if you are relocating or expanding to an unfamiliar area, where safety laws and regulations may differ from what you are used to.
In addition to their experience and knowledge of industry trends, a logistics consultant may also offer resources and technology you wouldn’t otherwise be able to access.
2. Objectivity
There is a lot of value in being able to tackle a project with fresh eyes. Hiring a logistics consultant removes bias and helps organizations identify inefficiencies in staffing, infrastructure, and inventory management that aren’t always clear from within.
From there, your advisor can help you tailor a plan to address these challenges, improving efficiency in ways you may have never considered.
3. Saved Money (and Time)
We all know time is money, and that doesn’t change when it comes to logistics. Consider which would be more costly:
Scenario 1
You assemble a talented team of your own employees. Each is skilled, but none have a lot of experience managing excess stock. They are able to dedicate a few hours every week to brainstorm solutions and eventually come up with a plan of attack. You implement the plan and, while you did move the needle, these weren’t the results you had envisioned. Now you’re back to the drawing board.
Scenario 2
You connect with a logistics consultant who came highly recommended. Upon investigating their credentials, you find they’ve advised 4 other companies in your industry with issues surrounding excess stock. They have honed their methods over 10 years and have data to back up their claims. After an in-depth analysis of your business, they recommend a plan that yields satisfying results.
Hiring a third-party advisor will always come at a cost. It’s up to you to weigh the efficiency of an expert against the added work for you and your team.
Ask Us About Logistics Consulting
IWDG serves as a logistics consultant for companies large and small. Our 100+ years of combined experience has given us hands-on experience overcoming many kinds of challenges.
We aim to be as efficient as possible with your supply chain needs. Every project starts with an in-depth analysis. From there, we work directly with you to design and implement strategies that complement your operation.
Want to know more?
Contact us to learn more and get your quote, today.
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