Tools and Analytics to Heighten Productivity III

a growing number of tools, solutions, and applications are available to assist distributors 

Across the spectrum of functions and processes, a growing number of tools, solutions, and applications are available to assist distributors in monitoring, managing, and enabling worker performance and productivity.  

For distributors, these technologies will become an essential component of their business success.  Some examples in specific functional areas include:

The warehouse

• Guiding workers to the most efficient route to product locations for order-picking.
• Estimate the time require to pick each order.
• Monitoring worker productivity (number of orders, items, time to pick, errors)
• Calculating the required workforce based on workload

Customer service, inside sales

• Monitoring worker productivity (number of calls, time per call)
• Measuring conversion rates
• Assessing customer satisfaction and problem resolution effectiveness

The sales force

• Confirming the number of sales calls
• Understanding the volume of incremental sales
• Managing accounts
• Managing territories (scheduler to plan territories for recurring calls to help ensure coverage, for example)
• Automating the collection and communication of customer data and orders
• Work flow scheduling with other departments

Drivers

• Calculating the most efficient route
• Ensuring safe practices

ACTION POINT:  As distributors look to ensure a return on their human capital investments, continued assessment of worker productivity and effectiveness will become mainstream.