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.”
Some things never change. After the holiday season, there is invariably a movement to determine how costs can be reduced for the upcoming year. Every aspect of the operation should and does come under review. But not every area of the business is given equal scrutiny. Management of the inbound freight function, for example, is one of the most overlooked areas for significant cost reduction.
Promises, promises. All businesses make them, but the best actually deliver. Now is the time to conduct a post mortem of how well your multichannel business performed in holiday 2005 and to develop plans for improvement for holiday 2006. While it may seem early to start planning for the coming holiday season, now is the best time because your people will remember vividly the good and bad incidents,
Warehouse managers are always working to improve the efficiency and accuracy of their operations. One important way to meet customer service expectations
Analyze this: In deciding whether to shop direct or retail, 81% of consumers indicate ease of returns as an important factor in their decision, according
Quality Circles, Total Quality Management, Dr. Deming’s 14-Point Theory, and Six Sigma are all various programs aimed at improving quality in an organization.
After two years of sluggish software sales, we are finally starting to see catalog companies investing in new systems. Luckily for them, during the past
The direct-to-customer software marketplace is a mature industry whose current trends will mark its direction for the next few years. Though sales of
Business is no game, and it’s too important an activity to leave the results to chance. An ace in the hole is hardly cheating; instead, it’s a reserve
A multichannel marketer based in Southern California needed help. A thriving company with 30 stores, a catalog, and a Website, it was ready to expand
Just as direct-to-customer software has become a mature product, the recession is causing slower sales, fewer installations, and layoffs and reorganizations