Blog Posts Ready to Add Value to Your Supply Chain?
As demand for the optimal customer experience continues to escalate, companies continually must seek out creative ways to satisfy and retain customers. Leveraging value-added services can help them deliver, explains Duane Sizemore, Saddle Creek’s senior vice president of marketing and business development, in a recent article for Supply & Demand Chain Executive.
Following is an excerpt from the article . . .
10 Ways Value-Added Services Can Benefit Your Business
Many companies are finding that value-added logistics services can help to give their supply chain a competitive advantage. Once limited to services such as shrink wrapping, display building and rainbow pallets, value-added capabilities now include everything from inscription and embroidery to configuring kits for ecommerce or inserting coupons or brochures in packages.
Wondering if it’s time to add value to your supply chain? Here are 10 ways in which value-added services can benefit your business:
1. Get products shelf-ready. Value-added services like price marking, tagging and display building services help to streamline the process of getting products on store shelves – and to the cash register.
2. Manage transportation costs. The closer packaging facilities are to manufacturing operations, distribution centers or end destinations, the more cost effectively products can be transported.
3. Control labor costs. With automated solutions and careful review of supply chain processes, value-added services can help to eliminate downtime and reduce the number of touches required in the packaging process – ultimately saving money on labor.
4. Reduce number of suppliers. By asking your existing partners to perform more value-added functions, you can reduce your number of suppliers and streamline your supply chain. Even materials like cardboard for displays can be shipped to a 3PL to be built and sent out with customer orders – eliminating a step in the process.
5. Ensure continuous improvement. Your 3PL can assist with process reengineering, packaging needs assessment, component purchasing, and supplier evaluation to ensure that value-added services are delivering what customers demand.
. . . For five more benefits, read the full article at SDCExec.com.
Incorporating value-added services can be challenging for companies to handle on their own – balancing dramatic peaks and valleys in sales volume, accommodating the need for extensive customization, securing a flexible labor pool, committing the required overhead investment, etc.
In those situations, an experienced third-party partner can be a valuable ally. They offer the flexibility and resources (labor, space, transport, and technology and ) to accommodate unique requirements, seasonal fluctuations, business growth, and more. Today’s 3PLs approach value-added services with a spirit of entrepreneurship and collaboration. They’re open to long-term partnerships and often are willing to make capital investments to support your specific business needs.
Ready to rise above the competition? Contact us about leveraging value-added services today.