Most Terre Haute manufacturers come to Distributors Terminal the moment they run out of room. Usually, this means their onsite warehouse is overfull and raw materials and finished goods are being stored in areas meant for production. Sound like you? Fortunately, there’s a solution.
In this article we’ll examine the benefits that outsourcing warehousing operations to a Terre Haute 3PL partner can offer.
Why Terre Haute manufacturers outsource warehousing
You’re in the business of making a product, not storing it and shipping it. Outsourcing part of your supply chain responsibilities to a 3PL allows you to focus on what you do best.
At Distributors Terminal, a proud Terre Haute logistics provider for over 150 years, we spend all of our time and money on ‘building a better mousetrap’ for storing and shipping goods. This frees you up to do what you do best. It works the same as hiring an expert for anything else outside your wheelhouse is the pure definition of outsourcing.
A supply chain buffer close to your plant
Some manufacturers use us to keep raw materials close, in a vendor-managed inventory (VMI) program, as a buffer against disruption. Plenty of our customers bring in raw materials from halfway around the world, and a supply chain that long is fragile. COVID taught everyone that lesson.
We are seeing the same pressure now with tariffs and world events like the turmoil in the Strait of Hormuz.
Just-in-time delivery looks great in a presentation, and everyone is happy right up until the point the raw material is late and the line goes down. By partnering with a warehousing 3PL that offers ‘shared warehousing’ services, you can scale your warehouse footprint up or down. This approach enables you to overproduce to get ahead of rising sales volumes. It also allows you to build a buffer of raw material with your 3PL to weather any supply chain storms that come your way.
What you would see in our Terre Haute warehouse
Most of the time a manufacturer knows it has a problem before it knows the exact solution. They come thinking they need one thing, and once we build a detailed scope of work, it turns out they need something else. Our job is to take a part of their supply chain off their plate so they can focus on making the product.
When you visit the Distributors Terminal campus in Terre Haute, you will see agricultural products, food-grade goods, plastics, chemicals, and pet foods. We are a generalist in terms of what we store and specific on how we store it: With precision, quality, delivered with the highest level of service.
So, if your Terre Haute operation is running out of room or leaning on a fragile supply chain, take that as the signal to talk to Distributors Terminal today.
