Eight Steps to Beat Peak Fatigue

The importance of the post-peak review

However, the post-peak period is just as critical as the lead-up to it. It’s a time for reflection, optimisation, and planning for the next cycle.

Retailers still need to be prepared to adapt rapidly and thrive, which means learning from peak periods – in post-peak reviews (PPR) and using them to prepare for the next rush. Finding better ways of working and optimising supply chain efficiencies has never been more critical to success.

Careful planning throughout the cycle

To ensure your business is thriving and not just surviving, you must manage peaks and troughs at every stage of the supply chain.

More so now than ever before. It’s easy to focus all energies on peak periods. But the difference between success and failure (or disaster!) can be how well you manage your exit from these periods.

Thriving in today’s dynamic and unpredictable market requires careful planning at every stage of the cycle, including the peaks and troughs of a seasonal business. Carrying forward learnings into future trading periods is a fundamental part of this.

Eight steps to beat peak fatigue

Here are eight top steps I recommend to beat peak fatigue:

1. Start with a list – during busy peak periods, firefighting is inevitable. Now’s the time to list everything that has been pushed down the priority list.
2. Conduct a Post-Peak Review (PPR) – this helps you get to the root cause of the problems, not just the symptoms and identify the underlying issues – ensuring glitches don’t re-occur. Include all areas of the business to get a well-rounded, comprehensive view of all the successes and challenges.
3. Improve processes and training – An influx of temporary staff can lead to poor performance. An impartial review captures frontline feedback, drives best practices, and improves training materials.
4. Driving robust, valuable data – It’s important to seek expert guidance and objectively review how information is captured, processed and shared. It’s the only way to improve culture, gain useful and relevant insight, and facilitate transformation.
5. Assess your capacity – Post–peak is the best time to assess your warehouse capacity. The breaking point could be closer than you think. Ensure it aligns with your sales strategy and forecasts.
6. Check stock integrity – when your workforce can be as much as 50% temporary staff, it’s almost certain that problems will occur with the inventory.
7. Measure forecast accuracy — Forecasting is a critical measure for the supply chain. Conduct an independent review to assess any disparity without bias and improve accuracy across sales, procurement, logistics, and other stages of the supply chain.
8. Optimise space – during peak trade, warehouses grow organically and can become inefficient. It’s important to look at your layout strategy carefully ensuring a structured growth plan.

Planning a meticulous recovery from peak

When we talk about recovery, it’s easy to think about salvaging the efficiencies that may have been lost during a hectic season.

But a comprehensive PPR is about much more than just recuperation. The main aims are to optimise and improve, not just for today but also for the future. By using the post-peak time to plan and prepare, you can ensure that your warehouse space and layout, your internal processes, your machinery and technology, and your people are fully equipped for next year. Click here to find out more about warehouse layout and design.

By acting promptly and taking advantage of the seasonal cycle, you can bolster operations for the following seasons and not be caught out by increasing volumes in the warehouse.