Every year, Santa Claus faces supply chain challenges delivering millions of packages to good boys and girls across the world.
In 2021, the challenge was even greater, considering constant supply chain disruptions, sleighs stuck in snowy conditions, and a lack of labor. Plus, not to mention billions of boxes to sort through from increased eComm orders this year! (We hope they recycle at the North Pole.)
So, what supply chain issues were Santa and his elves up against to make sure he could deliver all of this year’s gifts on Christmas Eve? The same issues that direct shippers faced in 2021! Let’s examine.
Supply Chain Issues That Had to Be Solved
If 2020 was the year of just trying to make it through shutdowns, lockdowns, and constant pivots, then 2021 was the year of rapid growth with fewer resources. (At some point, Santa may have just asked Alexa or Siri to wrap the presents.)
Just take a look at some of the challenges that certain supply chain companies had to conquer. According to the November 2021 edition of Inbound Logistics:
- Order volume growth increased by 85%.
- About 1 in 4 companies reported that order volumes doubled!
- 48% reported struggles finding qualified workers.
- Labor costs increased significantly for many companies.
- Order fulfillment increased dramatically, with 53% of companies needing to fulfill orders within 90 minutes of receipt!
- The average company now has 3 or more business systems to integrate.
So, let’s look at this holiday recipe: increased order volumes, a lack of qualified talent, more expensive labor, increased demand for order fulfillment, and juggling multiple pieces of operating systems to receive, track, manage, and complete orders. That’s stressful.
No wonder that many companies resorted to manual processes just trying to keep up and survive. But, even Santa knows that it’s best to address supply chain and logistics challenges with the right technological tools. (He advanced from mailing letters to email years ago!) So, how can you use technology to address challenges — both anticipated and unanticipated — in 2022? The answer is here.
CloudLogix: A Christmas Miracle for Direct Shippers
When faced with order volume increases, labor shortages, and the need to increase fulfillment times, our CloudLogix supply chain software platform can help solve your challenges and better prepare your company for what’s ahead in 2022.
Our platform is designed to simplify your supply chain by centralizing supply chain data and communication. When you work with CloudLogix, we’ll help solve these challenges that you likely encountered this year:
- Unable to manage multiple relationships/suppliers
- Cannot efficiently locate or track shipments
- Struggling to produce accurate and complete invoices
- Lack of visibility into costs (and greater risk of hidden costs!)
- Too many emails and spreadsheets to keep track of
We can also help minimize the number of integrations required with your operating system by serving as a hub for your other software platforms to integrate efficiently. (Santa could surely use this integration with his WMS, ERP, CRM, and other business platforms to run an efficient operation!)
Ring in the New Year with CloudLogix!
In 2021, many companies had to abandon formal processes just to meet shipping demand. With access to our tool, you could have managed these turbulent times more effectively while still maintaining clean data and accountability.
We understand that a lot of your activity went back to manual this past year (or perhaps you have yet to change from manual to electronic), and now some metrics cannot be accounted for or easily determined. We can help by evaluating what happened in 2021 and creating a roadmap for success in 2022.
When you’re tired of checking your packing list twice, give us a call. We can help bring efficiency to shipping while helping you apply some of the lessons learned to make things run more smoothly in 2022. We think Santa would approve!
– Get in touch with us today to discuss a supply chain solution that fits your business.
