Top 5 Tips To Reduce Supply Chain Costs

These top 5 tips of how to manage supply chain costs can work for brands of all sizes.

SPONSOREDUpdated 2:14PM • 02/26/16

Every company—big or small—is constantly looking for ways to cut supply chain costs. While reducing costs doesn’t come easy, efficiency across your supply chain can mitigate expenses.

Donette Beattie, vice president of supply chain at Toppers Pizza*, said that often times companies can prosper from a little bit of common sense. Here are some tips Beattie offered for those looking to reduce supply chain costs.

Compress Costs

Start by looking at every level of your business model and discover easy ways you can compress costs. At Toppers, Beattie is constantly searching for ways to compress, and then compress some more. For example, Toppers works with suppliers close to its headquarters in an effort to reduce delivery costs and fees. The closer the suppliers are, the less time those ingredients spend on a semi-truck, the quicker they’re in a manufacturers’ hands, and the sooner they’re on the shelves and in Toppers' kitchens. If there’s a way to hasten the time from farm to table (or pizza box, in Beattie’s case), she can find it.

Shrink Your Carbon Footprint

Getting greener will slice supply chain costs. Supply chain managers need to know how their source is getting their goods to processors, then to distributors, and finally to their stores. And not just how efficient their delivery trucks are. Understanding how your products are being processed in the plant is vital. That knowledge leads to our third tip.

Avoid Throwing Excess Products Away

Don’t be wasteful. Know what you’re throwing away. At Toppers, Beattie is reviewing opportunities for waste reduction especially with main menu items like cheese, dough and other high-usage toppings. It’s also important to teach store managers to make note of items that move slower. Toppings ordered less frequently should take up less space on shelves and in delivery trucks. And, to maximize waste reduction, the type of packaging used should allow employees to quickly store ingredients in inventory or use in a recipe. Is it possible to buy items in bulk that can be resealed? These are questions those managing supply chains should be asking.

Adhere to Smart Shipping and Packaging Practices

This is where companies can benefit from being well-organized. In essence, how can you fit the most product in a truck, practically, to get from point A to point B. You can reduce supply chain costs here by making it easier to load items on to to trucks, by finding the right-sized boxes and eliminating unnecessary head-space. If your distributor can fit more boxes on to the truck, you’re more efficient.

Manage the Managers

Beattie stressed that keeping store managers informed is one of the most important ways to reduce supply chain costs. Ultimately, those at corporate do not see the products they order and manage, their store managers do. Once that delivery truck arrives at the crack of dawn, it’s up to the managers you hired to check the product in. They need to know what’s been ordered, they need to check for damaged food/goods, and from there, they need to know how to manage the food. For example, managers need to organize their ingredients into a rotation when storing their inventory. Frequently used ingredients need to be the most attainable.

If Toppers managers know how to keep perishable items marked and refuse any damaged items delivered to them within 24 hours, then supply chain costs will be the most efficient. It’s the most important tip Beattie offered.

At the end of the day, Beattie is serving her internal customers, Toppers franchisees. They’re the key to reducing supply chain costs. According to Beattie, there’s a saying at Toppers that applies here: “We’re either baking, making, taking pizzas or we’re serving those that do.”

*This brand is a paid partner of 1851 Franchise. For more information on paid partnerships please click here.

Top 5 Tips To Reduce Supply Chain Costs

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