Премиrivate секторы набирают ободранность в улучшении точности заказов для сезона пика 2023 года:
Facing a Shift in Priorities: Boosting Order Accuracy in Supply Chains
After years of grappling with supply chain disruptions and delivery delays, the focus of logistics leaders is changing. Instead of worrying about these issues, they're now preoccupied with escalating order accuracy, pricing, and labor matters like shortages, turnover, and retention.
These new concerns aren't entirely unexpected given the soaring labor, material, and service costs, as well as lingering inflation. However, the heightened emphasis on order accuracy might seem puzzling at first glance.
According to a recent survey conducted by Deposco and Supply Chain Dive’s studioID, 40% of supply chain executives now rate order accuracy as their top concern—a significant increase from the 16% reported last year. The survey polled more than 150 retail and supply chain executives regarding their preparations and predictions for the upcoming peak season.
What's fueling the surge in concern about order accuracy in 2023?
On the surface, the costs of getting orders wrong have never been higher as inflation drives up the expense of corrections. To attain order accuracy, it's essential to address these five concerns:
1. Skyrocketing customer expectations
Modern consumers demand more transparency into the delivery process. They want to dictate delivery speed, track shipments in real-time, and even be informed about various stages of delivery—from scanning at a regional distribution center to leaving the distribution center, and eventually when it's out for delivery.
Michael Johnson, vice president of business consulting at Deposco, explains, "For example, our customers want not only to know when their order has shipped but also to see that it has been scanned at the regional distribution center, when it has left the distribution center, and when it's out for delivery. This requires a new level of real-time, enterprise-wide visibility through technology, no matter who's doing the fulfillment—you or a 3PL."
2. Errors due to staff limitations
With labor shortages, turnover, and retention being concerns for 38% of supply chain executives during peak season 2023, managing constant cycles of training and onboarding increases the chance of poor productivity, unfamiliarities, and mistakes.
Bringing new full-time, seasonal, and temporary workers into a busy distribution or fulfillment center environment during peak season can be time-consuming and stressful for everyone involved. To minimize mistakes, it's crucial to ensure your tools, technology, and software platforms are intuitive and easy to learn and use. You don't have time to waste on training, onboarding, and custom IT work.
3. Mounting supply chain complexity
Each peak season process is complex in its own right, but evolving peak patterns make them even more perplexing. The survey findings show that peak season is becoming less predictable over time. Compared to pre-pandemic levels, 40% of respondents believe peak season operations are now longer, while another 18% say peak season has turned continuous.
For instance, Prime Day brings a new "peak" to retail, which adds to the complexity as 75% of supply chain executives now consider this sitewide sale a peak event. Retail leaders anticipate that manufactured peak sales events like Prime Day will test their supply chains outside of the traditional holiday season.
4. The rise of outsourcing
Concern about order accuracy could stem from the new fulfillment approaches that retailers, wholesalers, and 3PLs/4PLs are adopting. With an increasing number of businesses partnering with third parties for inventory management and fulfillment, there's a risk of miscommunication and a need for a solid platform to collaborate on inventory and orders effectively.
5. The proliferation of automation
Fear about order accuracy might also stem from the surge in system consolidation and automation deployment this year. Introducing new processes, technology, and workflows can be unnerving, and rollout hiccups can contribute to inaccuracies.
In 2023, supply chain executives plan to use automation as their top strategy to combat labor issues, with 55% identifying it as their preferred approach (compared to only 11% in 2022). To address labor shortages in transportation and logistics, more than four out of ten respondents (43%) plan to accelerate technology investments (as opposed to only 11% last year). These investments connect multiple supply chain systems in real-time, integrated into other critical solutions like automation, wearables, AI, and augmented and virtual reality, to reduce mistakes.
Achieving order accuracy through technology
Warehouse management and order management systems focus on scalable, resilient solutions that offer year-round value. They enhance data visibility and views of performance, improving decision-making, order accuracy, inventory management, and fulfillment speed. Furthermore, they facilitate continuous improvement without requiring significant time, effort, or decision-making from your team.
What are your plans for the upcoming peak season compared to those of other retail leaders? Where are you on your WMS/OMS journey? Download the full research report to learn more about peak season priorities, concerns, challenges, and technologies in 2023.
Insights:
- Technological advancements are crucial for improving order accuracy in supply chains by providing real-time data and minimizing human errors. However, integrating these technologies with legacy systems remains a challenge.
- Data accuracy gaps undermine supply chain visibility, leading to operational inefficiencies like misloads and delivery inaccuracies. To address this issue, accurate, real-time data is needed to enhance operational efficiency.
- Supply chain disruptions pose significant challenges, necessitating efforts to improve order accuracy and mitigate risks and costs associated with returns and customer dissatisfaction.
- Impressing customers with punctual, accurate deliveries increases their trust and satisfaction, reducing returns and enhancing the overall customer experience.
- Automating inventory management using AI can help reduce inventory levels and costs while boosting operational efficiency, making order accuracy more critical than ever for cost reduction and waste minimization.
- Escalating inflation has made the costs of correcting order errors more substantial, intensifying the concern regarding order accuracy in 2023.
- Modern consumers require real-time, enterprise-wide visibility into the delivery process, increasing the demand for advanced technology in order fulfillment.
- Labor shortages, turnover, and retention are concerns for 38% of supply chain executives during the peak season 2023, leading to increased chances of errors due to staff limitations.
- The unpredictability of peak season operations and the emergence of peak events like Prime Day make the supply chain landscape more complex for retail leaders.
- The growing trend of outsourcing inventory management and fulfillment necessitates a solid platform for effective collaboration among retailers, wholesalers, and third-party logistics providers.
- System consolidation and automation deployment in 2023 contribute to anxiety about order accuracy, with new processes and workflows exposing possible opportunities for human error.
- To overcome labor shortages, over four out of ten supply chain executives plan to accelerate technology investments in real-time systems integration, including automation, AI, wearables, and augmented and virtual reality.
- Warehouse management and order management systems aid in order accuracy improvement by offering scalable, resilient solutions that improve data visibility, facilitate continuous improvement, and boost operational efficiency.
- Automating inventory management using AI helps reduce inventory levels, costs, and wastes, making order accuracy more vital for retail leaders looking to minimize expenses.
