Curt Barry
Curt Barry is chairman of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a consulting firm specializing in multichannel operations and fulfillment. The firm provides services in system selection and implementation in OMS, WMS, ERP and Inventory systems, 3PL logistics, distribution center design, improvement in facility capacity, workflow and cost reduction and benchmarking. Curt is the author of “Best Practices in Multichannel Operations and Fulfillment.”
As you conduct strategic planning for ecommerce fulfillment operations, what are the strategies you should consider to remain competitive and be efficient this year and in the future? This post looks at seven trends that are shaping operations in multichannel companies, including supply chain and workforce issues.
How much does absenteeism and employee turnover cost your DTC fulfillment operations? How do you stack up? To identify the problems, do you have formalized reporting statistically of employee absenteeism and turnover? As you research your turnover rate, here are some key points to take into consideration.
What are you doing in your warehouse across freight management, incentive pay for employees, creating baselines for KPIs, developing great managers and other critical areas? Here are 10 things to consider as you look for ways to make your operations more efficient and less costly.
It’s one thing to be running behind on programming modifications, testing and implementing your systems project. It’s another to unknowingly commit your company to a system go live without management review, risk assessment and agreement and signoff. These 10 points should be part of your readiness assessment.
Planning and executing the relocation of an ecommerce fulfillment center is a massive undertaking, and the budgeting of costs and ongoing expenses involves a rigorous process. From a merchant case study, learn what steps to take, key items to consider and how to cost out the project.
What are your plans to improve your DTC operations? While you might not be launching rockets like Elon Musk or disrupting markets like Jeff Bezos, you need to think more in terms of innovation. These 6 questions will help you gauge whether you’re innovating fast enough.
Is your retail operations management analysis a business boon or boondoggle? These action steps will help straighten it out and make it work for you.
Given both macro trends in the economy and micro trends in the direct-to-customer industry, there are things you need to be doing and keeping an eye on in terms of warehouse labor. Following these 3 imperatives will help set you up for success in 2018.
In order to get warehouse employees to buy into your mission and business goals, management should create a dialog that recognizes them as stakeholders. Here are six areas to address in “continuing education” sessions that can open their eyes to the challenges you face, driving empowerment and creating incentives.
In most markets, warehouse space is in short supply, especially for facilities that are 100,000 square feet and larger. As you look for facilities to lease or buy, an in-depth due diligence process is crucial to your success as new space is a major investment and a long-term commitment.