The days of renting an empty warehouse and doing the storage and distribution of products are likely over for most companies. With Omni-channel distribution, Internet of Things tracking and planning, and automation throughout warehouses for efficiency, you have to be on the cutting edge to keep up with the fast paced demand of today’s consumer. Another must have for manufacturers and a retailer is flexibility. The ability to grow or shrink inventory levels in a warehouse is vital to keeping shelves stocked in stores that have shrunk their “back rooms” and only stocked what they can fit on the shelves.
Project Based Needs
An easy way to handle inventory surges during peak seasons is to use a 3PL for overflow storage and distribution or just for a project basis. As the landscape of business has changed providers have adapted and learned to handle many different types of product as well as multiple styles of distribution. Many 3PLs are open to working with companies on a project basis or as an “overflow” during those peak seasons. I assume that this is not something most companies really know or think about when they are in a time of need. Murphy’s VP of Client Solutions, Greg Parupsky said “I suspect some companies assume that someone like Murphy is only interested in long-term accounts and may not contact us for 30 – 90 day storage or project needs.” This is not the case, however, as we are open to short-term projects from all types of clients in the logistics industry.
Project Based Trucking
Committed Capacity distribution is also a great option for project based and short term needs. We are able to find available carriers to handle every load for our clients distribution needs. Whether you are looking for in town last mile deliveries from our warehouse to a retailer or nationwide shipping options, we have it covered. With recent truck and driver shortages many manufacturers and retailers are searching frantically for carriers to cover loads. Our large carrier base is ready to handle everything from overflow transportation to seasonal surges.
Successful project based storage and distribution
One packaging manufacturer is in the midst of building a much larger manufacturing plant equipped with all of the automation and efficiency protocols possible, but they needed help handling their inventory while they are going through the build. They contacted Murphy and within a couple of days we had trucks carrying multiple line items into our warehouses for overflow storage.
Another large clothing manufacturer was having trouble keeping up with the storage and distribution after they acquired another company. They contacted Murphy, leading us to bring their floor loaded containers off of the rail lines and into our warehouse to sort and palletize the product. We then transported the sorted pallets back to their main warehouse on daily trucking routes for distribution to their customers.
Finally, the new Minnesota Vikings stadium is one of the largest projects to hit the Twin Cities since the Xcel Energy Center was built in St. Paul in 2000. The stadium is an enormous project that will be home to a Super Bowl in 2018 and the Final Four of March Madness in 2019. We are working with multiple vendors on different parts of the stadium for storage and distribution to the job site in Downtown Minneapolis. These jobs can go anywhere from 30 days of storage to a couple of years when they will be putting the final touches on the billion dollar stadium.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to check back every week to learn about the growing logistics industry!