A seamless peak season starts with effective planning, holiday inventory surges can place huge stress on your people and processes – so if you’re working on preparing for the season ahead, read on to hear our top tips…
1. Start Planning Early
Starting your planning in July or August ensures ample time to adapt to changes and prepare thoroughly, while this is the ideal time it’s often the holiday season for many staff so if you’ve left your planning until September – don’t worry, we’re here to help! Planning early allows you to address potential challenges and ensure your business is ready for the holiday rush by implementing necessary upgrades, training staff on new systems, and testing processes to avoid last-minute issues.
How we can help you: MiTEQ’s project management and technical expertise can help facilitate your peak planning. Our expert consultants can support you by identifying critical areas that need attention and providing strategies and solutions to support your peak season. Whether it is optimising processes (see how we made ArrowXL 37% faster here!) or providing your businesses with the technology required just for the peak season (Enquire about our rental options), we’ve got you covered!
2. Adopt an Efficiency Mindset
The increase in holiday traffic can stress your existing processes so finding those hidden efficiencies to ensure your business can cope with the added peak stress. This involves activities including optimising workflows, ensuring your technology is up to date and working optimally, reducing waste, and improving processes to maximise productivity. Driving efficiency doesn’t have to mean huge changes either, using workflow optimisation tools we increased productivity by 17% for the UK’s largest 2-person delivery company – if you want to learn how to deliver productivity gains for your business, book a demo today!
How we can help you: MiTEQ’s operational analysis services identify inefficiencies and recommend tailored solutions – our team of experts can conduct multiple time & motion studies to measure the impact of process changes along with designing and implementing the solutions to improve. With MiTEQ’s support, you can implement process improvements, automate repetitive tasks, and enhance overall productivity, ensuring your warehouse runs at peak efficiency.
3. Optimise Order Picking
One of the most stressed areas of the warehouse (people and process!) during peak season is order fulfilment – from locating and picking stock to getting it to a packing area and then packing and shipping the order. Automating as much as possible and delivering workflow optimisations ahead of peak season can significantly reduce errors and increase pick rates. Upscaling staff and technology to support peak season demands can be a costly and often complex activity – MiTEQ can help your business identify the areas of fulfilment where optimisation will have the greatest impact, along with providing a flexible purchase and rental options to scale your technology only when you need it – get in touch with the team today if you’re interested in learning more about how you can scale just for peak.
How we can help you: MiTEQ provides state-of-the-art automation solutions and workflow improvements – for those on a budget, we first look at how we can utilise your existing technology to meet peak season demand. Our technology solutions integrate seamlessly into your business, reducing human error, optimising pick routes and allowing your team to handle more orders per hour, achieving higher efficiency and better performance during peak season. Using our technology rental options you can choose to scale for peak or realise the benefits permanently.
4. Conduct Inventory Analysis
A pre-peak inventory review as well as ongoing, accurate inventory management is crucial to a successful peak. Review your approach to inventory management including current stock, available overflow space, and prior year peak season trends to anticipate demand and avoid stockouts. Understanding which items are likely to sell at higher volumes will also allow you to effectively plan picking routes and processes.
How we can help you: MiTEQ’s inventory management systems offer real-time data analytics, providing accurate insights into your stock levels along with inventory location and RTI tracking. Our tools help you track inventory movements, forecast demand, manage RTIs and identify slow-moving items. Our expert consultants can help you make informed decisions about restocking and optimising your inventory to ensure you are well-prepared for peak season.
5. Analyse Warehouse Layout
Looking at your warehouse layout, pick routes and stock locations is a key aspect to understanding the pressures of peak season. A well-organised layout minimises traffic congestion, reduces backtracking, and enhances overall flow using optimal pick routes and processes. High-demand items should be stored in easily accessible locations to streamline picking processes and improve productivity.
How we can help you: Our experts analyse your current setup and recommend strategic changes to minimise bottlenecks and enhance traffic flow. We don’t just stop at the warehouse layout, we’ll consider the bigger picture, looking at your workflows (where we’ve been known to make them 37% faster!), processes and how technology can help support you (we’ll even buyback your old technology to help you upgrade!)
6. Prepare for Rapid Onboarding
Increasing your workforce by hiring temporary staff over the peak season is common in order to meet the increased demand placed on your business. In addition to upscaling your workforce, you’ll need to consider how your technology supports this increased workforce – or if you have enough technology to support more workers. Onboarding this additional workforce efficiently is also key to nailing the peak season – beyond a streamlined onboarding process, having technology and workflows that are reliable, easy to use and fully optimised will help staff get up to speed.
How we can help you: Our award-winning solutions have helped businesses of all sizes gear up for peak season. We can supply a range of technology from handhelds, batteries, mobile packing stations and more to help you quickly streamline your workflows to deliver immediate efficiencies. Technology and workflow improvement have been proven to reduce training time, enhance worker readiness, and maintain high productivity levels during peak season – read how our recent project with logistics company, ArrowXL, has helped them be ready for peak season.
7. Streamline Inventory Management
Review your inventory management strategy and assess if it supports your peak season demand changes. Whilst implementing new technology can increase its reliability to ensure accurate monitoring and visibility to manage stock levels, there is a significant amount that can be done with existing technology by reviewing your current workflows and operations. A robust inventory management system allows for better decision-making and reduces the risk of stockouts or overstocking.
How we can help you: Our award-winning inventory management solutions enhance accuracy and visibility, providing real-time updates on stock levels. We take your existing processes and highlight opportunities for enhancement including automated reordering and demand forecasting. Learn more about our Inventory Management solutions here.
Achieve Peak Season Success with MiTEQ
Focusing on these core areas alongside support from MiTEQ can help your business thrive this peak season. We can help you optimise your existing processes and technology, advise on how to upgrade and provide you with the technology you require to meet the demands of peak season. With purchase options including rental and buyback, we’ll find the solution that delivers the highest ROI for your business.
Get in touch with the team today for an initial discovery call to understand how we can help you this coming peak season.