5 Reasons You Should Consider Warehouse Services from 3PL Links

warehousingWhen your business is transporting goods from one place to another, it is crucial you have a secure warehouse to place these goods. The warehouse should be guarded around the clock to ensure your goods are not vandalized, damaged or stolen; and if you have special storage needs, such as climate control, the warehouse should be equipped to offer the service.

If goods get damaged or a theft occurs, it is not just a monetary loss to your company, it is also is loss of credibility in front of your customers due to delayed deliveries. These are issues that can cost your company dearly, both in terms of money and reputation. You should choose your warehousing partner with care. Without the right warehouse services, your business can suffer in many different ways.

Below are 5 reasons why you should choose professional warehouse services offered by 3PL Links.

  1. Expertise and Experience

3PL Links employs highly trained professionals who ensure all your logistics supply chain requirements are handled seamlessly. The company brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise and hence, is equipped to provide warehousing solutions to suit your needs and budget. This storage method minimizes risks and also ensures expedient and fast service. You never have to contend with inexperienced and untrained employees which increases the risk of loss and damage. Continue reading

When you should Consider Consulting with a Third Party Logistics Provider

Third-Party-Logistics-ProviderAny company that sells products must have a reliable delivery system in place to ensure that all items are delivered to customers on time and in perfect condition. For this to be possible, the delivery system must include warehousing, picking, packing, and shipping operations, which are gathered under the generic name of logistics.

Unfortunately, managing logistics is a major challenge for many businesses. Without streamlining logistics operations, a company can easily run into cost overruns, which will negatively impact its overall activity. How can you reduce the risk of cost overruns and outright failure? By simply consulting with a third party logistics provider, or 3PL.   Continue reading

Checklist for Efficient Global Supply Chain Management

Global Supply Chain ManagementEfficient supply chain management on a global scale is a handful for even the most logistics-savvy companies. When you are entangled in the global market there are a lot of blind corners and gray areas. There is going to be a lot of days that you wish that the straight line you drew between two points on the whiteboard was a reality. With that being said, global supply chain management is a difficult yet not impossible task. Here is a checklist of tasks that every business needs to follow to maintain the efficiency of their global supply chain.

Global Supply Chain Management Checklist 

[  ] Always Start With Risk Management: Operational Risk Management is more than just a buzzword. It has to be the starting point of every logistics operation. While it may not be possible to disaster-proof every movement, you cannot know what contingencies you will need to prepare for if you do not take the time to consider the events that will have the most disruptive effects upon your operations. You need to consider how you will do business if your critical systems are rendered inoperable, what steps to take to respond to these catastrophes, and how to resume operations as quickly as possible. Continue reading

What Type of Supply Chain Disruptions are a Threat to Your Business?

Supply Chain DisruptionsMany businesses share common management concerns including potential supply chain disruptions. These common supply chain threats include extreme weather like hurricanes or tornadoes, or natural disasters like earthquakes and floods. Other kinds of disruptions like supplier breaks, labor issues and pricing risks, are perhaps less dramatic, but hold the same potential for damage. For every business, the type and ultimate impact of supply chain disruptions will vary. There are several threats to a business”s supply chain, especially if they rely on transportation.

Supplier Breaks

Any manager waiting for a truckload of raw materials originating in a hurricane zone along the Gulf knows that unforeseen disruptions are costly and can potentially put their business at risk. Supplier breaks can arise for a variety of reasons.

Climate change and environmental damage continue to cause supplier breaks because they can lead to swings in the cost of commodities and other materials prices, which can affect your bottom line. For example, changes in climate led to a reduction in grain crops in Eastern Europe, leaving many food manufacturers forced to increase prices to cover the drop in supply and subsequent increase in price. Unanticipated events like explosions in warehouses, business failures, or new regulations can end in supplier breaks too. Continue reading

How to Choose Supply Chain technology

Supply Chain TechnologyChoosing supply chain technology is the most important decision a logistics manager makes in his or her career. Why? Simply because the right software solution can propel a company forward, regardless of how bad the economy is, while the wrong one may bury the business for good. Unfortunately, selecting the best supply chain management (SCM) system can be difficult.

