5 tips to improve your customer-first OTIF program
Whether you ship consumer packaged goods, food and beverage, or home repair products, meeting your retail customers’ on-time, in full (OTIF) mandates is a critical requirement.
Ever since Walmart introduced OTIF in 2017 to encourage supply chain performance, it became a staple of transportation program objectives: meet the OTIF requirements or pay fees as a consequence. And, fees aside, frequently delivering late or incomplete orders results in empty shelves and dissatisfied customers.
Over the past few years, pandemic-fueled supply chain chaos made managing OTIF programs extremely difficult. Roadblocks to meeting OTIF program goals included labor and material shortages, shifting SKU mixes, and volatile customer ordering patterns.
Now, with shippers no longer scrambling for capacity, it’s the perfect time to prepare to meet OTIF goals in the future. Establishing service expectations should always be part of conversations with your key carriers, no matter the customer program or the state of the market.
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98%
is the average OTIF score that Walmart requires.
01
Segment your customers.
Not all customer needs and requirements are equal, so understanding the level of service each one needs is key. Align with commercial leadership on how you’ll segment each customer, and how you’ll plan to pivot their associated service and costs when the market shifts.
02
Create the right data visibility.
Every customer measures OTIF performance differently—it could be by the day, the hour, or per delivery appointment. Monitor your performance internally in the same way your customer does to ensure you’re prioritizing the KPIs that matter. Ensure that your data visibility is actionable and can identify the root causes of why certain KPIs aren’t being met.
03
Proactively communicate.
Missing appointments isn’t ideal, but it happens. No customer wants to be surprised when an order is late or too early. As you track loads and realize one won’t make a planned appointment window, communicate this to your customer as soon as possible. In some cases, fines can be mitigated with proactive communication.
04
Build long-lasting carrier partnerships.
When it comes to carrier relationships, focus on quality over quantity—ultimately, you need a select group that’s there for you when the market gets tight. Consolidate your carriers, educate them around your OTIF initiatives and goals, and establish a constructive feedback loop and partnership that guides them to help hit your industry benchmarks.
05
Leverage data to drive success.
You have an abundance of performance data at your disposal, which you can use to better service customers. With the right TMS technology and transportation partners, you can efficiently analyze data to pinpoint your sources of loss, make the data digestible for your customers and C-suite executives, and use it to inform OTIF process improvements.
Uber Freight’s managed transportation team and TMS can help shippers uplevel their OTIF programs.
Connect with an expert
Uber Freight’s managed transportation
team and TMS can help shippers uplevel
their OTIF programs.