Fractional COO · Logistics & Distribution
Operating leadership that steadies the dock and the numbers
We embed a senior operating leader inside your operation to document how orders actually flow, make fulfillment and cost performance visible in real time, and run the cadence that keeps the warehouse and the fleet accountable. Your team ends more capable of running the operation without constant firefighting.
The Outcome
What embedded operating leadership does for you
Not another advisor — a senior operator inside your business, installing systems and running them with your team.
Fulfillment runs to a documented standard
Receiving, put-away, pick-pack, and shipping become written SOPs anyone can follow, so accuracy and throughput stop swinging with whoever is on shift.
You can see accuracy, throughput, and cost daily
A live operations dashboard replaces the month-end reckoning, so a drop in order accuracy or a spike in cost-per-order surfaces while you can still fix it.
A cadence that keeps the operation accountable
A daily and weekly rhythm ties warehouse, transportation, and customer service to named owners and actions, so issues get resolved instead of bounced between teams.
How we work
Here’s what we’d install — and run with your team
We won’t hand you an org-chart deck and disappear. What follows is exactly what we’d build inside a business like yours — SOPs, dashboards, and an operating cadence — and how we’d prove it’s working. We set an operational baseline first, install the systems on the tools you already run, and measure against that baseline, so you know what each fix is worth before we build it.
Who it’s for: Owner-led and mid-market distributors, third-party logistics providers, warehouses, and fulfillment operations (roughly $5M-$100M revenue) where the founder or ops manager is firefighting daily, order accuracy and on-time shipping are inconsistent, and rising volume is exposing every gap in the systems that got them here.
The Core Systems
The operating system we install in your operation
Distribution lives and dies on execution. We make your fulfillment process explicit, put accuracy, throughput, and cost in front of the team every day, and fix the biggest operational constraint, working the dock and the data with your people rather than sending you a report to implement alone.
SOPs & Process Documentation
Fulfillment standards that hold across every shift
The problem: receiving, put-away, picking, packing, and shipping vary by who is working. That inconsistency shows up as mis-picks, mislabeled shipments, and slow ramp for new hires, and it worsens the moment volume spikes.
What we’d build: SOPs and standard work for the full fulfillment flow, receiving and put-away, pick-pack methods, shipping and manifesting, returns processing, and cycle counting, captured on the floor with your leads so every shift and every new hire runs to one clear standard.
KPI Dashboards & Visibility
A fulfillment scoreboard the whole floor can read
The problem: order accuracy, on-time shipping, and cost-per-order only become clear in a month-end review, after the errors have shipped and the overtime has been paid. Supervisors run the floor on gut feel instead of live numbers.
What we’d build: an operations dashboard tracking order accuracy, on-time shipping, lines and units per hour, dock-to-stock time, cost-per-order, and returns, pulled from your WMS, TMS, or order data, with clear owners and daily review so performance is managed in real time, not autopsied later.
Operating Cadence & Accountability
A daily rhythm that ties warehouse and fleet together
The problem: the warehouse blames transportation, transportation blames the warehouse, and customer service is caught in the middle. Without a shared cadence, problems get bounced between teams instead of owned and closed.
What we’d build: a daily operations huddle and a weekly cross-functional review, with a standard scorecard, a labor-vs-volume view, and an action log, so warehouse, transportation, and customer service work off one set of numbers and issues get resolved on a rhythm instead of in a blame loop.
Hands-On Implementation
We fix the biggest constraint on the floor
The problem: you likely already sense the worst constraint, a chaotic pick path, a receiving backlog jamming the dock, or labor that never matches the volume curve, but no one has the bandwidth to actually redesign it while shipping every day.
What we’d build: hands-on implementation of the single biggest operational fix, such as re-slotting the warehouse and redesigning pick paths, clearing a receiving bottleneck, or rebuilding labor planning around your volume curve, executed with your team so the gain sticks and they own the new way of working.
More We Install
Other places we roll up our sleeves
Beyond the core build, here are common operational fixes we take on with logistics and distribution operators, each scoped against your own baseline and executed with your team, never delivered as an outside report you have to act on alone.
Warehouse slotting & pick paths
Re-slot inventory by velocity and redesign pick routes to cut travel time and boost units per labor hour.
Inventory accuracy & cycle counting
Install cycle-count routines and root-cause discipline so on-hand counts match reality and shortages stop surprising you.
