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Logistics & Warehousing

Logistics covers the flow of products from planning to customers. A balance between supply and demand ensures that raw materials and finished products are always available when and where needed.

Both raw materials and finished products are stored in a warehouse. Along the way, these materials are tracked, sorted, and picked. Goods, either raw materials or finished, products must be transported on time in full (OTIF) to customers. The goal is to combine the greatest control, efficiency, and accuracy with the lowest cost.

As the #1 supply chain and operations firm in North America, we analyze your current logistics and warehousing strategies and their effect on the end-to-end supply chain. We help you deliver value to your customers while meeting your profit goals.

Synchronizing logistics to your supply chain

Any analysis of logistics and warehousing must stress alignment to the supply chain to eliminate waste, reduce working capital requirements, and improve efficiency. Optimizing logistics and warehousing encompasses:

  • Asset optimization, including right-sizing of the fleet
  • Network optimization, including configuration of transportation modes and warehouses
  • Inventory optimization, including fill rates, economic order quantity (EOQ), and SKU rationalization
  • Order-to-cash optimization, including transactional efficiency
  • Value stream and optimized distribution operations, including waste elimination
  • Value optimized transportation procurement and management, including strategic procurement
  • Warehouse optimization, layout review, and productivity flow, including a review of all product movements withing your warehouse, the storage media utilized for optimum storage (honeycombing), production flow, and productivity from order planning until order completion on the dock waiting to ship
  • Transportation review of shipment modes, shipment weights, mode rationalization, carrier performance, accessorial charges, and Freight, Audit & Payment (FA&P)
  • Carrier rationalization and utilization, spot quotes, and contract rates and terms.

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How we add value 

Our expertise and unique approach accelerates logistics and warehouse optimization.


Step #1: Data analytics

  • Analyze transportation management, including spend per mile, freight costs, purchased transportation, and mode spend.
  • Analyze productivity of distribution, including inventory turns, inventory aging, and fill rates.
  • Analyze assets, including utilization, maintenance, availability, and financing costs.
  • Analyze network design, including work streams, carrier routing, bills of material (BOM), demand forecasts.
  • Analyze inventory, including fill rates, carry costs, and SKUs.
  • Develop KPI’s, daily tracking, and business scorecards.

Step #2: Leadership and organizational improvement

  • Build stronger relationships between logistics and planning, procurement, and operations.
  • Establish performance-based criteria and metrics.
  • Upskill workforce and fill labor needs.
  • Manage customer relations.
  • Perform skillset review and cross-training.
  • Create a Leadership and Organizational Improvement training library.
  • Take a tailored change management approach to ensure sustainability.
  • Implement supervisor effectiveness training.

Step #3: Strategic sourcing

  • Source carriers and modes of transportation.
  • Review and amend accessorial to market needs.
  • Establish uniformity of carrier management and controls.
  • Review controls and governance for FA&P.
  • Conduct spend analytics.
  • Manage supplier relationships.

Step #4: Asset utilization

  • Actively manage carrier and 3PL performance, service levels, and partnerships.
  • Incorporate carbon emissions control.
  • Optimize the use of sensors, IoT, AI, and robotics.
  • Optimize route and last mile delivery.
  • Optimize the warehouse footprint and labor staffing.
  • Optimize utilization, maintenance, and repairs of material handling equipment (MHE).

Step #5: Forecasting and planning

  • Initiate dynamic reporting and advanced data analytics to drive decision making, contingency planning, and continuous improvement.
  • Use geographic and capacity optionality to site new warehouses and distribution centers.
  • Conduct distribution planning, including inventory control parameters.

Strategic improvements 

We use optionality, advanced data analytics, strategic management, and collaboration initiatives to enable you to meet your forecasting, planning, asset utilization, strategic sources, and leadership and organizational improvement goals while controlling costs and delivering OTIF.

Optionality  

With clear insight into your choices for locations, footprint design, and suppliers, we help you find the strategies, systems, and processes that make the most sense for your logistics and warehouse operations. Then we create a fit for purpose management operating system (MOS) enabling your own team to build optionality, training material and sustainability into the future.

We focus on
  • Geographic Optionality: siting warehouses and distribution centers
  • Capacity Optionality: optimizing the warehouse footprint and labor staffing
  • Supplier Optionality: finding and negotiating with logistics suppliers
  • Capability Planning: right size, coach, and train; create staffing model to plan daily labor needs.

Advanced Data Analytics

The basis of analytics and all technology solutions is trustworthy data. We eliminate silos, standardize and clean data, and ensure a single source of truth. We also give you a visualization dashboard, self-generated reports, and other tools that enable you to align data with goals and clearly interpret it.

We focus on

  • “What If” Scenarios
  • Predictive & Prescriptive Analytics
  • Automation of Data Reports and Supply Chain Visualizations
  • Spend Analytics

Strategic Management

To increase sustainability, efficiency, and waste management; optimize your assets and fleet; and meet customer demands, you need strategies for managing logistics from the moment products arrive in the warehouse until last mile delivery. 

We focus on

  • Inventory Strategy Optimization
  • Product Lifecycle Management
  • Transportation Management
  • Sustainability Strategies
  • Route & Last Mile Optimization

Collaboration

Clarity of roles, responsibilities, and accountability are essential for lasting operational improvements. Training, mentoring, and clear communications ensure that planning, procurement, operations, and logistics understand and focus on the same goals and KPIs. 

We focus on

  • Owner, Responsible, Consult, Inform (ORCI) Initiatives
  • Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning (SIOP)
  • Data Analytics Feedback Loops

The Impact of Our Approach

 

6% - 15%

Cost reduction, depending on workstream

Optionality benefits
  • More resilient supply chain
  • Improved layout and workflow
  • Improved efficiency and productivity
Advanced data analytics benefits
  • Visibility into the end-to-end supply chain
  • Data-based decision making
  • Risk reduction and mitigation strategies
  • More working capital
Strategic management benefits
  • Higher customer satisfaction
  • Reduced waste & carbon emissions
  • Better product lifecycle management
Collaboration benefits
  • Clear accountability
  • Less finger-pointing and more problem solving
  • Culture of continuous improvement

Logistics & warehousing case studies

Thai Union Small

Lacking visibility, management operating controls, and reliant on a legacy logistics provider, a CEO contacted SGS Maine Pointe for help. At the same time, the company was going through a major SAP integration project.

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SGS Maine Pointe was brought in to focus mainly on SIOP, logistics and warehouse operations. Our goal was to optimize our client’s distribution footprint and reduce the overall cost-to-serve to enable future growth.

Related resources

Supply Chain Trends Report

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Download eBook here >

 

Optionality Mitigates Future Uncertainty
and Supply Chain Risk

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Read article > 

Our Blog: Trends and best practices for the E2E supply chain

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Browse here >

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