subject: Operations Management And Courier Programs [print this page] The software that is used within the courier industry is very comprehensive software. These programs tend to touch on almost every part of a courier company, which means that changing or updating them can actually have a very large effect on the overall productivity of the company. By taking an operations management viewpoint when buying courier dispatch software, companies can choose the program that is going to produce the most effective net results within a courier company.
Operations management is all about finding ways to make a company more efficient. Courier software is designed to do this in most of the aspects of a courier company. Many of the features of courier programs are designed to eliminate needless steps in communications. By taking out a middleman in any given process, the software can both reduce the time it takes to perform an action, and the chance of an error being made.
The process of dispatching is a perfect example of how operations management can be improved by software. In the old courier dispatching model, a customer would call to the courier company and put in their request for service. The courier company would then either radio or call their driver with the instructions for the new pickup that they had to make.
Each of those steps takes time, and presents an opportunity for an error to be made. If the dispatch office mishears anything that the client says, or if the driver mishears something that the office says, then a mistake will be made during the shipment. Couple that with all the time that those conversations take, and you have a fairly inefficient model.
With the right courier software, this whole process can be improved. A customer can input the information for their order online. This is transmitted instantly into the inbox of someone at the courier office. They can electronically locate the closest driver to the pickup point, and dispatch them electronically by sending the order to their handheld GPS device. This reduces several chances for errors, and the time it takes to make such a process happen.
All in all, operations management is improved greatly by the right software. You can see similar improvements in areas like billing and driver management that you can see in dispatching when you are using the right kind of courier software. This is why so many courier companies put so much thought and effort into upgrading their software to the right program.
