The world as we know it has definitely changed tremendously in the last couple of months due to the global pandemic. Among the numerous changes and adjustments that are being implemented, there are also the changes businesses are making or planning on making in the near future. If you’re a distributor, chances are that your mind has been racing about the upgrades you are hoping to make in various departments, such as your back office, the way your orders process, improvements in your warehouse, upgrades in the customer service department, and so on.
Although there are compromises to be made, businesses should indeed be using this time to think of ways to advance their business in various departments. Here are some ways in which distributors could get competitive in 2020 even amidst a pandemic:
- Automated data collection has been the need of the hour for distributors and warehouses for quite a while now, and if you want your business to move forward, it’s better if you jump on that bandwagon soon too. It helps with saving money, cutting down on expenditure, and also reducing errors. The information related to your inventory becomes more accurate too.
- Do away with barcode scanning by switching to smart scan sheets so that switching to a typing interface will no longer be required, thereby saving a lot more time in the process. Immediate feedback can be achieved regarding incorrect items or units through audible and visual indicators.
- Analyse your inventory so as to make the most of your inventory investment. This way, you can know which items are the most valuable and which are the least valuable, and then take decisions accordingly and decide the amount of time and resources to devote to the items that bring in maximum profits.
- Make use of automated workflows to systemise your business processes and get rid of any of the unnecessary steps that could be replaced with automation. Configuring order status, actions, status changes, notifications, and lots more can be integrated through this.
- Allow yourself to access your business data any time and from any given place, especially in cases of emergencies.
- Connect your purchasing procedure to your ERP system and your processes to your inventory with the help of automation. Not only will this reduce costs, but will also improve your relationship with your vendors.
- Integrate your EDI processing into your ERP system. This shortens the payment cycles and eliminates the need for data entry while processing the EDI orders.
- Make your sourcing diverse based on the geographic location. This will help in avoiding supply chain disruptions both in the current scenario as well as in the future.
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