Far be it for me to worry about how to deal with the balance of trade issues that confront our policy makers in Washington. But, I, and we, do have to cope with the continuously increasing flow of goods from the Far East that arrives at our warehouse doors.

As the Port of Long Beach and the railroads choke with the burden of extra container flow, supply chain managers are bringing products in earlier to be sure that they are available for their peak seasons. These goods then increase inventories beyond the capacity of most facilities.

What can we do to deal with this? Here are a few of the steps that some have used to alleviate the problem.

Unload faster and with less effort by taking advantage of accurate carton level data in an advanced shipment notice. Pre-plan pallet loads and separate single case storage so that receiving and putaway can be a continuous flow.

Improve storage utilization by creating the right mix of storage modes—full pallet, half pallet and hand-stacked cases to reduce the cube loss of partially filled slots.

Carefully select products to be stored off site. The goal is to minimize handling steps, transportation costs and dependence on outside storage for filling today's orders. Consider storing these off site:

• Obsolete stock
• Out-of-season merchandise
• Newly arriving stock
• Large inventories of fast movers
• High cube products
• Kitted assortments that will be shipped as full pallets
• Slow movers

It is also important to think about what is left outside when the peak passes. Can you work it out through shipments, or will you just have to bring it back and put it away?

Outside storage is found in many forms. Take a short term lease on nearby space. Use the services of a third-party warehouse to shuttle and store full pallet quantities of products

You can also transfer products to storage trailers. But this can be tricky. It works best when a trailer is full of one stock keeping unit (SKU), or a group of products that will be needed at the same time for a product launch or similar event. Keep it in the shipping containers.

I am most curious about the last alternative because it has the important advantage that the product remains in its highest density storage mode and is safe from extra handling damage. However, this option is currently difficult because of the high demurrage charges on the containers, and because often the mix of products in one container may include some SKUs that we need right now.

I have some hope that with good load planning we might overcome the mix problem. I also sense that the demurrage issue has more to do with the transport chassis than with the container itself. If so, then perhaps a solution might be to hold the containers in a freight yard where they can be called in as needed.

Sometimes these problems go in cycles. Last year we couldn't get everything in on time and incurred heavy expedited shipping costs to satisfy customers. So this year we will bring it in earlier. Next year, we will react to the high inventory and handling costs try to cut it a little closer. And, so it goes.

It will require increasingly creative solutions to keep up with the bouncing ball.