Success Through Incremental Change

Transformational change doesn’t always have to be monumental — it can be incremental. In fact, it should be incremental. Rather than try to improve your business all at once, you can make small changes that will lead to bigger success down the road.

Here are three simple ways we streamlined our supply chain with an incremental approach that improved our business — and protected our bottom line.

Managing Inventory

During the coronavirus pandemic, consumer demand has gone up, raw materials costs have increased, and freight rates for overseas items have risen exponentially, with a shortage of truck drivers exacerbating these supply chain issues.

At Freeman, we analyzed our supply chain and the global supply chain to see if there were any changes we could make to guide our events company through these difficult times. Rather than make one large, potentially rash decision, we made several effective, smaller changes.

The first step we took was to manage our inventory. What would we need to have now, and what should we buy for the future? We transitioned to a national model with eight regional fulfillment centers, and we evolved from a local market model to a regionalized footprint to get equipment effectively and efficiently to where it needed to be.

Buying Inventory

Once we had managed our inventory, we were able to better predict what we would need in the present and future. We took an immediate approach to stocking inventory in our regionalized warehouses: rather than buy some of everything and pay more when supplies ran out, we bought exactly what we needed.

Have you noticed how Amazon has created regional fulfillment centers? By dividing its inventory into regional warehouses, the company can fill orders more quickly, save shipping costs, and manage inventory on a smaller scale. What’s more difficult — stocking enough phone chargers in a single warehouse that’s close to some cities and across the country for others to meet the demand of an entire country, or creating regional centers to meet localized demand?

Buying specific inventory for separate warehouses was another incremental change. Because we had categorized and separated what we’d later sell or rent to our customers after demand planning, we were able to buy exactly what we needed to fulfill their needs.

Managing Costs

Because we had managed our inventory and purchased accordingly, we knew we would mitigate increased shipping costs as global supply chain costs continued to rise. Yet, even at this stage, we continued with an incremental mindset. Now that we knew what we needed in our regionalized warehouses, how could we ensure we’d continue to manage costs? We carefully tracked our supply/demand, and kept an eye on the bottom line as we continued to stock our warehouses. What could we buy now that would help us save money later?

It was all a process of incremental change. We spent more initially to take these steps, but by clarifying our inventory needs and figuring out more precisely what we needed in the present and future, we were able to save money in the long run. And Freeman customers continue to benefit as a result.

What incremental change can you make today that will help your company in the future?