Paperwork, regulatory bureaucracy, freight bills, claims, accessorial charges., reports, data entry, emails and calls. For many of us that is really our day at work. If you are in the logistics field, you know inaccurate details can stop a freight shipment in its tracks like a brick wall. But more importantly, that error will take time and energy for the organization to correct. When you budget your logistics costs, many times there is an assumption in those numbers, that a certainly number of things will go wrong. That takes labor time and usually extra transportation costs to resolve.
I am a big picture type of person, but it just as important to look art the small picture. What is using your time. Is it adding value to the firm and is it just keeping things humming?
Lets take a look at one example. Is somebody spending hours reviewing every freight bill that comes your way. One tends to happen is the small errors tend to grab attention and the large cost errors are not handled. Would not you learn more, by looking at the cost totals various the anticipated costs totals on set period of time, like a week? If transportation costs are not what is expected, there is an issue worthy of your time. The individual daily reviews probably is not. Give your accounts some rules on payments, and pay the bills. Mine the data and learn.
In large the operational excellence of your organization will be based on the ability to hand the mundane in a way that adds value to your business.