Consumer goods suppliers continue to report growing business challenges. Yes, money is tight and market conditions are changing. But a new report from Honeywell has found that millions of dollars can be saved by evaluating and improving Direct Store Delivery (DSD) operations - namely the way that products are ordered, sold, delivered and merchandised.

The report was collated using feedback from 350 C-level consumer goods executives and directors from across the globe. Its first finding was that 49% of organisations feel increased transportation costs have severely impacted profit margins in the past 12 months.

Its second finding is that organisations that have carried out process evaluations (known as process re-engineering) in the past year to improve their DSD processes have cut, or expect to cut, costs on average by $734,000 annually. Approximately 20% of all respondents have experienced, or expect to experience, at least $1 million a year in tangible cost-savings through DSD process re-engineering, and about 20% of companies with 3000 or more employees anticipate saving at least $3 million.

"The report shows clearly that re-engineering DSD processes provides an opportunity for business transformation and competitive advantage," Brian Schulte, industry director for Direct Store Delivery for Honeywell, noted.

"Consumer goods companies can improve their revenue while cutting costs, enabling them to strategically grow their business and margins in these challenging times." 

The top five areas identified by survey respondents for cost improvement are: 

1. Fuel and petrol costs - $889,000 projected average annual savings 

2. Merchandising - $725,000 projected average annual savings

3. Delivery receiving/check-in - $686,000 projected average annual savings

4. Delivery - $682,000 projected average annual savings

5. Payment procedures - $665,000 projected average annual savings

Respondents also declared that time, as well as money, could be saved across key workflow areas. By making improvements to delivery, truck loading, delivery receiving/check-in, merchandising and order processes, respondents indicate that approximately 30 minutes could be saved in each of those five areas per route, per day. This translates into savings of more than 2.5 hours per day for each DSD route.

It is not surprising, therefore, that nearly 60% of the organisations surveyed view DSD as key to their company's business strategy going forward.

Currently, more than a third (35%) of respondents cite operational efficiency and productivity as the primary goal of their re-engineering efforts, followed by 19% each for revenue generation, reducing operating costs, and improving in-store execution (e.g. building in-store promotional displays on time).