Warehousing and distribution operations are living, breathing ecosystems, constantly influenced by changing consumer demands. Because of all the moving parts, you can easily lose visibility into inventory, revenue, downtime, processes, and more. Barcoding’s June Huddle, “Regain Control of Your Supply Chain,” looked at solutions that offer a 360-degree view of all the metrics that matter.
Weren’t able to join us? You’re in luck because we’ve got the recap right here! (And if you’d like to watch a recording of the Huddle, there’s a link below.)
Jody Costa kicked off the Huddle by sharing a brief video showcasing some impressive results being seen by folks using Ignition by Telus’ software solution to get better supply chain visibility. Here are a few of the highlights:
Visibility and connectivity are becoming increasingly critical in supply chain management no matter what you’re moving, but perhaps nowhere more so than in the food industry. It’s said about supply chain software solutions, “If you can make it in the Food & Beverage industry, you can make it anywhere.” In other words, it has the flexibility to address the supply chain issues in nearly any other industry.
During this portion of the Huddle, they gave us prominent examples of the inherent complexity of warehousing/shipping food as compared to, say, widgets. Let’s say you’re selling apples...you may sell apples by the piece, by the pound, by 3-lb or 5-lb bag. And the same goes with chicken: every single package of chicken has a different weight, nutritional values, and provenance. Most Food & Beverage products have specific government mandates, safety requirements, traceability, lots, ideal temperatures, requirements for how you load and build trucks, power positions, center aisle/side door configurations, stackability issues, and more. So, as you can see, software designed to give optimum visibility into an industry with this much complexity will almost certainly be flexible enough to address the challenges of others.
As our host, Jody Costa asked the group, “What’s going to be a permanent post-COVID fixture of the industry going forward?”
One member of the Huddle remarked that visibility is more of an “east to west” concept, rather than the typical “north to south” silo’d approach, where data travels down through one operational team. With the right software solution in place, every team has access and can leverage the same information to make decisions in real-time. So when a customer refuses a shipment, for example, the driver, the warehouse, sales, and customer service will all know about the situation and can act appropriately.
“Ignition says it’s purpose-built… but you’re selling yourself short: You’re actually built for almost every purpose. Whether it’s molten steel or flowing milk, any environment has similar activities and you capture [all the data].”
Next, we discussed scalability. While typically one thinks of growth when talking about scalability, it goes in both directions... and so does Ignition. The solution helps large, complex operations and mid-tier and smaller regional organizations.
We also talked about points at which companies reinvent themselves or, more accurately, when they take opportunities to optimize. Reinvention typically happens at these milestones, and technology is the enabler:
“If you’re unable to adapt to changing situations, you need better technology.”
We appreciate the expertise of our esteemed panel (thank you!) and for all of you who joined to get their insights. Together, Barcoding and Ignition by Telus have the solutions to keep you nimbly adapting to the craziness that can be the supply chain. If you’d like to talk, we’d love to know more about your business and its challenges. Click the link below to get the conversation started!
Keep an eye out for information about our next Huddle; in the meantime, watch the recording to learn more!