September 26, 2017

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!