The need for safe, compliant, retail operations at the wholesale level is taking on a new dimension. Not only is the link between manufacturers and businesses or bulk buyers key to driving legitimate and efficient retail in a world of fakes and slow delivery. But the performance of wholesalers is now measured in similar ways to retail’s approach to profit, risk management and safety.
This means the use of warehouse management software and systems that deliver live overviews of stock movement, worker performance and provide insights into bottlenecks and delays. For workers, it means careful monitoring of stressful roles, safe heavy lifting and interacting with machinery to reduce downtime. For managers, live dashboards replace slower reports, and safety becomes more visible.
Leaders can ensure compliance, health and safety and security are managed via dashboards and live updates on incidents that can damage a business’s reputation. From nests of security cameras and internet of things (IoT) tracking devices to the latest AI software, digital wholesaling makes for a flexible response to changing market conditions.
Tracking and Protecting Workers and Stock
The mix of digital and physical technologies can deliver security and safety improvements across the wholesale premises and beyond into the supply chain. Boosted by the use of smart cameras that monitor loading and unloading, stock activities, tracking robots and human workers, deeper visibility into every aspect of operations makes processes safer and easier to improve if an issue comes to light.
And at the sharp end, the use of retail body cameras provides a close-up look at customer interactions, driving a better customer experience and connection. They can be used to report on security issues and unsafe behaviour, helping train workers in the best practices for safe operations.
The business move toward outcome-based operations in competitive markets can be driven by keeping a watchful eye on workers’ regular, repetitive and out-of-normal activity across the wholesale operation. Protecting stock from abuse, theft (from internal and external sources) and accidental damage can help reduce losses, help improve staff operations and awareness, and improve success across audits and compliance checks.
For frontline staff, technology helps protect them and creates a workplace that will improve loyalty and retention, reduce hiring costs and the need for training, and improve operational knowledge across the workforce. Staff also feel safer with body cameras as the threat of crime moves to the more lucrative wholesale market where thieves expect less security.
The Smarter Approach to Wholesaling
By taking a proactive approach to staff oversight, risk assessments, stock management and governance, the wholesaler can react faster to changing market conditions and increasing automation as robots become more common for delivery and warehouse operations.
While the leadership focus may be on automation and cost savings, managers need to balance the interactions between workers and robots and the changing pace of operations.
Driving Wholesalers into Safer, Progressive Operations
Many businesses are seeking B-Corp status, driven by social awareness, environmental performance, and operational transparency and accountability. Which is where the worker focus and ability to demonstrate progressive working practices can all support these efforts.
The more use of green power, water recycling and automated applications that benefit from low-energy use, smart on/off modes and other savings, the more the business can meet these goals, with safety systems and cameras monitoring for fire, floods and extreme weather that can all impact operations.
And even the most traditional wholesalers can find performance improvements and downtime reduction by the automated insights into routine and repetitive tasks, storage operations and other areas where small but constant loss of time can mount up to costly expenses.
And for larger operations with multiple wholesale premises, the automation of safety and protection can deliver the ability to scale the business. With leading sites and managers using technology to demonstrate best practices that others should follow.
As investment in technology continues to drive change, worker safety in increasingly automated environments will also be an essential part of protecting the workforce and wholesale stock, requiring advanced systems that use AI to monitor potentially hundreds of cameras and thousands of sensors at once in increasingly remote and minimal-staff wholesalers that could adopt retail-like digital sales, courier-like drop boxes and delivery van schedules to keep customers and partners happy.
Geoff Spick
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