The (Flex) Factor: Mastering Flexibility To Get Ahead in Logistics With Jeremy Bodenhamer From ShipHawk

Finding, hiring, and training warehouse workers has become more difficult through the years—and it won’t get any easier. At the same time, manual processes aren’t scalable or sustainable. The solution? Invest in technology that helps employees do their jobs more efficiently. Jeremy Bodenhamer, founder and CEO of ShipHawk, explains why this gives businesses an edge.

Why flexibility is essential

Jeremy explains that as ecommerce has gained popularity, some sellers have struggled to keep up with rapidly shifting consumer expectations. But that’s exactly what they need to do to stay afloat. 

“Buyers are expecting smaller brands to be up to speed like they were giant brands. … Merchants have to get their operations to scale on day one, no matter what. There's no learning curve. There's no grace period. I've seen buyers completely abandon brands over slow or error-prone fulfillment or shipping or even communication.”

Solving labor problems with technology

It’s a big issue in the logistics space: labor is scarce, with few people willing to take physically demanding warehouse jobs. According to Jeremy, he hears “from customers every day how hard it is not just to find, but to hire and train workers.”

Technology can help. “These companies need to think about training and more importantly, repurposing the people they have. How do [they] make training easier? How do [they] make sure they can fill roles in multiple areas of the business? … If I'm using dated, very difficult to use, expensive to operate, expensive to train, laborious products, software, hardware … I'm compounding my labor problem.”

Measuring warehouse performance

Lori and Jeremy discuss a few things you should know about your logistics operations: What job needs to be done? Who is doing it? And how are you measuring the results? That final question is especially crucial. For organizations that haven’t been collecting and analyzing fulfillment data, Jeremy suggests starting small. 

“Start with one metric … [and] make sure the new systems that are purchased or implemented can support that one. And if [they] can't, or you're not buying something new, look at what your current systems can support. What's the path of least resistance to start measuring something?”

Links

• Connect with Jeremy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbodenhamer/ 
• Visit ShipHawk’s website: https://shiphawk.com/