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Logistics processes are the most complex function of supply chain operations as they involve multiple moving parts and processes like procurement, warehousing, distribution, fulfillment, shipping, and reverse logistics. So, there is a significant need for logistics planning software that can streamline all these sub-processes effectively.
Every supply chain professional seeks higher customer satisfaction at a lower cost. However, dynamic factors like fuel prices, traffic conditions, SLA requirements, etc., make meeting the goals of supply chain management difficult. Managers fail to manage different components in an integrated manner and struggle with siloed data.
Hence, using advanced solutions like logistics planning software solutions becomes crucial to add much-needed visibility to the system. It makes logistics planning realistic, effectively meeting the goal of higher customer satisfaction.
In this blog, we will discuss how logistics planning software helps businesses, what it involves and what benefits businesses can draw from them.
Logistics planning is a continuous process that coordinates and synchronizes all the logistics functions to ensure a balance between efficiency and delivery readiness. These functions include order management, procurement, warehousing and storage, packaging, fulfillment operations, and reverse logistics. Nevertheless, logistic planning is a realistic way to create value in the supply chain management system by achieving customer expectations through seamless product availability and delivery.
As consumer demands evolve for faster and cheaper deliveries, planning intricacies have increased, and businesses can lose customers with even a single late delivery. It is further aggravated in the absence of smart logistic planning solutions because this increases the possibilities of sudden surprises and shocks.
Logistics planning helps a business to predict challenges and improve daily operations. With logistics planning solutions, enterprises can promptly and profitably achieve business goals. Let us discuss a few factors that make logistics planning so important.
Logistics planning software can help businesses by streamlining operations, reducing costs, and improving customer satisfaction. By optimizing transportation routes, managing inventory levels, and automating order fulfillment processes, the software can help businesses save time and money, while delivering products to customers faster and more efficiently.
The software can also provide valuable data insights, allowing businesses to make informed decisions and improve their overall performance. By using logistics planning software, businesses can gain a competitive edge, improve their bottom line, and ultimately achieve long-term success.
The supply chain deals with several unknown factors, like fuel price fluctuations, raw material availability, and dynamic transportation conditions. These factors can easily derail logistics budgets. Logistic planning highlights the performance gaps that build pressure on cost.
Robust logistic planning evaluates multiple options and chooses the one that fits well in the quality parameters of supply chain operations. For instance, eCommerce businesses can find the right 3PL partner to handle logistical needs and expand their geographical reach. This acts as a means to curb the cost and meet customer expectations.
Logistics planning software can help businesses exceed customer expectations by providing real-time visibility into inventory levels, shipment status, and delivery times. This enables businesses to provide accurate and timely updates to customers, leading to higher satisfaction and trust.
The software can also optimize delivery routes and schedules, reducing the time it takes for products to reach customers. Additionally, the software can enable businesses to offer various delivery options and provide a seamless ordering and fulfillment experience. Thus, businesses can improve their customer service and reputation, leading to increased loyalty and repeat business.
AI-powered software for logistics planning can help businesses increase profitability by optimizing transportation routes, reducing transportation costs, and improving inventory management. The software can identify the most efficient routes for delivery, reducing fuel and labor costs, and enabling businesses to fulfill more orders in less time.
Additionally, the software can help businesses manage inventory levels more effectively, reducing overstocking and stockouts, which can lead to lost sales and increased carrying costs. By improving operational efficiency and reducing costs, businesses can increase their profitability and achieve a higher return on investment.
The software can also provide valuable data insights, allowing businesses to make informed decisions and further improve their bottom line.
Each planning process has certain pain points. These pain points result from complex operational frameworks and business environmental forces. Fuel cost, driver shortage and retention, governmental regulations, and multiple operational silos are some problem areas of logistics. Therefore, while planning logistics operations, logistics managers should anticipate these points in regard to their impact on the objectives of supply chain management.
