“Biggest Problems that Shipping Coordinators and Operations Managers Face and How to Deal with Them”

The operations manager, The shipping coordinator, The logistics manager, it is all different names for pretty much the same job. One of the most interesting and fulfilling jobs a human being can have but at the same time it can be one of the most stressful for those who do not know how to have a certain space of detachment between their work and personal wellbeing.
You see many people just see the name or job description but don’t really understand the beauty of the job. It is , like many other things in life a balanced combination of art and science. You are literally coordinating the world ( or parts of it depending on what sector) , you are the one coordinating the delivery of the food kids will be eating at lunch today and all of next week, the gasoline your grandma will be putting in her car and the very table and chairs that your post college student will begin his career sitting on.
Not only the final result as we see above but everything in between about logistics coordination gives you a certain high especially when you have various vessels, planes or trucks en route to a destination. You understand that if you do your job well and give proper guidance to your “soldiers” then you will win the battle, if you don’t then you are going to have a lot of answering to do to the General.
This is where the problems might kick in for some inexperienced Logistics Managers. You see with the beauty and rush of it all also comes a lot of pressure. You know there is deadlines you have to meet and you know there is people and companies that Need their delivery’s or you might lose the account. It is literally do or die just like that.
The big pressure comes with the fact that there is many things in any Logistics sector that are out of your hands. For example in Trucking it is the notorious “tire blow
out” ( from our experience we can tell you that every other sector has their own version of the tire blowout , but many times worse ). Everything can be going perfect and the truck might be 10 miles from delivery with about an hour to spare, and then he blows out his two back tires. This just set you back a good 3 hours ( if your lucky) and the delivery is officially late. Now you have to make the call that all coordinators want to avoid and it’s the one where you call your client and tell them you are not going to be able to make it.
Just like life it’s the intangibles that scare us , many people want (or at least they think they want) their job and their life to be in black and white, because it provides them with a certain sense of security. But in my over 40 years in the industry I learned at a very young age that in Logistics like in other things , the problems seem to work themselves out, and the less you stress about them the more successful your work will be.
In summary if you as a Shipping Coordinator can find a way to deatch yourself (to a certain point) from your job and all it’s intangibles you will find that things will just seem
to flow smoother and work out better as well as give you great presence of mind when a problem (inevitably) eventually arises.