How to Promote Cross-Functional Teamwork
“Teamwork” is a great corporate buzzword, but it’s awfully difficult to put it into practice, and even more so when the team is one that’s cobbled together from many different departments and functional areas. In her newsletter, Management Mentor, motivational speaker Suzanne Zoglio, Ph.D., offers these suggestions for making the process work:...
Online Shoppers Reveal Great Fear of Identity Theft, Privacy Loss
We’re well into the second decade of the Web, and e-commerce is flourishing. Nevertheless, it carries some very real risks, including widespread identity theft and other scams. Consumers are therefore a lot more careful about their online behavior these days, reports a survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International for Consumer Reports WebWatch....
Benchmarking Customers for Better Service
You already benchmark your distribution center for all sorts of things—number of shipments, daily picking output, inventory turns, and so on. But have you considered “benchmarking” your customers so you can serve them more effectively? Logistics expert Debra Ellis suggests the following ways to evaluate your customers and figure out the services most applicable to them:...
Seven Tips to Reduce Holiday (and Year-Round) Stress
The holidays are coming—and is that your blood pressure you see, way up in the stratosphere? Relax, says customer care coach JoAnna Brandi. If you make efforts to reduce stress throughout the year, you’ll not only stay calm at holiday time but contribute to the health of your employees and your business as well. ...
E-Commerce: Harrison Ford or Kevin Costner?
That isn’t a trick question. It’s what Forrester Research Inc. wonders will happen to e-commerce in the next five years—will it age gracefully, like Ford, or will it have its 15 minutes in the sun and slide into B-movie oblivion, a la Costner?...
Holiday Sales Outlook: Modest Growth, Online Downturn in Q1 2006
With gas prices and consumer confidence being what they are, it’s unlikely that merchants are expecting bountiful sales growth this year, and industry experts now confirm that they won’t get it. Here’s a roundup of holiday sales predictions from the major research and consulting firms: ...
Hurricane Katrina Offers Lessons for Distribution Network Planning
Political pundits may differ over the government’s handling of recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina, but there’s no controversy about the lessons that supply chain planners can learn from the disaster. The following are some critical pointers that Forrester Research Inc. has put together:...
Holiday Sales Outlook: The Pundits Say...
With gas prices and consumer confidence being what they are, it's unlikely that merchants are expecting bountiful sales growth this year, and industry experts now confirm that they won't get it. ...
Multimedia Contact Centers Face Major Challenges, Study Finds
We take it for granted that multichannel operations have changed retailing in ways we couldn’t ever have imagined, but we often forget one area where that change is even more far-reaching—the call center. Traditional call centers are now almost entirely a thing of the past. With today’s multimedia “contact” centers being called upon to provide a plethora of services, managers face serious challenges with regard to hiring, training, and evaluating staff....
Warehousing: Should You Choose an ERP or a WMS?
As distribution/fulfillment systems become more powerful and offer more features, it’s harder to distinguish among them—and therefore tougher to figure out just which application is appropriate for managing your operation. Take your enterprise planning (ERP) system, for instance: It comes with a “free” warehouse module. Why, then, should you invest in a separate warehouse management system (WMS)? Unfortunately, the issue isn’t quite that simple, as a new white paper from HighJump Software, a 3M Company, and TKR Associates points out. There are numerous factors to consider, such as each system’s total cost of ownership and competitive advantages, before you can select one that is truly beneficial and cost-effective....
Study Offers Ways to Improve In-Store Pick-up of Online Purchases
More and more customers are buying products over the Web and picking them up at a store, but the process isn’t as seamless as it could be, reports a survey of 15 merchants conducted by the e-tailing group inc. Although in-store operations have improved considerably in the past year, some inconsistencies remain, such as store hours not being indicated on Web sites, order pick-up times not stated, and not enough days allotted to pick up purchases. The e-tailing group offers the following checklist to improve the buy-online/pick-up-in-store process:...
Special Report: Salvaging Your Operations After Hurricane Katrina
Businesses will take months to recover from the enormous damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, but here are some things you can do immediately to stabilize your operations, says logistics expert Debra Ellis of Wilson & Ellis Consulting: 1. Hold shipments to the areas that were hit until you verify that customers can actually receive them. Check with your parcel delivery service to determine which areas are unavailable for delivery. While the carrier will hold the items in transit, this increases the possibility of lost shipments....
The Four Habits of Highly Effective Organizations
Of course you want to turn your operation into a top performer—and like most managers, you’ve probably been exposed to numerous workshops, training sessions, and corporate retreats (not to mention being required to read the Stephen Covey bestseller “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”) for this purpose. We suspect, however, that these exercises have been neither easy nor wildly effective. One strategy that you may want to consider is the DCOM model developed by CLG, a global consulting firm based in Pittsburgh....
How to Manage Handwork Efficiently and Profitably
Facility automation may be all the rage, but there are several fulfillment jobs that require kitting, packing, or assembly by hand. Unfortunately, few DC managers plan adequately for handwork projects. Tom Quinn, director of fulfillment services for the Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association, offers some recommendations for making handwork successful and profitable: Provide enough space. To be completed quickly and efficiently, handwork jobs must be given sufficient room in the facility. Often, these projects are squeezed into a space that does not allow for components to be laid out properly, making for inefficient workflow. If extra space is not available, additional time should be factored in to account for the same piece being handled several times. ...
Click-to-Callback Eases Multichannel Operations
Your Web sales are doing great, but like many retailers, you’re also seeing many of your customers doing their research online, then ordering the product by phone—overloading your call center and pushing up operating costs. A simple technical solution can alleviate this problem, according to a report by Forrester Research Inc. analyst Bob Chatham....
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