Warehouse planning is one of our most important services, and one that has increased in demand in this last critical year for supply chains. In our case, it tested every one of our skills, but we were able to overcome it by always thinking as a team and finding in our talents new disciplines and touchpoints to cope with this change.
2020 brought a lot of problems that manifested themselves as soon as the lockdown started. In the first few months there were critical supply shortages when access to raw materials limited the ability of many companies to produce finished products. Then, the famous “Stay at Home” changed consumers’ behavior forever, and finally, the high demand for products during this past holiday season caused many transportation and delivery services to collapse, generating delays and different types of inconveniences for the end user. Even with all these changes and disruptions, most third-party logistics (3PL) warehouses thrived and took advantage of the opportunities created by the increase.
According to a study conducted by the 3PL Center, it mentions that there are huge opportunities for 3PL growth in 2021, but these can be mitigated by warehouse capacity and availability of warehouse properties.
Warehouse space
The problem is that as demand grows day by day, it becomes much more difficult to find stores that meet the necessary characteristics:
- 77% of the 3PLs are operating with five (5) or less warehouses.
- 62% have less than 250,000 square feet of storage space.
- 27% of the 3PLs say that finding and acquiring warehouse space is one of their main challenges. (2020 3PL Central Benchmark Report)
With storage space constituting the largest expense for most 3PLs, adding space can have a significantly high cost on the bottom line, especially since rents have risen by an average of 2.5% by 2020. (2020 3PL Central Benchmark Report)
Real workers for real solutions
A report on Wonolo’s temporary staff showed a 475% increase in demand for work in warehouse planning and distribution centers for the 2020 peak season. Considering this unprecedented demand, 47% of respondents in the 3PL center study answered that their biggest challenge was to find workers who were perfectly qualified for the tasks they were going to perform. Second, at 18%, is the cost of workers, who increased their wages due to the specificity of their tasks.
At DTS we have an internal culture that makes these last two points not necessarily a problem. First because we build a pool of talent to develop people through different positions and responsibilities that only seek their growth. In addition, we are building a plan to attract new talent to join the workforce. Finally, our internal culture, with very strong and human values that constantly guide the behavior of our team, so that we can always carry out any obstacle that is in their way.
