"Barcode data collection could be one of the most powerful tools in your T&L future-proofing arsenal."
Transportation and logistics (T&L) companies are fundamental to our modern, mobile society—moving people, transporting goods to market, and delivering products right to consumers’ doorsteps. And like other modern industries we can’t live without, T&L is a fiercely competitive industry in which customer churn is a growing concern, even while demand is on the rise.
In addition to delivering their core service of moving goods quickly and efficiently from point to point amid unpredictable conditions, T&L companies often struggle with multiple interconnected business challenges like these:
But with the right data collection and management technologies, T&Ls can put their own data to work solving these challenges. In fact, sector leaders are already transforming their businesses with barcode data capture insights and RAIN RFID-powered automation—and as they blaze a trail toward their data-driven future, the rest of the industry could soon find itself in the past.
If you’re a T&L provider, you don’t need to be told about the challenges you face. On one hand is customer churn; on the other, employee turnover. It doesn’t take long to see how clearly they’re connected, either—by the “inevitable” outcomes when a workforce is strained to its limits: errors, late shipments, inaccurate inventory, and inefficient use of resources. It can be easy to get caught in a downward spiral of losing good employees—and key customers.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact:
When employees have access to the right mobile data capture technologies and you connect that data with a warehouse management system, you can chart your own course toward comprehensive operational visibility and meaningful, actionable insights. And that’s the way to the data-driven future.
Organizations that use barcode data capture track more than inventory. They create their own single source of truth for the most important KPIs:
That translates to comprehensive, real-time visibility and faster, more complete awareness about ways to improve efficiency, control costs, and better meet customer expectations.
Mobile and automated data collection solutions make it easier for workers to be efficient and productive on the job, while capturing the data you need to make better business decisions.
The right data capture solutions can make a tremendous difference to workers, but what makes one solution more “right” than another? Rugged mobile devices, hands-free wearables, vehicle-mounted and long-range scanning capabilities, and even voice-enabled solutions can all have their place within T&L operations.
Mobile data capture solutions can improve ergonomics and shave seconds off picking times without sacrificing accuracy, especially for complex and mixed-pallet picks. And a WMS with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface can help reduce job stress while helping employees become more efficient and productive. Together, these tools can streamline employee onboarding and even improve team engagement by gamifying productivity goals.
That’s all pretty amazing, but the impact of automated data capture and inventory management can extend well beyond the warehouse. A connected solution can power real-time visibility for those operational and administrative employees whose decisions around procurement, purchasing, staffing, scheduling, projections, and other areas can be make-or-break for the organization.
A WMS can be configured to automate data reporting so those big-impact decisions can be made faster and with greater certainty—based not on guesswork or some nebulous industry trend, but on your own enterprise data. That empowers your employees to make the choices that build a better T&L business for customers and workers alike.
Speaking of workers, back in warehouse operations, automated data capture technologies like RAIN RFID can also facilitate industrial automation to streamline many of the most repetitive, tedious tasks and processes (i.e., the ones that most people don’t prefer to do), to make the warehouse a safer, more productive, and more enjoyable place for everyone who works there.
Your first step toward future-proofing your T&L business is to assess your operations for the areas and processes where data capture and management can have the greatest and most immediate impact, like inventory management, shipments, and delivery tracking. The process can quickly be complicated as you begin evaluating technologies and thinking about how they integrate with your processes and people.
That’s why it’s so important to partner with an expert from the start. Informed decisions in the early stages can help you choose solutions that deliver results fast—and that promise the longevity you need to support your operations and integrate with automation and other technologies, like RAIN RFID.
In fact, if you’re a supplier to a retailer that’s mandating RFID, you’ll certainly want to explore the numerous ways to maximize the impact of your RAIN RFID investment. Click here or below to download the free guide and don’t miss the section on warehousing, distribution, and logistics.