Labor planning to volume
Build staffing models tied to your order-volume curve so you stop over-staffing valleys and under-staffing peaks.
Inbound & receiving flow
Standardize dock scheduling and put-away so inbound stops backing up and blocking outbound.
Transportation & routing cadence
Tighten carrier selection, load building, and route planning so on-time delivery rises and freight cost per order falls.
Returns & reverse logistics
Systematize returns processing so restock is fast, accurate, and does not clog the outbound operation.
Peak-season readiness
Build a peak playbook, staffing, layout, and cadence adjustments, so seasonal volume does not break the operation.
The Numbers We Move
Operational levers we help you pull
Operations isn’t the goal; moving these is. We set a starting number in the audit and measure against it.
Order accuracy
Documented pick-pack standards and inline checks that cut mis-picks at the source.
On-time shipping
A daily cadence and labor-to-volume planning that keep orders moving out the door on schedule.
Units per labor hour
Warehouse slotting, pick-path redesign, and standard work that lift throughput without adding heads.
Dock-to-stock time
Standardized receiving and put-away flow that gets inbound onto the shelf and sellable faster.
Cost per order
Labor planning and routing improvements that pull fulfillment and freight cost back toward target.
Inventory accuracy
Cycle-count routines and root-cause discipline that keep on-hand counts trustworthy.
We begin by measuring your current state, order accuracy, on-time shipping, units per labor hour, dock-to-stock time, cost-per-order, and inventory accuracy, from your WMS, TMS, or order data. Every improvement is measured against that baseline, so you see genuine movement in your own numbers rather than industry benchmarks or improvement percentages we have no honest way to promise in advance.
The Engagement
Embedded in your operation, run by your team
A fractional engagement scoped to your business — a senior operator embedded part-time to document your processes, install dashboards and an operating cadence, and implement the fixes hands-on. Not a report; real operating systems put to work.
You end more capable, not more dependent. We build the systems with your team and hand them off running, so the operation keeps working when the engagement flexes down. Priced from an hourly rate, scaling to a scoped retainer.
Every operation is different. The audit is where we find your highest-return fix.
How It Works
From operational audit to systems that run themselves
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Operational audit
We map your workflows, inventory the tools you run, and set baseline numbers so every later result has a starting line to beat.
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Systemize (SOPs)
We document your core processes into clear SOPs, so the business runs on a system instead of in your head.
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Dashboards & visibility
KPI dashboards wired to the tools you already use, so the numbers that run the business sit in one place.
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Operating cadence
A weekly accountability rhythm — the meetings, metrics, and owners that keep execution on track.
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Implement & hand off
We implement the highest-return fixes hands-on, then hand the systems off running so your team owns them.
FAQ
Logistics & Distribution — fractional-COO & operations questions
Will you actually work on the floor or just analyze data?
Both. We are on the dock with your leads and in the WMS data. The SOPs, dashboards, and cadence are built with your team so they run the operation after we step back, not so they inherit a report.
Do we need a sophisticated WMS for this to work?
No. We build the operating system around the data you have, whether that is a full WMS and TMS or spreadsheets and scanners. If better tooling is clearly warranted, we help you scope it, but we do not make it a prerequisite for progress.
How is this different from a warehouse consultant or slotting vendor?
A slotting vendor solves one problem and leaves. We are operating leadership, we run the daily cadence, fix the biggest constraint, and build the systems that keep every part of the operation accountable over time.
Can you improve things during our busy season without disrupting shipping?
We pilot changes in one zone or process and prove them before rolling out, and we time bigger changes carefully. The goal is to reduce firefighting, so we are deliberate about not creating it while we improve the operation.
How much of your time do we get, and for how long?
It is a part-time embedded engagement, a set number of days per week over a defined window, scoped to the size of your operation and the gaps we find. The commitment steps down as your team takes ownership.
Can you guarantee a specific lift in accuracy or throughput?
No. We set your baseline first, then target realistic gains against it and measure honestly. Any numbers we report are your results, not a percentage borrowed from another operation's story.
Our problem feels like it is really about labor and turnover. Can you help?
Often clearer SOPs, a fair scoreboard, and realistic labor planning remove much of the friction that drives turnover and looks like a labor problem. Where it is a genuine staffing or structure gap, we help you see it plainly and address it.
Who on our team needs to be involved?
Your operations or warehouse manager, shift leads, and whoever owns transportation and customer service. We build with them, because they are the ones who sustain the system after we step back.
The Full Practice