How to increase flexibility in logistics even further

Imagine the following scenario: It's Saturday noon and you get a spontaneous invitation to a birthday party that very same evening. So now you need to get a present. Quickly drive into town on Saturday and fight your way through the crowded streets and shops? In such a scenario, there’s usually no time and often no real gusto on top. The practical solution? An online retailer offering same day delivery. This increasingly popular option is a key customer demand criterion and is likely to determine the purchase decision in the end.

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Same day delivery increasingly popular

The Future of Fulfillment Vision Study conducted by Zebra Technologies confirms this trend. Accordingly, 2,700 responsible persons from transport and logistics were interviewed. A total of 78 percent of the respondents plan to introduce same-day delivery by 2023, and what is more, by 2028 a good 40 percent also expect to deliver within two hours of receiving an order.

Workforce management must become more and more precise

Such commitments, however, also need a solid basis. And this foundation lies in fluid, very agile personnel processes, aligned with order volumes – to pinpoint precision. The smaller the gap between order receipt and delivery, the more precisely workforce management will have to be. Digital workforce management creates the vital preconditions here.

Smart planning at the push of a button

Based on key performance indicators and trend forecasts, the appropriate deployment of staff is precisely determined for each work area. In this way, exactly the right number of employees are available for a given period of time, from goods receipt, storage, labelling and picking to returns and issuing goods. What is more, based on a demand-optimized and rule-based plan proposal, the duty schedule can be created at a single push of a button. Laws, tariffs, balances, availability, qualifications and employee requests are automatically factored in.

Cross-qualifications boost flexibility

Thanks to efficient workforce cross-qualification, logistics providers can also build up a pool of floaters, thereby creating short-term flexibility. As a result, same-day shipments are also possible even in the event of short-term demand changes. Holistic planning elevates forecast accuracy, reduces overtime and idle time, and ensures greater profitability.

Customers are happy, because they are ultimately free to order spontaneously, without having to fear that the package will fail to arrive within the promised delivery time.

Have you already ordered today?