It's important to optimize your supply chain logistics to ensure that you're getting your product out efficiently. Unfortunately, a lot of companies make supply chain logistical mistakes that lead to wasted effort and excessive labor and supply costs.

The following are six mistakes to avoid in order to increase the efficiency of your supply chain logistics.

1. You're not putting enough thought into where you're placing your inventory.

You need to place inventory in an area where you can be sure that your carrying costs will be minimized. Try to place inventory so that the processes of handling inbound shipping and working product until it's ready for outbound shipping are as simple and fast as possible.

2. You're having warehouse employees pick into a box that's not the actual shipping box.

At a lot of warehouses, pickers are putting product into a box that's not the actual shipping package. 

For the greatest possible efficiency, pickers should always be placing product in the actual shipping box. This gets rid of an unnecessary additional processing step. 

3. You're not taking advantage of drop-shipping where possible.

Check with your suppliers and see if they do drop-shipping. If you're selling a product to a customer that remains untouched after arriving from your supplier, you may be able to have that product drop-shipped directly to the customer to save on shipping, inventory, and labor costs.

4. You're not locating packing materials close to the product you're shipping out.

You need to keep all your packing materials readily accessible to speed up the shipping process.

In particular, make sure that your fastest selling and moving products are conveniently located to packing materials to prevent bottlenecks and get in-demand product to customers faster. 

5. You don't use mobile printers.

The most efficient way to ship out items from your warehouse is to have employees equipped with a mobile printer so that they can print out a shipping label right after picking a package.

Employees can scan all the items in an order while they're picking to make sure that all the items are in the package. Then, they can print out a label detailing the shipping address and verify that the package contains all the necessary items.

6. You're not bringing together warehouse employees before shifts on a daily basis to discuss daily goals.

Daily communication meetings ensure that employees are made aware of daily goals before every shift.

These daily meetings give employees something to work toward and increase their sense of satisfaction at the end of the day. Communication meetings also generally increase productivity around a company facility. 

For more information, contact a company like Ace World Class Logistics, LLC.