Automotive manufacturing is not immune to the challenges facing the rest of the supply chain. Volatility is common in manufacturing and certain variables, such as geopolitical uncertainty, are often out of the circle of control. However, two of the most common struggles which can be affected are labor and the supply chain. If you sample a group of manufacturers, those two topics will come up over and over.

When your orders come in for the next day and you see that it’s your pickiest customer with a bigger request than usual, you need a plan fast. And when your orders slim back down, you don’t want to pay people to stand around waiting for work.

If you’re a food manufacturer, you deal with products that become worthless if they aren’t delivered on time. On top of that, there are angry people at the other end of the supply chain who will face hangry customers if they can’t stock their shelves. Who wants to lose money and get an earful about it?

Every company that sells something online knows the pain of watching returns roll in. It’s just part of the business. But companies that are new to selling online or that have experienced a recent increase in volume from online orders might not have a strong system in place yet for handling all its reverse logistics.

One day you might get a rush order and need to work around the clock until the next morning to fulfill the request. And if the print job is for an event, the customer is not going to be happy about delays, meaning you’ll get an earful about how they don’t need the signs anymore because they can’t go back in time.

You’re no stranger to logistics if you’ve implemented a micro-fulfillment strategy. It’s not easy to pull off ship from store operations and the like. There are often wildly different order volumes from day to day, and as eCommerce grows, things are only going to get more hectic.

You’re likely all too familiar with the annual busy season your operation faces. The long hours. The overtime. The circus of staffing up in preparation for it.

Managing distribution at a beverage company can be a wild ride at times. You have high demand, a fragile product, and quick turnarounds to manage, all while trying to keep employees happy.