Consumer goods suppliers can save millions of dollars by evaluating and improving Direct Store Delivery (DSD) operations — the way that products are ordered, sold, delivered and merchandised — according to a report from Honeywell.
The report, which contains feedback from 350 C-level consumer goods executives and directors from across the globe, finds that 49 percent of organizations feel increased transportation costs have severely impacted profit margins in the past 12 months. But those organizations that have carried out process evaluations (known as process re-engineering) in the past year to improve their DSD processes have cut, or expect to cut, costs on average by $734,000 annually.
Additionally, approximately 20 percent of all respondents have experienced, or expect to experience, at least $1 million a year in tangible cost-savings through DSD process re-engineering, and about 20 percent of companies with 3,000 or more employees anticipate saving at least $3 million.
According to the report, the top five areas identified by survey respondents for cost improvement are:
Respondents also said time, as well as money, could be saved across key workflow areas. Through making improvements to delivery, truck loading, delivery receiving/check-in, merchandising and order processes, respondents indicate that approximately 30 minutes could be saved in each of those five areas per route, per day, equating to more than 2.5 hours per day for each DSD route.
