Author: frs_admin

The hurricane season of 2017 has already taken a toll on lives, property and our economy. The unforeseen implications will not be fully realized for years to come. Many companies have realized just how inadequate their supply chains and redundancy plans really are. Many others are just now realizing that they do not want to be in that position should another natural disaster occur. Unfortunately, Hurricanes are not the only natural disaster that can paralyze your business and cause irreparable damage for decades to come. Look at the raging wild fires that continue to plague the west coast and look to Mexico for one of the strongest earthquakes seen in years.

The western hemisphere is not alone in life threatening weather conditions that affect our businesses. Heavy monsoons in India, Typhoons in Hong Kong and many more issues have affected our supply chain.

Look at Newell Brands who announced that Hurricane Harvey disrupted its manufacturing supply chain in Louisiana and Texas where it shut down two resin facilities driving up costs, tanking shares of stock and leading to thousands of people filing for unemployment benefits.

With disasters like these striking the US and our International Partners how do Global companies and supply chains plan for these inevitable disruptions and how can they mitigate the damage.

Catastrophic weather events, while not preventable they can be mitigated to lower the impact of such damage. Risk management is incredibly important and working with outsourcing supply chain companies is one such way to help mitigate your risk.

Case in point: Floor-Ready Services, which is an outsourcing partner, works with companies to develop a strategy to prevent cataclysmic supply chain disruptions. One such partner manufactures parts for appliances in China and prior to becoming a partner with Floor-Ready used to have to manage the supply to retailers at the factory. This burden made the company produce the products, package the products and ship the products in their final form to distribution centers in the US before going to Distribution Centers for Retailers and then on to the final destination, which is the individual Retail locations. This method is problematic if: Weather changes production, shipping affected by weather, retailer changes packaging, amount needed, etc. Floor-Ready mitigated their risks by: Partner shipped bulk products in containers direct to Floor-Ready. This allows them to buy larger quantities at lower cost. Floor-Ready received goods and fulfilled orders according to needs managing inventory levels based on min and max. Floor-Ready packages and kits items according to retailer and packaging needed. This allows partner to utilize same items for multiple vendors by changing packaging and kitting methods. Should retailer desire to change packaging, it can be accommodated more readily unlike if all products are in their packaging and on the water coming from China.

By becoming part of the global supply chain for our partners, Floor-Ready allows them to position themselves to be more resilient and target areas that mitigate risk and bolster profits.

Floor-Ready has allowed our partners to realize up to 50% savings in processing costs alone. Imagine having a partner that becomes your extension of your business allowing you to overcome supply chain hiccups and even disaster to your supply network.

Floor-Ready Services has been providing outsourcing labor services and key business elements to companies for over 20 years. We have been providing services to some of the top retailers and manufactures of the world and have been mitigating supply chain issues to our partners throughout that time.

Floor-Ready Services receives, picks, packs and ships millions of items annually from all over the globe. We process Apparel, Accessories, Hardgoods, Manage Returns, Provide Quality Grading of Goods, Assembly, Dis-Assembly, Kitting, Display Build Outs, Labeling, Tagging, Re-Ticketing, Hanging, Folding, Sewing, Pricing, Packaging and any other services our partners need to succeed getting their products to the market place on time, every time.

Check out Floor-Ready Services at: www.floorready.com or contact: Todd Sides

Email: tsides@floorready.com

Office: 828-651-8504

Mobile: 828-708-8102

Our thoughts and prayers go out to those suffering after Hurricanes and other natural disasters!

According to Michael Zimmerman with Smart CEO, “Sooner or later, every business owner must ask the question: “Do I really want to outsource this process, or can I find a way to keep costs in house?” To some, it’s a matter of job preservation. To others, strictly profit. But whatever the litmus, the decision will have serious consequences- for owners, for employees, and for customers.” But, “outsourcing” doesn’t always mean “off-shoring” and “on-shore” doesn’t always mean “U.S.”

Outsourcing includes all the functions an organization could have chosen to scale up to do internally, but chose to buy from other providers instead. Many marketing services, for example, are routinely purchased from freelance writers and designers, advertising agencies, BPO providers, and strategic consultants. These services are outsourced for many reasons, including insufficient volume of steady work to keep full-time staff productive year-round, inability to attract the highest caliber of employees to job functions that may be peripheral to the organization’s core discipline, and a desire to avoid distraction from the core competencies that define an organization’s competitive distinction.

