Solid logistics planning is indirectly proportional to the success of your company. While it can be defined in numerous other ways, at its core, it supports the business and makes sure it runs smoothly. So, if you don’t plan your logistics well, your entire business may suffer.
With this thought in mind, we have decided to share a detailed guide on planning your inland logistics. So, without any further ado, let’s begin!
Better logistics planning equals better profits.
Why Is It Important To Plan Your Inland Logistics?
The primary objective of logistics planning is to deliver the right products, to the right consumers and at the right time in an easy, safe, and cost-effective manner. An effective logistics planning allows the company to minimize the investment and shipment-related costs which in turn adds to its ROI and profits. Further, planning your logistics also helps a business to build strong relations with its consumers and partners – results in brand credibility!
By planning your inland logistics carefully, you’ll be able to improve your operations and save your operational cost, while your customers will be happy and satisfied with your service.
Guide on Planning Inland Logistics
Planning your inland logistics is not as hard as it sounds. To help you enhance your brand credibility, reputation, and internal/external operations, here are some useful logistics planning tips for you:
1. Make Sure Your Supplier Is Reliable and Trusted
The very first step towards planning your logistics is having a trusted and reliable supplier by your side. No matter how efficient your shipment service is, how fast you deliver your products, if your products aren’t of optimum quality, you’ll never be able to achieve your business goals. While your product managers work on ensuring the product quality, it’s not always enough.
Several other things should be taken into account to make sure that your customers get what they wished for, in the correct shape. Therefore, it’s important to analyze other things such as the quality of transportation, delivery time, the reputation of the supplier, etc. When you analyze these things simultaneously, you will realize the need for selecting the right logistics provider for your business.
2. Monitor Your Inventory Management
An efficient inventory management system is very crucial for planning efficient inland logistics. Either too small or too large, stock imposes problems in the functioning. If the stock is very small, you’ll have to face the dangers of running out of stock. Similarly, if the stock is very large, it will impose the storage cost. For these reasons, it is very important to have great inventory management.
3. Have A Scope For Integration
Having good suppliers, efficient inventory management, and the right logistics providers will not make any difference if they can’t collaborate or communicate with each other. But the good thing is there is much-integrated management software that can help you to bring all sectors of your company together for a better operation. It not only reduces the conflicts between different sectors of your company but also allows you to keep an eye on the entire system under one dashboard.
4. Make Sure Have the Right 3PL Provider
Perhaps the most crucial step for ensuring better inland logistics is having the right third-party logistics provider. The right provider will help you in inventory management, assembly, packaging, and delivery, everything under one roof. While there are tons of logistics services out there, not each one of them is worth considering. So, select your 3PL provider wisely.
5. Keep Your Customers Up-to-date
Keep your customers up-to-date with product replenishment and shipping alerts. This will keep their expectations realistic in case any unforeseen event takes place. According to a customer survey, a majority of customers appreciate notifications for unexpected delivery interruptions such as weather delays, etc.
6. Meet the Deadlines
If you don’t want to lose the trust and confidence your customers put into you, then meet the deadlines. Your customer will happily wait for a long delivery period that was agreed upon, but if you deliver the product past the deadlines, you’ll lose all the confidence of your customers. They will never like to deal with you in the future.
7. Get Feedback
Constructive feedback helps you in making improvements in your functionality. Hence, don’t shy away from taking feedback from your customers, business partners, and everyone who is involved in your operation. Ask your customers about their experience, whether or not they received their goods in the right shape, is there any inconvenience in deliveries and so on.
So, these were a few things that will help you in planning your inland logistics carefully which in turn will bring success and fortune to your business. If you’re ready to take your business to a great height, then plan your inland logistics here.