With the death of the high street has come an explosion in the prevalence of home delivery services in the world of retail. Due to this significant change in consumer habits, most businesses that want to be effective are still having to come to grips with how they organise their logistics process, in a way that is both profitable and efficient.
An important part of this process that deserves your attention is the method that you use to load up your delivery vans. From analysing the efficacy of your existing approach to the importance of providing employee training, here’s how to optimise your van loading process.
Analyse your current system
Before you can start to optimise your loading processes, you need to know what does and doesn’t work with your existing strategy. To analyse your current system, you need to examine each individual part of the process, looking at key metrics such as speed, damage to stock, injuries, and anything else that is relevant and important.
Based on this analysis, you can establish a set of criteria that your new approach should be based on. From there, you can start to look for solutions that tick the right boxes.
Consider an automated solution
In most contexts, the single most effective change that you can make to your van loading process is to adopt an automated loading solution. Providers such as Joloda Hydraroll specialise in creating and installing systems that are specially designed to load vans and lorries, in the safest and most efficient way possible, depending on the cargo itself and the kind of vehicle it’s being loaded into.
While these systems can require a substantial up-front investment, the impact they have on efficiency and safety, combined with the smaller number of employees required to operate them tend to result in a surprisingly fast ROI.
Use optimisation algorithms
While you will likely need to work on optimising the material processes used to load your vans, you’ll need to focus on the tools you use to plan the process as well. There are a number of highly effective algorithmic solutions emerging in the logistics industry, many of which allow you to pack your van in the most efficient manner possible, focusing on important details such as weight distribution.
Train your employees
Lastly, even with all the smartest tech in the world, you still need to have capable employees who know what they’re doing. As you introduce more optimisation-oriented solutions, you’ll need to make sure that you’re training your employees properly to use these tools as effectively as possible. Look into the various courses that are available, and make sure that every single one serves a clear purpose.
The exact solution that you adopt to optimise efficiency will depend on your logistical requirements. By first focusing on what your specific requirements are, you can start to think about solutions that are designed to cater to those goals. As new solutions constantly emerge, it’s worth touching in on these updates every now and then to make sure you’re not missing out on a potential game changer.