DC Velocity - August 2014

inbound

Houston-based Excargo Services, a provider of customized transportation services for time-sen-sitive, high-value loads, says it has 35 years’ experience handling shipments in the Gulf region’s legendary summer heat and humidity. With the dog days full upon us, the company’s transportation experts share some tips for maintaining cargo integrity no matter how hot it gets.

Clear communication and carefully executed transloading processes are vital to maintaining cargo’s integrity in extreme temperatures, they point out. This is especially important when dealing with beverages and food items, plastics, and other freight that has specific temperature requirements. “The conditions require exact coordination of the container and transloading process,” says Excargo Warehouse Manager Albert De La Fuente.

The company offers the following advice for planning shipments during extreme summer conditions: First, make sure your transportation providers will honor appointment times so cargo is not waiting unprotected in the heat. Second, see that cargo is transload-ed quickly and directly into the container or vehicle to maintain the integrity of the product. Finally, work with a transportation provider that not only can manage the transloading process efficiently but also has a strong understanding of your cargo’s quality-control requirements and can therefore make solid decisions during the operation.

When it comes to inventory planning, retailers face special challenges. It’s hard for them to predict what consumers will want to buy and when. In the case of apparel, many retailers make inventory decisions based in part on national averages for apparel sizing. But that approach can lead to significant miscalculations in inventory production and warehouse operational inefficiencies, according to Brandon Levey, CEO of Stitch Labs, a provider of multichannel inventory management software for small and mid-sized businesses.

Apparel sizing can vary significantly
depending on local and regional markets.
To find out just how much variation there
is, Stitch Labs analyzed sales from retailers
across the U.S. Among the findings:
How might such geographic variations
affect DCs? Retailers that rely on national
size averages risk allocating inventory to
facilities in regions where those sizes are
less likely to sell. As a result, Levey said in
an interview, “you anticipated selling, say,
25,000 of an item, but because the size
breakdowns were incorrect, you have 5,000
left on the books at the end of the year. So
now you have inventory you can’t move tak-
ing up space you need for something else.”
Moreover, he said, you’ll have to pay for the
labor to handle those leftover boxes again.

There are other, costly consequences of those miscalculations. Apparel sizing affects case size and weight, so stocking the wrong size mix can lead to inefficient slotting, pal-letizing, and truck loading. Retailers could also end up making more merchandise transfers among regional DCs.

Too few XSs could create
XL headaches
Help your shipments beat the heat

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