Smart multiple location warehouse networks can have two benefits—lower Cost and better Service. The improved Service comes from being closer to customers—shorter time to market. The lower Cost comes from efficient inbound transportation modes (such as rail and TL) into a warehouse serving a nearby territory so as to save long distance shipping by less efficient modes (such as LTL and Parcel) from farther away.
Chicago Consulting has been designing optimal warehouse and plant networks for 30 years. We have pioneered the use of superior software to specify
- How many warehouse you should have
- Where they should be located
- How big they should be
- What should be stored in them
- Their Mission (Central, Regional, Returns, slow moving and so on)
We have designed our own software. So we don’t have to learn some 3rd party’s software on our clients’ time. We frequently give our software to our clients free of charge so they can replicate these network analyses as their businesses evolve.
For the last 15 years we have specified the Ten Best Warehouse Networks based on updated population statistics. The Ten Best for 2015 are as follows: