Utilising logistics consultants can be a highly effective way of boosting your company's efficiency.

However, if you want them to help you to find and implement a new warehouse management system (WMS), you'll need to work together.

How efficient and adaptive is your logistics strategy? To develop a plan, or assess the efficiency of an existing one, every element of your logistics operation should be assessed and monitored to establish costs. KPIs and identify areas where savings can be made. Whether this is something you are doing for the first time, or as part of an ongoing strategy of improvement, you may find the following eight steps useful – each focusing on a different area of your business.

What does ‘smart’ logistics actually mean? While the actual way a business structures its logistics and supply chain varies from company to company, there are three basic principles that underpin an effective, smart logistics strategy. We will look at each in turn in this article: connectivity, data and efficiency.

An efficient transport, warehousing and distribution network delivers a competitive edge and crucial customer satisfaction. It’s the part of the operation that fulfils the sales contract and the needs of customers. Therefore it must be constantly monitored to keep it lean and streamlined.

Logistics is the biggest influencer on your customer satisfaction ratings. If that seems like a blanket statement, then think of it from your customers’ perspective. Happiness is getting the product they ordered quickly or at least on time. Their opinion of your business is rapidly broadcast across social media and review sites. What they say influences potential customers and therefore the growth of your business. The tricky bit is balancing 5-star fulfilment with tightly controlled costs and efficiencies.

What tactics and processes do logistics consultants utilise to improve the efficiency of a client’s supply chain? And how can recommendations be implemented by a manager? While the end results are improved logistics planning processes, let’s examine how a typical consultant would approach the challenge of correctly identifying areas worthy of attention and improvement.

As experts who have been assisting companies for over 30 years with their Transport Solutions, Warehouse Design & Operations, Supply Chain Strategy and Management and more, we have a good understanding of why clients hire us and the value we add to their operation.

Automating your warehouse can deliver very significant improvements in productivity and efficiency. It is possible to reduce costs while improving safety and improving productivity.

One would think that the more data we have available, the better would be our decision making capability. However, we are at risk of being swamped with data because of the immense capability of disparate devices now capable of being linked through the Internet Of Things (IOT). All manner of security, location, sensor and tracking devices feed a constant stream of real time data to be stored, categorised, assessed and eventually analysed – possibly. Identifying the wheat from the chaff is a vital first step to optimal utilisation of this Big Data.

There are two reasons why you should consider a Logistics Professional. The first is experience, even though your in-house logistics managers may be best of breed and perform to your highest expectations, they can rarely enjoy the breadth of exposure to numerous learning situations from other industries and operations across the globe that a logistics consultant will have.