NOT JUST FOR RESIDENTIAL USE: UTILIZING PODS TO ACHIEVE EFFICIENCIES IN BUSINES

The pods that you may have seen sitting in the driveways or front yards of people making moves from one house to a new one are not only used in residential moving.  It turns out that pods are so versatile that they have commercial applications as well.  Savvy businesses that have inventory or merchandise are incorporating them into their business plans.

 

Retailers, for example, are a great example of a kind of business that can find efficiencies through pod usage.  The challenge of managing and accounting for large volumes of merchandise is a constant concern for the typical retail store.  Store managers need to find the best ways to keep items safely stored, as well as ramping up or slowing the supply of stock needed to meet customer demand.

 

Popular retail periods during the year like back-to-school sales and holiday shopping season demand that merchandise stay well-stocked.  Yet there are serious challenges to jamming the store shelves to over capacity with extra items, or cramming them in the back rooms where space may be at a premium.  Delivering a pod to the back lot fully stocked with that extra merchandise could be a reasonable solution; just keep it there, and dip into that stock as it’s needed.

 

The typical retail operation can eliminate multiple time-consuming and potentially costly steps that usually come from the loading and unloading of merchandise from trucks, not to mention the costs of having employees drive the trucks all the way to a store.  Instead of tying up your resources, consider loading a pod and shipping it direct from the distribution center to the back of the store lot.  Make the pod your storage room, and access it only when stock needs to be replenished.

 

You can also intelligently incorporate pods into more efficient planning for new store openings.  Let’s say you’re opening a new location in your chain of fast casual dining restaurants.  Typically there are all kinds of components being shipped from all kinds of locations, and waiting for any one item could delay an opening.  Consider centrally packing and bundling everything needed into one pod, and zipping it to the store site.  One pod could contain cash registers, signage, furniture, décor, miscellaneous supplies and other critical items, and it could get to the site in one step.

 

Pods could greatly simplify inventory management.  Packing and storing a predetermined count of merchandise in a pod can help in cases where there is a large and constant flow of stock in and out of the store.  If a pod holds 500 boxes of sneakers and you have 10 pods stored at a nearby facility, you always know that you have 5000 boxes of sneakers at the ready - and those boxes will stay safely locked up and protected from theft, weather or damage.

 

On occasion retail stores are known to undergo renovations, or the home office dictates that a remodeling is in order.  When this happens there is usually a great deal of activity, including on-site laborers with heavy machinery.  There is typically a lot of movement and commotion, and it kicks up a lot of dust and debris about the store.  You don’t want your merchandise or valuable fixtures getting damaged or stolen.  Make it easier on everyone involved by packing it all up in pods while the renovation is under way.

 

Pods could very well improve the efficiency of any business that moves heavy volumes of materials, stock or supplies in its day-to-day operations.  Looking carefully at how to incorporate them into the operation may bring greater organization and cost savings.

 

For a good informational starting point, I recommend http://www.doortodoor.com.