6 Critical Elements Of Time In Distribution Management

The business environment is continually changing. It is getting harder for new businesses to enter the market and existing businesses are finding it harder to understand the market behavior amidst ever-shifting dynamics. The two factors that determine the relative success of a business are a) route-to-market and b) time-to-market.

Cutting processes is the only way to manage both route-to-market and time-to-market better. Here are a number of “Times” that should be monitored exclusively to stay cost-competitive and secure an edge.

Sales Order Re-entry Time

In many companies, there is a major disconnect between the sales force and the distribution team. The key is in cutting this time. It sometimes adds time costs by up to 38% which can easily be cut by letting the sales team add sales orders directly from the source. It also allows the dynamic measurement of team KPIs. Explore Nuport’s Mobile Order Management to see how you could cut data re-entry time.

Daily Distribution Planning Time

Managing a separate team to build delivery and distribution plans is not only costly but extremely inefficient. It acts as the bottleneck before the warehouse staff. It is the second last step until the customer gets a hold of their goods. Automating it is the surest way to cut this process. Explore Nuport’s Route Planning and Optimization software to see how you could cut delivery planning time by up to 85%.

Loading Time

It is the time between the statuses “Shipped” and “On The Road”. It increases without a proper set of instructions for the warehouse staff members. A bad inventory management system also contributes to a higher loading time.

Transit Time

It is the average time period between the factory and the client’s unloading point. Automation systems can monitor this in real-time to avoid any lag on the road for quick fixing or redirections.

Sales Reporting Time

For most decision-makers in large companies, it usually takes days to gather reports from their heads of department. Without live monitoring of sales KPIs or regional performance reports, the time-to-market can be excessively off from the target. Companies risk missing the perfect time to launch or time to make a big investment without this data.

Market Reaction Time

Measuring how fast the inventory of the retailer moves is the only way to know how successful your product has been.