Why do companies need a logistics audit?- To optimize the logistics costs of industrial companies and reduce the cost of finished products.
- To increase the level of logistics service.
- Develop logistics solutions that provide competitive advantages.
How does audit work?Step 1 - Establishment of a working group of the client's stakeholders, supervised by a senior manager, and issuance of an order for the company to assist in providing all information required by the consultants.
Step 2 - Conduct an introductory presentation to the Client's staff, outlining the audit objectives, functions and methods of achieving them. The presence of one of the Client's top executives is mandatory.
Step 3 - Interviewing the top executives of the client company. It is very important to understand expectations from the project not only from the owner or CEO, but also from his or her first deputies.
Step 4 - Gathering of operational information. Consultants request and obtain necessary information, study existing regulatory and procedural documents, visit logistics infrastructure facilities (raw material and finished product warehouses, garages and other industrial infrastructure facilities), interview operational staff, and in some cases resort to questionnaires and timing of operations.
Step 5 - Build causal relationships between identified constraints and potential for improvement. It is at this stage that the shortest route to improvements is formed, which will have to be taken after the completion of the logistics audit when implementing business solutions.
Step 6 - Formation of the GWM Plan. The GWM Plan is a document containing an aggregate of measures aimed at solution of existing logistics problems and increase of effectiveness of sales, production, movement of goods, etc., their interrelatedness, goals and objectives, implementation sequence, time, required resources, expected results (financial and qualitative).
Step 7 - Final report to the Customer's management. The report package consists of a text report with appendices and a presentation, presenting the key results of the logistics audit.
Who carries out the logistics audit?- A team of 2-3 professionals from GWM.
- Customer's team involved in the audit process.
- The basic principles of GWM in carrying out a logistics audit.
- Improving the efficiency of logistics processes is not only a cost reduction, but also an improvement in logistics service and a tool for increasing company turnover.
- The purpose of logistics audit is not only to determine the existing problems, but also to develop a concept/plan of measures for their solution and a list of so-called "quick wins", which do not require a long time and large investment for implementation.
- GWM consultants are not investigators/prosecutors, they do not have a blame game. We are assistants looking for ways to improve the company's performance, which the client's human resources should be interested in.
- A logistics audit requires considerable time and effort not only from a team of consultants, but also from a project team on the part of the Customer. Only by working together can we get a realistic assessment of the state of affairs in the goods movement system.