With the potential recession looming ahead, operational efficiencies are more important than ever.
In this article, we will recommend 5 key areas we think are most important to focus on to help your organization grow and stay relevant.
Labor Optimization
Optimizing your labor force can help increase productivity
and keep pushing your organization to the next level. We break down labor
optimization into four different sub-categories: labor selection, automation,
engineered design, and ergo-friendly workspace. These four categories look at
optimizing your employees by being selective in your hiring process and making
sure that people are in the best positions to contribute value to the company. You
should also look at labor productivity and how it can be increased through
automation, engineering, and an ergonomic friendly work environment. While it
may seem like a huge undertaking to optimize all of these, Korpack is ready and
willing to help enhance your work environments.
Automation
Automation has been a hot topic over the last several years.
We have seen companies grapple with the decision of automating and it almost
always comes down to capital expense, budget availability, and return on
investment (ROI). Automation can
attribute to an increase of profitability but more importantly it helps your
production become consistent and dependable. Machines do not call in sick,
need to be trained, or leave for different job opportunities – they will continuously
run and give a desired output, pending they are well-maintained. Some things to
consider when looking at automation are whether to invest in new or used
equipment, ROI, and preventative maintenance. If you turn your focus to those
three items, you will find that there is a hard ROI, but other long-term gains
that may be unapparent. At Korpack we consider ourselves automation specialists and
can help you decide the best automation route for your organization.
Reliable and Consistent Supply Chain
It is well known that a healthy supply chain is imperative
to a growing and successful business. The are few items that we recommend incorporating
into your supply chain strategy that will keep it running reliably and consistently:
vendor managed inventory (VMI), just-in-time inventory (JIT), and vendor
consolidation. By having a VMI system in place, your supplier will manage your
inventory so that you don’t have to. Additionally, a successful JIT program can
be a game changer for freeing up space in your warehouse and keeping your
production lines running. At Korpack, we do VMI and JIT better than anyone in
the industry. We utilize dynamic calculations to reassess weekly reorder points
based on your consumption. We also suggest looking at your vendor list and consolidating
it down to your top two or three selections. Building strong connections with fewer
supplier partners will help you get serviced better in the long run.
Additionally, when looking at consolidating vendors, we suggest you consider
distributors versus manufacturers. Most people think that manufacturers are
always less expensive than distributors, but that is far from the truth. Operationally speaking, a distributor can
provide products from numerous manufacturers and supply all the different
products together within a single order – saving you money.
Space Utilization
Space is valuable and should be allocated for production or
other business activities – not storing your raw inventory. As previously discussed, JIT is valuable for
your supply chain when ran efficiently but it also important for saving space
in your facility. You can bring in product when you need it for production,
instead of sitting on it for weeks on end. Packaging design is another area to consider when talking about space. With our engineering team, Korpack can help you re-engineer or design packaging that will maximize cubic volume in your warehouse.
Proper Forecasting
The most obvious operation strategy is proper
forecasting. Properly forecasting your upcoming needs will help you avoid
problems and pains in the future. All areas and items we have outlined in this
article are facets that will help you develop an operational strategy based off
concrete data for forecasting. Korpack can be your partner to help you
implement most, if not all, of these strategies.
Below you can download an in-depth article written by our
CEO, Nick Novy. This article deep dives into the areas highlighted above, from a
business owner perspective, and will help you with your operational strategies
as you prepare for the coming year.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss how
Korpack can help you with your operations, contact us. We would be happy to partner
with you to continue your growth.
