Let our warehouse consultants help you drive down cost and improve service.
Warehouses are, by their very nature, a supply chain inefficiency. A warehouse is a decoupling point in the supply chain where material flow stops, and when that material flow stops, then non-value costs start to accrue. Our team are here to ensure non-value costs are minimised and material flow is optimised.
Of course, there are no physical supply chains where storage is not required at some stage. Consequently, one of the key areas of supply chain management is how to make warehousing, handling procedures and inventory management as efficient as possible.
Whether the warehouse is a store that supports a manufacturing operation, or a retail distribution centre for a fast-paced ecommerce operation, the principle remains the same – be organised, efficient and reduce time and cost wherever possible. The reduction of time, in terms of order cycle time, and cost can be leveraged from many areas of the warehouse operation: reconfiguration of the layout may help to improve pick speed; updating MHE can help improve the material handling flow and optimising inventory will help free space.
As customer demand in modern supply chains continues to evolve towards faster, more frequent deliveries at lower volumes, the pressures on warehouses are increasing. Changes in throughput velocity are exposing weaknesses in many businesses warehouse operations and those weaknesses are driving increased cost and lowered service levels.
Our warehouse consultants are here to help you get your warehouse operations back on track.
How our Warehouse Consultants can help your business
With warehouse design there needs to be a measure of both technical design ability and field operations experience. All too often facilities are designed on a ‘roughly right’ basis, or they’re designed by CAD engineers without consideration to the variables and constraints of day-to-day operations.
Our team have both the technical ability and the operations experience to know what works and what doesn’t. This operational experience is key to ensuring stakeholder consensus when major changes are being proposed, and the technical ability is key to ensuring all possibilities are thoroughly considered.
The warehouse consultancy services we offer include:
Whether it’s improvement in the configuration of an existing warehouse or distribution centre, or the design of a new facility. Our consultants are experts in warehouse design, MHE deployment, racking configurations and managing complete fit-outs. Read more about our warehouse design consultancy.
Inventory, when not properly managed, is not only a drain on working capital, but it also consumes space and operating costs. As part of our warehouse design consultancy we can also offer implementation of effective inventory policies so you can manage your space, and cash, more effectively. Read more about inventory management.
All warehouse operations need systematic and process driven operations in order to reduce waste and maximise efficiency. Using our practical experience, and knowledge of methodologies such as Kaizan, Six Sigma and TQM, we are able to review and optimise all of your operational processes. Read more about Warehouse Operations Management.
Distribution facilities need to be located to minimise the transport costs of inbound supply and outbound despatch, or located to maximise service lead times to customers. Facility location is critical. Our consultants are able to undertake extensive modelling to determine the most efficient number of facilities required and their optimal geographic location. Read more about our warehouse location analysis.
Identifying and sourcing new warehouse facilities can be a time consuming and lengthy process. Our warehouse consultants are able to manage the full process on your behalf; from undertaking a blueprint design of the requirement and identifying the optimal geographic location, through to searching for and visiting suitable facilities and ultimately managing the conveyancing process and the full implementation of the site. Read more about our warehouse facility search services.
Warehouses are of course part of the broader supply chain eco-system. Issues experienced in the warehouse may not fall within the typical warehouse remit, but they may be driven from other areas of the supply chain. For example, SKU proliferation will impact storage and pick face configuration but it may be managed via an S&OP process. If the services we have detailed above don’t address the consultancy support you’re looking for, please also browse these other sections of our website that may be of help:
We also offer a host of services and expertise within the wider remit of supply chain management. From inventory optimisation through to full design and implementation of S&OP.
Read more in our supply chain consultancy section.
We offer a host of services specifically related to logistics, including logistics outsourcing, network design, transport routing and tender management.
Read more in our Logistics Consultancy section.
In addition to our consultancy service, we help clients to ensure successful delivery of change through our project management and interim management service.
Read more in our Logistics & Supply Chain Management Support section.