Managers face a huge task when it comes to optimizing logistics. Labor shortages, rising costs and region-specific regulations are just three of many challenges that inhibit business’ ability to achieve the efficiency and accuracy needed to maintain their already tight margins and meet increasingly high customer expectations.
But there is something that can help you manage these challenges: logistics automation.
Here’s how automating logistics tasks and building bespoke enterprise applications can drive your business forward, enhance your operations, and reduce your costs.
At all stages of the logistics journey, automation makes a positive impact. From order processing to product shipping, stock movements to storage, and from inventory management to distribution, it’s a cost-effective way to improve efficiency and consistency across your operations.
And, when you use technology to handle tasks, you’ll unlock a host of other benefits: - Lower transportation costs - Remove bottlenecks for fewer delays - Less errors by removing the human factor from smaller tasks - Increase visibility into freight activity, helping you allocate resources - Greater compliance and centralized data to support audits - The ability to free up colleagues to focus on other business growth initiatives
Automation can be done with software or hardware (preferably both). Hardware automation could be using robotic arms, automatic vehicles, or lift modules to improve stock management. Or you could use software to manage transactions, inventory, and customer service. Software automation is carried out using low-code process automation software to transform the end-to-end process, orchestrating people, systems, bots and data.
While automation can be the key to reducing costs and boosting operational efficiency for logistics, you can go even further with enterprise applications. These bespoke apps are purpose-built with your specific business goals and needs in mind, so you can unlock the best possible results.
Creating enterprise applications will help you fill in gaps in logistics that can’t be solved by your legacy systems. You’ll do more than just automate single tasks, you’ll create seamless end-to-end processes while empowering your staff with intuitive modern and mobile interfaces.
Enterprise applications are: - Quick to build, deploy, and update - Highly secure and always available - Cloud-native, mobile, and accessible - Intuitive and personalized
And, by supercharging your enterprise application development, you’ll be able to outpace your competition.
If you’re still unsure of just how valuable automation could be for your logistics processes, take a look at these results.
Unilever automated processes to help them ship products around the world, ensuring all their shipping documentation was present and correct for 1900 shipments in the first 7 months and that ERP systems were updated across all regions.
Cofco International move millions of tonnes of grain globally each year. Their logistics are even more complex as they must remain up to date with changing standards and laws around the world. They decided to automate logistics tasks to give greater visibility of end-to-end processes on a unified platform. This also helps them remain compliant with complete traceability through a centralized source of data.
CBC complete over 200 million transactions every year. By automating their processes globally with bespoke applications, they were able to make pricing approval 12 times faster. They deployed 17 processes in less than three years while still meeting 100% of their delivery SLAs. Impressive.
To remain competitive, you need to streamline your logistics processes wherever possible. Bespoke enterprise applications are the perfect solution to help your business grow while optimizing costs and efficiency.
Our logistics and distribution solutions can help you to ensure your products arrive on time while enhancing product shipping, movements, storage, and distribution processes. You can find out more here.
