Cross-docking is the best business hack you’ve never heard of. Any company making shipments across the globe will do just about anything legal to save time or money on the shipping process.
How many companies have heard of cross-docking services? They’re logistics’ best-kept secret. Discover this secret by reading on.
Useful Cross-Docking Services
Cross-docking is a logistical method that removes the storage link from the supply chain. In cross-docking, suppliers’ and manufacturers’ incoming goods are sorted, processed, and screened at receiving docks.
Then, outbound transportation speedily moves them to consumers or retailers.
In greater detail, cross-docking’s first step is the inbound products arriving in a distribution docking terminal. At that point, they’re taken to a cross-dock terminal. On one side of the terminal, the products are unloaded, sorted, and screened to determine their final destinations.
Such determinations take three steps. First, they take planning.
Containers are identified and put into groups. Pallets are exchanged. Within those groups, clusters are created to mark related containers.
The second step is scheduling. It allows you to adapt to changes or deal with delays.
The scheduling module uses clusters, groups, and other planning outputs as inputs. The re-scheduling module is triggered whenever inputs change.
The third step is coordination platform design. It has three primary modules: the foundation module, business application module, and the Graphic User Interface (GUI) module.
Cross-Docking’s Advantages
Cross-docking has numerous advantages. It saves storage space. Thus, it saves money while reducing your company’s carbon footprint.
Cross-docking also lowers labor costs. It decreases the number of people needed for inventory management. You can then use those savings to invest more in process improvements or your customers.
The benefits don’t stop there. Cross-docking limits damage from material handling. Far from all product damage comes from bumpy transportation.
When goods move less, there’s a lower likelihood that they get damaged.
Generally speaking, a lower cost to customers, reduced product damage, and faster delivery times raise the level of service provided to customers. Service is important in a B2B environment flooded with service agreements.
Cross-docking works well for pretty much any kind of business. Car manufacturers need punctual deliveries. They’ve leveraged cross-docking for decades.
Companies selling chemical products deal with delicate inventory that must be taken good care of. Such inventory is subject to stringent storage requirements that make them possibly dangerous and costly. Cross-docking saves the day by reducing inventory handling to ship it to the final customer as soon as possible.
Dock Here
While cross-docking services may seem untested and unheard of, they are reliable practices that have always been ahead of the time. You don’t always have to look forward to find the most innovative practices for your business. Sometimes the most forward-looking innovations have been around for years.
One such innovation is cross-docking. Discover other groundbreaking practices for your business by contacting Global Trans Auto today.