Business survival has become quite a different animal over these past few years as we’ve faced never before seen challenges in the form of regulations, closures, and shortages both of supplies and labor. Unless you are Amazon or another Silicon Valley tech giant, you were lucky to survive and even luckier if you turned a profit. Adapting to stay above water requires creativity and perseverance – it was not a good time to be a new business or one having trouble keeping its lights on. But those that survived and thrived had something in common; they tried things they hadn’t tried before and came up with innovations that will outlast the pandemic.
If your production comes to a standstill because your business is ill-prepared or cannot find a way to adapt, there are professionals who can evaluate your business and help you strategize new avenues to market, identify supply chain opportunities and help eliminate inefficiencies. Working with a logistics consulting company can save you money in the long run because they are skilled in identifying what works best for many different types of industries.
What can they evaluate?
- It takes time to review, converse and negotiate with a supplier. Low cost is not enough to judge a supplier. If you don’t have good communication, you may not be aware when machines break down or some other disruptions slows production, adding to lead time. If you don’t know, you can’t prepare and when you don’t have product, you can’t produce. If after evaluating product performance, a consultant determines an alternative supplier would be beneficial, they can help to evaluate and work out the details to make this happen.
- Should you consider manufacturing another product but don’t have the resources? Having a third party manufacture it for you initially may be the way to go especially if you don’t have the equipment on hand. One way to find out without investing capital for more equipment and meeting government regulations is working with a manufacturer who specializes in the type of production you need.
- Can you be more profitable by working with a drop shipper? A consultant will help you determine whether you can save more money on shipping by negotiating with the main carriers or if working with a drop shipper who already has access to better shipping rates is the better option.
- Are you losing money due to waste, employee theft, bottlenecks or a combination of all three? Your consultant will evaluate performance at every stage of production to determine where you can implement lean manufacturing techniques or implement security protocols to improve performance and reduce waste wherever possible.
You don’t know what you don’t know, and a professional can help you see areas for improvement you may just have become blind to. When everything goes awry, having protocols to streamline processes to save on labor and speed up production while maintaining quality are the key to staying ahead during challenging times like these.
