3 Communication Tips to Improve Your Supply Chain Efficiency

An efficient supply chain will help your business save money, time, and resources.

But did you know there are three key things you might be doing in your business that are damaging how smoothly your supply chain operates? And they all have to do with communication.

Communication is at the heart of every successful business.

And that’s also true when it comes to how you manage your freight.

Here we share three communication tips that will take your supply chain management from good to great.

#1 Staff Induction & Up-to-Date Training

At Freight People, we pride ourselves on the training we do with the businesses we support.

In freight and warehousing, staff are always changing. So it’s critical to make sure that training on your warehouse and supply chain processes is repeated regularly, and made part of the induction process.

Part of great communication in any organisation is making sure that processes are clearly documented and new team members know how they work.

Throwing people in the deep end and hoping they’ll work it out is the fast track to inefficient and costly freight.

Make sure that staff handovers are managed in a streamlined way. Failing to communicate around processes can create a lot of double-handling and mistakes.

But when you’ve got easy-to-follow, documented processes, and staff who are inducted and trained properly in how your warehouse and supply chain runs, you’ll improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and see an overall improvement in the efficiency of your logistics.

#2 Understand What Your Freight Management Software Can Do

One of our clients asked us to train a new staff member recently.

During the training, we were asked a question about why an issue in the system had to be corrected by entering the same data into more than one place, because “this is what the guys before me told me to do to fix it.”

It turned out that the freight management software had a misconfiguration that nobody had mentioned – they’d just come up with a workaround for it.

But your freight software should be making things easier – not harder. Understanding its capabilities and asking lots of questions are key elements of making sure it creates an efficient freight solution for your business.

Great freight management software should deliver high-end reporting to drive business decisions, but also be easy enough that your warehouse team can quickly learn how to use it.

Work with your freight management software provider to fully understand the system and make sure your team has had the right training. And as your business grows, and you experience new challenges, talk to your freight software provider about how your system can grow with you.

Using your Freight Management Software to its full potential will deliver real savings on your freight costs, as well as soft-cost savings by removing double handling and automating important processes in your supply chain.

#3 Build a Great Relationship with Your Freight Partner

The right freight partner will work with you to make sure your staff and software are supported to deliver the best possible freight solution for your business.

They should be specialists in the freight management software you use to support your business, so they can suggest features and software configuration that will optimise your supply chain.

And they should be dedicated to building a partnership with you – where questions are welcome, and any opportunity to improve your experience is implemented.

Building a strong relationship with them, one where they truly understand your business, will ensure that you’re getting the best possible freight solution.

Communication is a Key Element of Supply Chain Efficiency

Making sure that training with your freight management provider is part of your standard operating and induction procedures for your team, taking the time to understand and ask questions about your freight management software and building a strong relationship with your freight partner will all help improve your supply chain efficiency.

If you want to reduce wasted time, wasted resources and wasted dollars in your supply chain, then good communication across each of these areas is key.

And if it’s been a while since you’ve had your freight partner do training in your warehouse, then get in touch with them today.

How Freight People Are Your Partner in Freight

At Freight People, we’re specialists in Australian freight, with more than 30 years of experience.

Our team is committed to helping businesses like yours to optimise their supply chain, with the right freight knowledge, the best freight technology, and the best customer service in the industry.

Talk to us today to find out how we can help you improve the efficiency of your supply chain and make freight a competitive advantage for your business.