If your company has a sales function, having a shipping department can’t be missed. However, if you don’t have any experience in logistics or someone in employment who does, this can be tricky. Don’t worry, here is some of the information you’ll need to start shipping and increase efficiency and meet your time-related goals.
Sealing the packaging deal
You can’t send the packages to your customers before you’ve mastered the packaging processes. Therefore, you will need to take care of a couple of aspects. The first is acquisition and containment, to ship your products you will first need to both have the products and own a building or compound to store them. Secondly, you will need a way to seal the packages, easier said than done. Consider how much room you have to spare and whether you want a fixed or portable Strapping Machine. Finding one isn’t the problem, but finding the right one to seal the packages is. First, ask yourself what it is you need to seal or strap in. Will you be shipping smaller packages in the back of a van, then it’s easier to acquire a handheld machine or a smaller fixed machine. The latter being easy for quick sealing of boxes which only requires you to hold the box. However, if you’re shipping bigger boxes or a lot of smaller ones on a pallet, consider looking for a pallet wrapper. These do take up a lot of space but are very convenient for fastening boxes or loose products on a pallet, ensuring safety during transport.
Manage your warehouse
You have your boxes and packages all strapped together, but they still need to be stored. Luckily, you don’t have to do this alone. Warehouse management systems can help you sort out distribution and organization through the benefit of many different functions. Use these systems to organize your compound layout, plan your incoming and outgoing products, manage employee schedules and keep track of your inventory of Stock Keeping Units. like most ERP systems, a warehouse management system is quickly integrated into your company’s internal network and is easy to master with a quick course or reading of the provided handbooks.
Setting the course
Now that you have your packaging and warehouse all set up, all that is left is full distribution. You want all outgoing products and packages to be delivered. delivery might be the easiest to set up, you only need some things taken care of. First and foremost, you can’ transport anything without vehicles and people to operate them. Depending on what kind of products and what sizes you might want to invest in several trucks, vans, or perhaps it can be done with a bike and cart. secondly, find the personnel to man these vehicles. every country has its recruitment and vacancy sites, some operating internationally as well, like Indeed or LinkedIn. lastly, you might want internal guiding systems to plot courses for your drivers to quickly and efficiently deliver all of the contents in their vehicle. Of course, Google maps can always be used as well for deciphering the shortest route.