Before you understand how to reduce your overall logistics cost, it is essential to know what all comprise this cost in the first place. Logistics costs are all the expenses that your business incurs when moving shipment or consignment from one place to another, from the manufacturing facility or warehouse in Los Angeles to the customer. It encompasses all the costs incurred throughout the transportation cycle.
There are several ways to reduce this cost and make your company more efficient and profitable. Let’s discuss what those techniques are and how they benefit you in the long run:
1. Shipping Consolidation
A lot of people talk about shipping consolidation, but not many know exactly what it is. If you have any smaller amounts of inventory or weights to be transferred from one place to another, this can be done with less-than-truck load shipments, which prove to be very economical in the long run. These shipments can be consolidated with other large shipments or small shipments to save more cash for you. This way, you will be consolidating all your transfers into one shipment called the total load shipping, and it is going to give you massive savings over time.
2. Automated Loading And Unloading
Automation is the key when it comes to saving more on logistics and transportation costs. It is a great way to reduce labor costs and ensure that there is no damage to any of the products you want to ship. It lets you save a lot on the cost of production and also enhances your productivity. It helps you perform several warehouse operations without any hiccups or any room for human error.
3. Intermediate Bulk Containers
If you are a manufacturer who needs to move items in bulk, intermediate bulk containers might be helpful. If you do not know what these are, your 3pl los angeles partner might be able to help you out with it. IBCs are very economical and efficient when transporting your bulk inventory from one location to another. You can easily fit six drums into one individual container that will have a 33% smaller footprint. This means that they are a convenient and efficient alternative as compared to round drums.
4. Track Your Inventory
It is never possible to maintain an efficient supply chain without tracking your inventory movements. It is essential to be able to replace your merchandise whenever you are running low. The longer it takes you to do that, the more cost you are going to incur. Implementing a perpetual inventory system that allows you to track your sales and inventory movement without delays and hassles is better. Real-time movement tracking enables you to reorder stocks which makes more sense of your business and the entire logistics function across Los Angeles.
In The End
It is also essential to hire the right professionals for the job. It is not only about packing and moving objects into boxes and stacking them in the warehouse. It is about understanding the priority of your customers and the expectations that they have from your brand. These practices should help you make your logistic function more efficient and save you a lot in the long haul.
