Steps to Assess the State of Logistics

3PL Assessment

Determine a set of KPIs and confirm their competitiveness and consistency.

If you don’t already have them in place, establish relevant key performance indicators for important areas of your supply chain. Then compare them with standard market rates to check whether your results are competitive for the industry. Regularly assess the consistency of your KPIs and if you detect obvious changes from month-to-month, investigate determining factors like the average length of hauls and the average weight of shipments to measure by how much they’ve changed. 

Investigate company processes and possible areas for automation.

Increase the efficiencies of basic internal processes such as customer service interaction and carrier communication by evaluating the way each process operates on a daily basis. Find out how automated logistics practices are by asking questions like:

• When a customer calls your service team for the status of a shipment, how many people are involved in obtaining tracking information and what reference numbers does the customer need to provide?
• When invoices from your carriers arrive, are bills fully audited line by line using a rating engine, or are they simply spot-checked?
• Who resolves incorrect invoices, how much time and resources are spent on their resolutions and how much does your company receive in the end?
• When managers and CFOs request transportation spend forecasts, what process does the shipping team follow in order to report exact percentages and dollar amounts?

Obtain additional opinions from individuals at all levels in the supply chain.

Survey individuals from each department involved in your logistics management to get their honest opinions on the state of your supply chain. What do they struggle to accomplish and how do they foresee fixes being put in place? Supplement an internal survey with market research on what others are doing to automate processes and provide transparency to their logistics. Consider the benefits of a specialized logistics partner that can step in and help increase efficiencies company-wide.

Do you need help in completing these three steps? If you’d like an expert’s opinion, schedule a free 30-minute consultation to get feedback on the current state of your logistics and recommendations on how to move forward. Your business is not complete without a well-functioning supply chain and a supportive logistics team behind key processes, so take time to learn about the benefits of a 3PL partnership and a modern TMS solution.