There isn’t a single company that doesn’t bemoan the high costs of freight. All companies would love to be able to reduce these costs, while at the same time mitigating the damages caused by delivery delays. Unfortunately, given the high costs of gas, and constant fuel surcharges, most companies seemed resigned to their fate; pay the freight bill and absorb the fuel surcharges because there’s no getting around the problem. However, is this really true? Do companies have no choice but to accept their fate, one marked by extremely high freight and the frustration that there’s little they can do to reduce the damaging effects of delivery delays? Well, the short answer is “no,” they don’t.
Companies can make a difference and do so with an enterprise mobility solutions platform that provides them with up-to-the-minute information on deliveries, schedules and shipment tracking. That power allows them to better manage freight at the source, reduce the impact of delays and immediately divert shipments to new destinations and customers. Barcoding inventory plays an essential role here. However, equally important is having the handheld computers that recognize those barcodes and allow companies to track shipments directly to their destination.
1 Real-Time Shipment Tracking
Imagine how much better your entire supply chain will perform when everyone has access to enterprise mobility solutions. Your personnel will be able to track incoming shipments of raw materials and outgoing shipments of finished goods with absolute accuracy. No manual process can make that happen, but a solid enterprise mobility network can. This will help your sales and customer service team better manage customer expectations and provide those customers with instant updates on order deliveries.
2 Bar Coding Improves Trace-ability
Bar-coding your inventory of finished goods allows you to track each and every shipment right up to their destination. If issues are encountered, you’ll know exactly what was shipped, how much was shipped and to which customer it was shipped to. All of this is done in a fraction of the time when compared to manual processes, ones that involve a multitude of internal and external phone calls to customers and shipping agents, all in a useless attempt to figure out what can instantly be identified on a rugged handheld computer.
3 Instant Point of Delivery Verification
You’ll know the instant the customer signs off on receiving their shipment. That real-time data will come directly from the mobile device to your terminal. You’ll immediately be able to reconcile shipments and provide your customers with instant delivery updates. Imagine how impressed those customers will be when you tell them the moment their own warehouse personnel have received and signed for a shipment, one that the customer has deemed critical to their operations.
4 Schedule Management
Reducing a company’s freight bill isn’t as much about trying to reduce the costs of fuel surcharges, as much as it is simply managing those deliveries in real-time. A solid enterprise mobility network will link your internal personnel with your field-service technicians, engineers, sales & marketing and delivery personnel, in a seamless network, one where all have access to the same vital data. All have mobile devices and all are able to feed each other with essential information. Ultimately, all will play an essential role in improving how your company schedules deliveries.
5 Improved Resource Allocation
Finally, all of these aforementioned benefits mean your enterprise will be able to improve its resource allocation and utilization. You’ll know where to divert personnel, shipments and resources and best use those resources to their full effect. When all key personnel have rugged handheld computers, all are able to contribute to improving your operations. In the end, that improves how you reconcile inventory and how your team ensures that incoming and outgoing shipments of products are managed cost-effectively.
Granted, there is very little your company can do to reduce fuel surcharges on deliveries. However, your company can improve how it manages those deliveries by using an enterprise mobility network that links all internal and external customers. The focus is on being able to react in real-time to real-time data. This allows everyone to become an active participant in reducing the impact of delivery delays. In this case, it doesn’t matter if those delays occur on incoming shipments from vendors, or outgoing shipments to customers; having an enterprise mobility network can make a real difference.