The Summit: Virtual Warehouse Tours

Using virtual warehouse tours to help retail and consumer goods companies improve their supply chains and meet today’s challenges.

As retail and consumer goods companies move away from bricks and mortar and expand their e-commerce offerings, the performance of their supply chain is having a greater impact on their overall profitability.

For middle-market companies that were once reliant on large retail chains to distribute their products, they now face the challenge of competing against the world’s most efficient supply chains, including the likes of Amazon, Walmart and Wayfair.

Today's Challenges & Issues

Companies are facing a range of warehouse challenges, including:

Increased number of daily shipments, including drop shipping and smaller parcels direct to consumers
Increased demand from consumers for same-day shipping
Warehouse layouts optimized for bricks and mortar deliveries
Increased competition for premium warehouse space with the latest technology (e.g. automation)

As we work with companies to meet these challenges, we start by addressing 5 fundamental questions:

How effective is the current operation in serving the bricks & mortar and customer direct channels (space optimization, DIFOT performance, etc.)?
What is the current and projected number of SKUs picked by full case and eaches?
Are current systems adaptable to each picking small orders with zero fault efficiently?
Are the current end-to-end costs for bricks & mortar and customer direct competitive, what is the target operating cost?
Can current facilities be reconfigured to meet future needs at the target operating cost, what investment is needed?

Helping Our Clients

Technology is synonymous with warehouses where robotic picking, smart carts, and vendor IT integration are becoming the standard, not the exception.

Technology is also making analytics and layout optimization quicker and more affordable. Experts, including Ian Levitan from MERU, are now able to conduct facility tours virtually in 2-3 hours, avoiding lengthy travel times and costs and expanding the number of tours they can complete in a day. This enables our clients to find opportunities quickly and start expanding their margins.