Selecting a SCM System

Never has so much technology been developed to help organizations improve supply chain performance. Yet, the performance of most supply chains has never been worse. Due to poor coordination and planning, dysfunctional industry practices, and high costs resulting from adversarial relations among partners, most supply chain organizations generate low profit margins, surviving, not thriving. To help you choose the right SCM system for your company, the rest of this post delineates the steps you should follow in the selection process. Continue reading

How do Fuel Surcharges Work in the Trucking Industry?

Fuel SurchargesFor businesses that transport their products within North America and carriers, protecting their bottom line from volatile fuel prices is an ongoing concern. One way to garner some protection from a fluctuating fuel price is the fuel surcharge.

What is Fuel Surcharge?

The fuel surcharge is the total cost for fuel usage. It is a contract between the shipper and another party that sets a standard rate for the fuel and how much will be paid above the base rate, and what fuel price triggers the surcharge, or no surcharge at all. Continue reading

Why Supply Chain Analysis is Important

Supply Chain AanalysisRunning any business with a supply chain requires analyzing each component to make sure the company is running as efficiently as possible. Whether your business is in home improvement, hi-tech, retail or any other industry that involves costs, you need to reduce waste and maximize productivity. Supply chain analysis is the study of vendors, manufacturing materials, value, functions, costs, processes and forecasts to make sure your company is as profitable as possible.  Continue reading

International Supply Chain Solutions for Companies Operating Across Borders

International Supply Chain SolutionsThe ratio of world trade to the GDP of the globe as a whole, an index also used to measure openness of economies, increased by 20 percent to just over US$20 trillion by the end of 2011. The sharp rise in global trade over the past two decades is partly due to innovations in logistics as well as changes in policies in trading countries, which has led to a reduction in the cost of delivering goods and services across borders.

A report launched by WEF indicates that removing supply chain bottlenecks could significantly enhance global trade. For example, if counties were to improve border management and necessary infrastructure, especially transport systems, to just half the level of Singapore, the global GDP would shoot by 4.7 percent which is about six times what we would get by scrapping all import tariffs. Continue reading

Materials Logistics Tips for the Construction Industry

Materials LogisticsPoor materials logistics costs the construction industry more than $2 billion dollars every year. Too often, logistics in the construction industry revolve around on-site handling which is usually too little to impact on the total cost of completing projects.

According to Liker, a famous philosopher, waste is defined as the opposite of value where value is any process that a customer is willing to pay for. Waste is also used in reference to resources that add negligible or no value to the final product. Waste is therefore loss of resources including time, materials, equipment, labor and capital, when these resources are produced by activities that contribute to the final cost but do not add value to the final product.

In the construction industry, after the design is agreed upon, most of the value adding usually occurs at the site. Activities that add value are assembly, packaging and finishing. Other activities such as moving, counting, storing, scheduling and sorting can therefore be said to be wasteful.

Unfortunately, research blames the supply chain for most of the wastes in the construction industry. One report went as far as saying that wastes in the construction industry are mainly caused by “obsolete, myopic control” of the supply chain. Continue reading

How to Manage Retail Logistics Costs

Retail Logistics CostsThe success of your business depends so much on the quality of your retail logistics. Everything, right from sourcing for raw materials to transportation, delivery and installation will influence the success of the business. Where there is a smooth flow of operations, usually as a result of solid retail logistics, it becomes easier to satisfy your customers at relatively lower costs leading to higher returns on investment.

Of course, retail logistics is such a critical component of your business so it may be hard to even contemplate outsourcing it. But if you take a moment to think about it, you’ll realize that working with a third party logistics provider may be just what you need to offset your profits.

The advantages of using third party logistics mainly result from economies of scale and economies of scope, both of which encourage retailers to increase net profits by reducing costs. Competent 3PL providers boast superior coordination ability which enables them to search for and find reliable sub-contractors and business partners. Normally they also possess the ability to better manage inter-firm flow of goods. Logistics is very technical and time consuming. So by outsourcing, you will save a lot of time which you can invest in other areas of the business. Continue reading