Solutions to supply chain’s pain points
Attendees were able to experience Körber’s portfolio of solutions with live demos on the stand and many took the opportunity to discuss their pain points and challenges with the Körber team.
One of the main concerns that arose from the discussions with partners, colleagues and customers was the current labour crisis. Attendees were united in their struggles to find, train and retain pickers in their operations.
This is an area of particular concern in Australia, where the Reserve Bank (RBA) revealed that the unemployment rate fell to a 48-year low of 3.4% in July. Furthermore, for the first time in Australia’s history there are more job openings than unemployed people to fill vacant positions.
This challenge is also echoed globally in Körber’s Supply Chain Benchmarking 2022 report which was released earlier this year. To produce the report, Körber commissioned international strategy consultancy Roland Berger to survey supply chain professionals across North America and Europe. The goal was to benchmark the progress that companies are making against the six complexity factors: labour; optimisation; agility and resilience; customer experience; digitisation and process automation; and sustainability.
When it comes to labour engagement, safety and efficiency – the report revealed that supply chain professionals worldwide share Australia’s challenges around labour. Hiring and retention are key issues in warehouse operations, and at the moment it’s a job seeker’s market.
With the current tight labour market, employee engagement came out as key to attracting and retaining employees in the report. However, more than 1 in 3 supply chain professionals surveyed stated they churn at least 50% of their warehouse staff each year.
One area where some companies are having success is with the introduction of gamification. A fairly recent, but highly promising solution to increase motivation, gamification offers incremental goal setting, virtual incentives, ongoing feedback and tips throughout the day.
Almost three-quarters of leaders surveyed recognise this and have already deployed gamification, compared to fewer than a third of advanced organisations. The report also found that employee health and comfort is critical to reducing churn when it comes to holding onto employees.