The next step is to position the internal resources as per the major pain points and find what external resources, such as automation, software, new professionals, partners, and service providers, are required to overcome the challenges.
Post-project planning, businesses need to focus on resource management, like capital requirements, cash flow, storage needs, and supplier identification. Therefore, data regarding warehouse location, storage conditions, fleet capacity, and last-mile delivery operations are analysed qualitatively and quantitatively.
Here, logistics managers must understand the limitations of manual methods. While managing operations on a high level, businesses cannot rely on manual elements for data analysis. Here, automated logistic planning software solutions will play a significant role. That will analyze all data without any manual error and offer in-depth analytics at a simple click via a unified dashboard.
Supply chain managers need to control and manage multiple components of logistics management from source to delivery. This is impossible without aligning the sub-logistical department plans with the core logistic plan. For instance, inventory managers strategize their inventory accounting method depending on the industry they represent to keep the inventory management operations within budget and efficient management of carriers and delivery partners to ensure highly efficient deliveries.
To strengthen the logistics and supply chain, businesses need to ensure the smooth functioning of each operation, be it warehousing, inventory management, or the last mile. This can be made possible with the right logistics planning. Logistics planning software platforms improve logistics processes by mitigating errors, minimizing inconsistencies and streamlining operations.
Here is how it improves key logistics functions.
Logistics management is divided into two categories – physical supply and physical distribution. Procurement and manufacturing fall under physical supply. Procurement deals with sourcing materials for manufacturing.
For procurement, diversifying your supplier base is ideal. Recording of lead time, replenishment time, inventory management, and inventory recording methods – all this data plays a significant role in logistics planning. Such data adds visibility into the manufacturing and inventory department with real monitoring of SKUs.
Intelligent solutions for logistics planning can improve transportation and distribution by providing businesses with real-time visibility and control over their transportation operations. By monitoring transportation routes and vehicle status in real-time, the software can help businesses identify and mitigate potential transportation issues, such as delays or accidents.
Additionally, the software can enable businesses to track and manage their fleets more effectively, reducing idle time and improving the efficiency of transportation operations. By improving transportation efficiency and reducing costs, businesses can deliver products to customers faster and more efficiently, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
The software helps businesses integrate with existing management systems, streamlining operations, improving data accuracy, and enhancing collaboration. By integrating with existing systems, the software can eliminate data silos and provide a centralized platform for managing logistics operations, enabling businesses to make informed decisions based on real-time data.
Such integration also enables seamless data transfer and communication between different departments, leading to improved collaboration and efficiency.
Automated workflows for order fulfillment, reduce errors, save time, and improve customer satisfaction. By automating the order fulfillment process, businesses can eliminate errors due to manual elements, such as order processing, inventory management, and shipment tracking, reducing the risk of errors and improving the accuracy of delivery. Additionally, automation can reduce the time it takes to fulfill orders, enabling businesses to deliver products to customers faster and more efficiently, ultimately leading to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Logistics planning solutions benefit a business by providing efficient shipping management, as it optimizes transportation routes, reduces transit times, and improves shipment tracking. By analyzing various factors, such as traffic, weather, and delivery schedules, the software can identify the most efficient shipping routes, reducing the time and cost it takes to deliver products to customers.
Additionally, the software can provide real-time tracking and monitoring of shipments, enabling businesses to manage shipments more effectively and reduce the risk of delays or errors.
Shipsy is a smart end-to-end logistics and delivery orchestration and management platform that helps businesses plan and manage logistical movements, processes, and operations with precise automation. It offers customizable solutions for diverse industries and helps businesses address the core pain points via data-driven actionable insights.
Shipsy’s smart platform comes with multiple intuitive functionalities delivered via an integrated dashboard that is extremely easy to use and customize. Shipsy offers an integrated business intelligence solution, Shipsy BI as an in-built offering to help businesses make the most of their logistical data and use the same logistics planning and unlock:
For more information or to get started with Shipsy’s smart offerings, please schedule a custom demo today!
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