And the U.S. is not the only country outsourcing — in fact, we’re not even the biggest player. Globally, the outsourcing market amounted to $104.6 billion in 2014, with Europe, the Middle East and Africa leading the charge, followed by the Americas and Asia.3 To help put that number in perspective, $104 billion would be enough to build New York’s One World Trade Center, twenty-seven times. Some estimates, including one by market information provider IBISWorld, put the global number even higher, at $136 billion, funding over 900,000 jobs at 162,000 businesses. It is projected that outsourcing will be well over $200 billion by 2022 just for the US and over a $ Trillion dollars globally.

On the positive side of the equation, outsourced suppliers are often more flexible with their availability, offering services around the clock and even on weekends and holidays, often at “normal” price levels. The level of available talent increases, too, as geography expands, simply because the pool from which talent can be sourced expands from “commutable” to global. And because many outsourced services can be virtualized, they may be accessible from any internet-connected device, even while mobile.

Cost containment is a major driver in most outsourcing decisions, but many other benefits exist as well, including improved efficiencies, greater sense of business continuity, mitigating risk by leveraging specialists, and freeing staff to focus on core services and strategy.

Floor-Ready Services is your trusted Outsourcing Partner. Floor-Ready Services has been supplying outsource services for over 20 years. As an Outsourcing Partner, Floor-Ready Services improves our partner’s profits and quality the marketplace. We allow you to focus on your Core Competency, which is selling more products, while we focus on ours, which is getting your products to market quicker and more economically.
Floor-Ready Services receives, processes, picks, packs and ships millions of items annually for some of the top manufacturers, retailers and organizations in the world. Floor-Ready processes: Apparel, Accessories, Hardgoods, Manages Returns for clients, Provides Quality Grading, Assembly of Goods, Dis-Assembly of Goods, Kitting, Display Build-Outs, Labeling, Re-Ticketing, Hanging, Folding, Pricing, Packaging and any other services to give our partners speed to market, flexibility and cost reduction. In many cases our services can cut your processing costs by up to 50%. We specialize in these processes and only use experienced, well trained full time labor allowing us to eliminate valuable time to get your products to market.

www.floorready.com

Todd Sides-VP Sales & Marketing
tsides@floorready.com Mobile Number: 828-708-8102

I was in a meeting with a large worldwide manufacturer and uncovered that they budget $4 million a year for “charge backs”.  I was floored. That’s a great deal of revenue gone for knowing they were not going to meet their customers’ “Vendor Compliance Guideline/Routing Guides”.   They are a large company so I guess they think they can afford the errors.  I asked a few more questions to see, if they knew they had a $4 million dollar problem,  why not let Floor-Ready fix the vendor compliance problems?  We’ve learned with experience that some retail chains thrive on making their vendors pay for non-compliance.  This means the retail chain is getting the product basically for free due to the cost of each charge back or even worse, making money off their vendors’ errors.   They send their buyers to school to learn how to make their suppliers jump through hoops,  hoping they make a mistake to their benefit.

Vendor Compliance Guidelines/Routing Guides have various requirements for receiving their product shipments from suppliers such as:

The size of the box required to be used

How the boxed is taped – some require specific types of tape

How many boxes on a pallet, including how the boxes are actually arranged on the pallet

Specific case pack assortments based on individual store level needs (A,B,C,D store assortments)

Specific labeling requirements by individual item

Specific labeling requirements by case pack, by store, by pallet (where it needs to be placed exactly on the box and what specific information is required per box

And now a lot of retailers are requesting “green” packaging, meaning using recycled boxes, using less fillers

Those are just the tip of the iceberg of vendor compliance, and each retail chain has different and specific requirements based on their individual store needs.   What would it do for your bottom line if you were paying $15 per box-label you got wrong?  What would it mean if you actually lost the opportunity to do business with that chain because you just can’t get it right?

You won’t have to worry about these issues by utilizing Floor-Ready Services, Asheville NC.  We have 13 years of experience in providing our clients exactly what their Vendor Compliance Guidelines/Routing Guides state, what they want, how they want it, and when it needs to be there.   We currently ship to over 70 major nationwide retail chains. Give Floor-Ready Services, Asheville a call 828-651-8504. We will get your product in stores right the first time, giving you PEACE OF MIND.

www.floorready.com

Linsey M. Beuchot

VP – Customer Service

Floor-Ready Services, Inc.