Welcome to the 15 January issue, and a Happy New Year to all our readers, especially if you’ve been hard at work keeping the UK’s supply chains full and moving over the Christmas/New Year break. January takes its name from Janus, the Roman god of doors. At the same time, this is on average the coldest month of the year in the Northern hemisphere, when everyone is very much aware of the need to make sure warehouse doors, curtains and roller shutters up to scratch. Two good reasons why, in our first issue of the year, we’ve got our Doors & Curtains feature to bring you up to date on this vital aspect of the warehouse.
[button color=”red” link=”” target=””]*** READ THE JANUARY 15th ISSUE ***[/button]
Now we’re into January the prevailing challenge for warehouse and logistics professionals is no longer keeping the supply chains topped up, as it was last month – instead it’s tackling the surging tide of returns, in the shape of unwanted and faulty presents and sale purchases.
It’s not just a British problem, either. A new survey by Intermec, of 250 warehouse managers in the UK, France, Germany and North America reveals that they were “unanimous” in calling the post-Christmas period the most challenging time of year. Over two-thirds felt this way due to the high numbers of returns, worsened by a worrying lack of appropriate tools and solutions.
Just how bad is the problem? To quote the research again, 44 percent admitted that managing returns was at pain point within their business. According to Intermec’s poll, nearly 60 percent of distribution managers experienced challenges managing returned goods last time round. And despite this, over half admitted they didn’t have the right processes and tools in place to determine whether returned goods should be discarded, returned to the vendor or moved back into inventory.
It’s a bit late for New Year resolutions, but if you want ‘many happy returns’ in 2013 as opposed to problems, maybe it’s time to make your resolution to invest in improving your returns process.
And finally, if you need cheering up, the most depressing day of the year – on no scientific basis whatsoever, unlike Intermec’s poll – is supposedly the Monday of the last full week of January, which this year falls on Monday 21st. Still, it’s Burn’s Night a few days later on Friday 25th, so take our tip: brace yourself for the cost of some decent single malt, get your friends round and be Scottish for the night. Cheers!
Warehouse & Logistics News
Comments are closed.