Empty containers either waiting to get filled up or those recently emptied take up precious space, which isn’t very funny when you’re trying to manage your facility.
At the same time, you need to keep containers on hand to fill up on demand or you want to keep used containers to clean up, recondition and reuse. So, how do you balance your need to maximize space and keep containers on hand? You use our inventory management services.
The Balancing Act
Manufacturers and retailers constantly work on the logistics equation of maintaining a lean supply chain. On one hand, you want to keep enough stock on hand to meet your needs and minimize shipping and wait times. On the other hand, you want to minimize ordering, warehousing, shipping costs and overall handling of the supply.
This equation becomes more difficult to balance if your supply chain includes large and bulky containers. They take up a lot of space, requiring sizable storage facilities. They weigh a lot, making shipping more expensive. And, they often require specialized handling, which means having the right personnel on staff.
The third-party inventory management that Great Western Containers provides addresses these three challenges while helping you balance your lean supply chain equation.
Saving Space
We have space. As a container company, it’s a little bit of a “must” since our capacity to meet your needs requires us to have what you need and that takes space.
We have regional warehouses throughout Canada:
- Vancouver
- Calgary
- Edmonton
- Regina
- Winnipeg
- Toronto
- Montreal; and
- Moncton
With these warehouses and spaces, we can offer two important warehouse services: third-party warehousing and fulfillment warehousing. With either — or both — services, you get the products you need where you need them to be without having to dedicate space you could utilize better for other operations.
Saving Costs
Full containers weigh a lot so they cost more to ship out to the places you need them to go. Our inventory management services, which include fulfillment warehousing, can take place in any one of our regional centres that best suits your needs. You can store the items you need in the region you need them to be, which reduces how much you have to spend on shipping in the long run.
Saving Containers
Another great advantage to Great Western Containers inventory management is our ability to quickly and seamlessly recondition used containers and put them right back to use for you. This has several benefits.
First, you do your part to lessen your footprint on the environment. Reusing containers means a container does not enter the landfill or waste stream. We take the used containers and maintain stock sheets on your behalf. When you need a container, you place the order and we schedule the cleaning, reconditioning and delivery of your containers to your location.
Shipping dirty containers back to us to warehouse also saves on space. Rather than take up space with empty, dirty containers, you can take up our space with empty, dirty containers and use your space for more productive purposes.
Reconditioning containers takes special machinery and the personnel to make sure the reconditioned drums meets certain standards. We have this machinery and these specialists so you don’t have to invest.
Don’t let empty containers take up your valuable space. Maintain a lean supply chain and save space with our inventory management services.