Solving the Peak Season Problem

Peak season is officially right around the corner, but for many businesses, ramp up began weeks ago with the hiring and training of hundreds of seasonal employees. The last few years have seen especially challenging peak seasons, due in part to the rise of ecommerce and its convenience during the pandemic. In our conversations with customers, it is typical for them to see peak sales days that are four times their average daily units sold. But recently, we have even heard of some experiencing peak to average ratios greater than 15. Peak seasons have become “peakier” than ever in unpredictable and unprecedented ways.

The benefits of automation in response to peak season challenges are obvious: reduced labor costs, reduced hiring and training burden, increased throughput, improved SLAs, etc. The challenge, though, is in finding a systems integration partner that can design and deliver an automation solution that takes on peak season without being drastically underutilized the rest of the year. Anyone can offer the latest, “shiniest” technology packages, but to get the best ROI and most satisfaction from your investment requires working with a team that will deeply analyze your business’ sales data, KPIs, and order fulfillment goals and that can creatively solve the peak-to-average ratio problem. And solve it in a seamless way for all sales channels: one automation solution operating independently of the order structure for retail, eCommerce, and wholesale.

At TGW, we solve the peak season problem by taking a full-picture view of our customers current operations. We start by analyzing current distribution network strategy and work our way down to key processes within distribution centers—always with a keen focus on optimizing ROI and hitting our customer’s strategic goals. It is at the processes level that our ingenuity shines the most. We look into how we can tweak order processes, operational steps, or fulfillment area setups and develop unique and flexible ways to increase the throughput of our automation systems for peak periods. In other words, as peak season approaches, simple adaptations are put into place that allow the entire automation solution to run efficiently and manage the increased sales. While during average sales periods, when the adaptations are not present, our systems also stay efficient. They’re neither under- nor over-utilized.

As the integrator of over 1,000 completed automated systems globally, we have the experience and expertise necessary to handle peak season or any other operational challenges. To learn more about what TGW can do for your business, check out the case studies on our website.