The coronavirus pandemic turned the entire ecosystem upside down and changed the way people live. The supply chain industry has not remained unaffected. Logistics companies had to take strict measures to avoid virus transmission through any means.
Since the sector involves the movement of hands, fulfilment centres took every step to ensure the safety and well-being of their partners, employees, and customers. Simple actions and resilient efforts at fulfilment centres kept people away from the deadly virus while they had access to all their necessities from the safety of their homes.
Strategies and implementation
The pandemic induced a sense of helplessness across fulfilment centre businesses. Also, the increased workload during the pandemic made operations slow and made it difficult to maintain seamless delivery of products.
On the contrary, fulfilment centres boost operations mechanisms and make their transportation more robust. Once a truck loads and leaves the facility, it remains functional until all deliveries reach their destinations.
The pandemic created an impact on every business and reduced the workflow, ultimately decreasing the economic value. The companies, especially warehouses and fulfilment centres, had to completely transform their strategies to cope up with the pandemic dynamics. Now, the fulfilment centres analyse data with reports on customer demands.
Such practices help them to maintain an adequate supply. The better they manage, the more supply demands are met.
However, technology plays a major role in helping these businesses attain a minimum physical contact service model. Software-as-a-service keeps the gate-check in, paper signing etc to a minimum making the transportation of the products flawless.
What steps fulfilment centres took
Any fulfilment centre keeps more than 10 employees, even more depending on the size, at any given time to keep the facility functional. In such a scenario, a single loophole in following COVID-19-related protocols can create an unsolicited hassle for the company and its customers. Hence, the fulfilment centres make sure that:
Regular Sanitisation
The centre is sanitised regularly to create a germ-free environment. All contact points are covered and sanitised at a regular interval of time without any mishap.
Onsite doctors
Anyone can get infected by COVID-19 due to its communicable nature. Hence, the fulfilment centres make sure that there are trained and experienced medical professionals on-site who can take necessary and avoid any kind of inconvenience.
Weekly campaigns for awareness
Every day we hear something new about COVID-19 and the tiring job at fulfilment centres demand full dedication of the employees to provide service on time.
As a result, the centres organise campaigns that help educate the employees about any recent developments of the pandemic and how to keep everyone around them safe.
Proper uniforms for employees
With every employee following COVID-19 protocols like wearing masks, gloves, head coverings and safety suits – safety becomes guaranteed.
Social distancing
This is the most important aspect and safety protocol during the pandemic. Since the onset of COVID-19, fulfilment centres are set up in such a way that everyone stays one meter or more apart from each other while at work.
Employee benefits for encouragement
The chain that binds together a flawless fulfilment centre is of its employees. These people go through an exhausting workload, especially in tough times of the pandemic. Moreover, their work at the warehouse and customer satisfaction are interrelated.
So, the centres implemented employee-benefit plans to appreciate the courage and hard work of every employee. Some of these benefits include access to health insurance schemes, wellness programmes to raise awareness, and regular fitness test conduction.
Companies dealing with stocking the product and supplying them in the market have now started maintaining a contingency plan that solves the problem of over/under stocking the products to a great extent.
With the right staff, planning and technology in place, fulfilment centres are serving the customers as well as the marketplace following every safety standard related to COVID-19. The fulfilment centres play a vital role in determining the services offered to the customers. Hence, integrating your business with an ideal fulfilment centre facility is a must.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)
