The shipping department is responsible for collecting the products that make up customer orders and planning the deliveries. Within the industry, this department is often neglected, since it demands time and considerable attention from the team.
People commonly think that purchasing, inventory, production, and sales are the most important stages in the supply chain. But in fact, shipping is also considered a crucial department for business success.
After all, when properly organized, it can help optimize time, satisfy customers and partners, and even prevent losses and returns of swapped products. Not only that — it helps the company save money and reduce order costs.
Does your industry organize this department correctly? Do you know whether shipping is performing all its activities error-free and fast enough to generate better results? If the answer is no, get ready! Today's post was written especially for you!
Shipping: why is it important to keep the department organized?
After manufacturing the products, the industry sends the items to the warehouse where customer orders are picked. Once picking is complete, the shipping department is responsible for defining the best packaging to protect the product, selecting the best transport option, and identifying the most effective delivery route.
The main goal of the shipping department is to ensure the customer receives all products as quickly as possible and in perfect condition for use. That is why shipping requires the attention of everyone involved, since it has a direct influence on buyer satisfaction.
If a failure or error occurs in the shipping department — such as sending the wrong products, for example — as soon as customers receive their goods they will be dissatisfied and will immediately request an exchange or a refund.
When the error is an isolated event, the company may not face major losses. The problem is that, without organization, episodes like this tend to happen more often and, consequently, affect the brand's reputation and competitiveness.
Have you thought about the losses your company could face if it frequently sends incomplete orders or the wrong items to customers? Besides losing money, it can drive away important partners and customers, or even miss new business opportunities.
We know you do not want to run risks like that, so in the next section we present some practical tips that can help you keep your company's shipping department organized. Check them out...
4 tips to keep the shipping department organized
Keeping the shipping department organized is not necessarily difficult. It will require attention and commitment from the entire team, plus the adoption of 4 easily implemented practices. Here they are:
Tip 1: Create shipping picking lists
A picking list, also known as a pick list, is nothing more than a list that will help your industry organize product collection.
These shipping lists contain the exact quantities and types of products that need to be dispatched. Since the information on the pick list is objective, your company can prevent errors and mix-ups from happening while orders are being picked.
Many industries use Excel spreadsheets to create shipping lists, but there are already more modern tools, such as management software, that simplify this process.
Tip 2: Pay attention to packaging
The main goal of the shipping department is to ensure fast and safe product delivery. Therefore, packaging goods correctly — so they do not suffer any kind of damage — is one of the most important tips for reducing order costs and ensuring buyer satisfaction.
Every product has specific characteristics, right? Some are more fragile in nature, while others have a stronger build. To avoid problems with returns, always check the characteristics of the items to be dispatched and, based on that, define the appropriate packaging to protect the goods.
Tip 3: Assess the condition of the fleet
If, in addition to manufacturing products, your industry is also responsible for making deliveries, check that all the vehicles in your fleet are in perfect condition to perform the services.
Vehicles that do not receive maintenance or that are too old can cause headaches and pose a risk to the driver, the products, and other drivers. You do not want problems with inspection agencies, nor to risk an accident, do you? So always assess the fleet's condition before sending out any order.
If your industry outsources transportation services, the same care applies. Be sure to evaluate the carrier's reputation, review the track record of the driver who will make the delivery, and check the condition of the vehicle.
Tip 4: Invest in technology for time optimization and management
Our last tip could be none other than investing in technology. Using outdated tools — ones that do not keep up with the market's evolution — can end up slowing your performance and hurting your industry's results.
In the shipping department, you can never be too careful. But that does not mean you need to stay tied to old management methods just because you are wary of investing in new technologies.
Today there are tools accessible to any budget that help optimize time and simplify the department's activities. Solutions like the M2 System, which has a shipping feature that issues an alert indicating which part does not belong to the order.
It also lists all the incomplete items in the customer's order and optimizes product collection time through barcode scanners and shipping order management.
Amazing, right? Keeping your industry's shipping department organized, flowing with optimized time and error-free, is simpler than you think.
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Originally published in Portuguese at useall.com.br.