The combination of Covid-19 and Brexit has created the perfect storm for labour shortages across all industries in the UK, especially supply chains. According to The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in the UK, more than 80% of organisations are experiencing staff shortages in the warehouse.
This should not be considered a short-term problem. With free movement of labour into the country off the table for the foreseeable political future, the UK is also facing a falling birth rate. Researchers, such as the Social Market Foundation, believe the UK may have a smaller labour pool over the coming decades.
As organisations continue to face labour shortages, it becomes vital that current and future employees are given the right tools to work as efficiently as possible. Adopting devices that use iOS, Android or Windows operating systems can help to accelerate task-screen navigation and ensure better accuracy when inputting data. With these systems already being familiar to employees outside of work, training time is significantly reduced, and new staff can start working as soon as possible.
Keeping up with customer demand and overcoming supply chain disruptions
This efficiency boost is required too. Not only has online shopping changed the retail landscape by allowing customers to order products to their front door, but customers also expect these items to arrive quickly. In fact, 63% of online shoppers expect a three-day delivery as standard, while 40% say that taking more than two days for delivery would prevent them from making a purchase.
Customer loyalty is no longer a given either. McKinsey found that during the pandemic, for example, 77% of US consumers changed stores, brands, or the way they shop. Maintaining customer satisfaction is critical to customer retention and increasingly relies on companies being agile and responsive to fulfilling customer orders.
A positive customer experience now relies heavily on the accuracy and speed of picking and packing. Even in the face of labour shortages, fast order completion can be maintained through the correct technological solutions. Hands-free, voice enabled technology is becoming increasingly crucial, allowing workers to check they’re gathering the right items without stopping to check paper documents and enabling them to pick items at a faster pace.
Supply chain disruption has become an uncomfortable fact of business over the past couple of years, with no realistic end to the problem in sight. Whilst the issues at hand cannot be solved directly, technologies can be implemented to ensure supply chains can still run effectively despite unexpected challenges.
By incorporating technology further into warehouse operations, both management and floor staff can complete tasks smoothly, easily and quickly. These are micro solutions to macro problems, but each of the marginal gains enabled act together to help bring about genuinely consequential change – maintaining customer satisfaction and ensuring business profitability in the long term.
Marcus Jefferey is UK & Ireland Territory Manager at supply chain software solutions company Ivanti Wavelink.
