Why are Resupply Orders and Summary Reports Vital in Keeping Disposition at Warehouses?
Orders and Location
Not all customer order areas are created equal. Some regions will get more orders than others, and when that happens, a warehouse may not be able to sustain the demand on hand while maintaining inventory. Whether they be by truck (LTL or full) or rail, resupply orders are essential for maintaining a balance in these warehouses to keep up with customer demand and allocate a sufficient safety stock. Overall, the location of product matters.
Reporting Essentials
Through fundamental data analysis, we can look at the efficiencies and inventories of a warehouse. Reporting on the bare insides can lead to an increased forecasting probability showing what is going on for the specific company. An article from Orderhive put it as: “to learn from past actions, improve our efforts and safeguard against problems, is an evolutionary trait that is applied to warehousing too” about generally learning from mistakes. For example, in my current internship with Corbion, an ingredients and biomedical corporation, my goal is to find what products are below 50% shelf life, maximum/minimum inventory yield, how many items and pounds below minimum. I find this through jumping into a master data excel sheet – removing duplicates and deleting irrelevant items – sorting all of my data into a pivot table with specific categories to input which leads to a vertical lookup of the item number within the pivot table, allowing for me to find insights on the data needed above. Summary reports are essential to keep up with every week to ensure enough quality inventory on hand to keep our customers satisfied. Further analysis of the data leads to potential resupply orders to create a particular product.
Reporting on the bare insides can lead to an increased forecasting probability showing what is going on for the specific company.
The Bigger Picture
Resupply orders are, as an article from 6river puts it: “help businesses determine and manage replenishment frequency, establish inventory slotting best practices, track the flow of products, calculate the number of items to order, and determine the optimum level of inventory be maintained in warehouses for maximum supply chain efficiency.” If the maximum is reached at one warehouse, the product can be transferred to a warehouse in the area with less inventory. A corporation can put the resupply orders in place once a warehouse summary report is complete. For Corbion, in North America, we have inventory warehouses in Grandview, Missouri, Dolton, Illinois, Totowa, New Jersey, and Canada. Since Corbion is a periodic inventory replenishment system, we can analyze the inventory and shelf life of our products to see what needs to be moved around between these warehouses. My team at Corbion has shown me that if these reports are not made three weeks in advance, lead times may get too long and create uncertainty if a product can arrive at a customer on time. Lead times are essential to include in calculating the distribution of inventory as weekends and holidays are not included within the lead time, only business days (Monday - Friday). We can then look at filling up trucks to take products; another challenge roots from filling up trucks with the appropriate weight limit for each. The trucks need roughly a minimum of 38,000 lbs. and absolutely no more than 41,500 lbs. or else there is the risk of trucks getting fined/stopped for too much weight. Since all of Corbion’s warehouses are relatively close, we only use truckloads and LTL for transportation in North America, no rail transportation. Trucks allow for the warehouses to maintain inventory levels.
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Keeping quality inventory levels stable roots from warehouse summary reports that stem to resupply orders with plenty of lead time available if done far in advance. This leads to order within the warehouse, which resonates with meeting the goal of keeping customers satisfied with the product and service.