Six Strategies for Shipping Success
1. Always plan ahead.
Always plan that your plan is not going to go according to plan 100%. Just be prepared for changes daily, hourly. The further out we plan ahead, the better rates I can get for carriers. And planning allows my team and the production team time to finish what they’re supposed to do, whether it’s on the floor to finish product and or to stage pack and get that truck loaded.
2. Communicate dates consistently with team.
We’re also working with project management to manage their dates and their client expectations, so everyone is working with one another. We start from our deliver by day and work backwards based on that, because if we don’t have our items delivered to a sub, it could affect an entire store opening.
3. Utilize Hejunka board to organize daily activities.
Based on our delivery location and what type of equipment we need we’re filling our Hejunka board of, if I have to deliver in California by the 31st, I’m counting back two weeks. So I need to be shipping on this date to make our deliver by.
4. Ship multiple sites together to save.
Number one is always getting the product to our sub or our client when they need it. But when I can, I like to put as many orders on a truck as I can. Multiple sites together means saving money on a on a truck. There’s less trucks on the road if we’re able to do multi-shipments and if we’re also able to bump stuff up on the production schedule to include them in that truck, it’s a benefit for our customer as well.
5. Ensure quality by staging product.
Our shipping department is the last quality check for product that goes out. It’s our responsibility to review our pick lists and the drawings compared to what we’re sending out. We take photographs of everything as we’re packing, and once it’s packed. Everything’s labeled on, however it’s being packed. Ideal receiver is going to be opening what we’ve shipped to them, taking photographs, inspecting everything and making sure what we’ve sent to them arrived in good condition.
6. Require P.O.D. from all shipment receivers.
P.O.D. is a proof of delivery. That’s essentially the bill of lading that the driver signs when they pick up from us. And that’s what the receiver signed, saying that they received our product in good condition. Without a P.O.D. if there was an issue with a shipment, there’s no proof to show that it did or did not receive itself in good condition.