Optimize material flow and logistics
A major goal of logistics in a company is to determine the material flow and to optimize it through suitable measures. These fundamental considerations should not only be made by automobile manufacturers with thousands of employees, but also by small family businesses.
Optimizing material flow - how does it work?
Many processes in companies are far from being optimal. Often it is not even clear what the optimal state would be. But you know one thing in any case: you would prefer a new process that does the same thing as the old process as soon as it is less costly.
- In logistics, such processes often have to do with the flow of materials. Before you jump straight into optimizing the material flow, first consider what the current material flow looks like.
- Use a flipchart or another graphic in which you can sketch the material flow. Start with the supplier, go through your warehouse to production and finally to shipping.
- Now rethink the entire flow of materials. At what point do you immediately notice any inconsistencies? Make a note of these points at the relevant point on the graphic.
- Now, as a team, think about solving the points that you previously marked on the flipchart. First carry out an open brainstorming session and specify this later by means of measures that are due.
Supply chain management is a more recent term from business administration that ...
Realign logistics
You can see an optimization possibility within logistics in the following examples.
- You have several suppliers who deliver a certain number of parts to you in a certain rhythm. Some suppliers come from the same region, but others do not. Previously, orders were sent individually to the suppliers. As a result, each supplier also delivered independently of the others, which resulted in relatively high transport costs due to the sub-optimal utilization of the loading capacities of the trucks.
- An optimization could include the consolidation of certain orders and routes and thus lead to a reduction in transport costs.
- The delivery itself must also be checked. Do you have all parts transported first to the central warehouse and from there to the production line with forklifts? Why actually? Make direct delivery to the assembly line possible by making the side walls of the production halls open and thereby shortening the material flow.
- Of course, such measures must be coordinated with the respective supplier so that they can also lead to success.
There are countless other examples that could be listed here. Always keep three questions in mind regarding certain processes: What is the process currently looking like? What does an optimized process look like and what would have to be done to design this process?
