How to save money and improve sustainability in your logistics business
Cost reduction is a vital topic in logistics, evident in companies struggling to develop strategies to increase profits. More importantly, sustainability has become a hot topic across different sectors, leading to industries devising ways to comply with environmental standards. This article will go over the key ways a logistics business can improve sustainability and simultaneously save money.
Inventory level management
The first significant step towards reducing costs is maintaining an optimal inventory level. Eliminating excess, obsolete, and slow-moving inventory periodically helps to reduce storage costs. Moreover, ensuring there is sufficient inventory and swift replenishments contributes to reduced operating costs.
Consider implementing an inventory system that tracks stock and sales in real-time, allowing you to automatically re-order stock when necessary.
Inventory automation
Automation is crucial for logistic businesses to reduce costs. Standardizing and automating repetitive, structured tasks optimizes them, allowing for efficient completion of the tasks. Inventory management automation improves accuracy and minimizes human error. By leveraging an automated inventory system, a logistics business can save money and time while increasing accuracy.
Use sustainable materials
The whole idea of sustainability is to create and maintain the conditions under which human beings and nature can co-exist harmoniously to support future generations. Reusable materials help reduce the pressure placed on the environment.
One of the ways to implement reusability is to consider plastic pallets. The conventional wooden pallets are still used as the structural foundation of storage loading and shipping.
Fortunately, due to innovation in sustainability, logistic companies can now use plastic pallets. These pallets allow the same goods to be transported with minimal carbon footprints. Unlike wooden pallets, plastic pallets are more durable for over ten years and cause less splinters when being handled.
Partner with SmartWay
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and several transportation industry sectors voluntarily collaborated to form the SmartWay. SmartWay helps companies and businesses achieve their freight supply chain sustainability goals by freely providing credible data, tools, and standards for gauging, benchmarking, and improving environmental performance.
As a logistics business, being a SmartWay partner grants you a competitive advantage with your shipper clients. It also gives you the resources to assist your carriers in reducing fuel use and increase efficiency.
You have access to sustainability innovations as a member, meaning you have access to industry expertise and best practices via expert webinars, case studies, and meetings.
Get a “green” education
Sustainability is a fairly new concept as a supply chain discipline. However, various resources are available for you to learn the concept. Learning institutions offer sustainability programs while different organizations conduct conferences on the same. Strive to be part of this learning process in a bid to embrace sustainability in your logistics business.
As a general rule, creating awareness is often the first step to implementing a new business concept.
Bottom line
Cost reduction and sustainability are important goals of a business. Managing and automating inventory help in cost reduction and increased efficiency. Moreover, improving sustainability help in reducing operating costs. Instead of wooden pallets, consider plastic pallets, which last more than a decade in operation. Using sustainable, durable, and reusable materials also helps you save money in a business.
