Plant-based + handmade to order

Just the Goods products are handmade to order, and I choose to do this for several reasons, the most important of which is to ensure the freshest possible product arrives in your hands. But, I also do this to ensure an efficient allocation of resources both in terms of time and materials -- that is, I only produce what is actually needed (never on speculation), and as such I rarely have to worry about running out of ingredients because I can direct what I have to what is in demand.

So, how do two people maintain a catalogue of approximately 160 formulas (not including size and packaging variations) for as many as 250 orders per week from clients in 54 countries? Through a two week production/shipping cycle designed to take an overview of a large group of orders then produce according to which batches will fill the most parcels, rather than making products to fill orders sequentially.

It looks like this:

• On Mondays JTG's shipping assistant sorts the orders that arrived as part of the batch that arrived during previous week and immediately fills any that can be fulfilled with stock on hand from production the previous week. Orders that need additional items are grouped according to product then moved to my workspace where I schedule production to fill the most orders possible as quickly as possible (i.e. consistently high demand products such as the line for normal/sensitive skin are often made first; items where only a few are needed are moved to be made closer to the end of the production week).
• Throughout the week JTG's production asisstant and I make and label products (setting aside any extra from batches so they can be used to fill orders next week), while the shipping assistant packs parcels and processes e-postage.
• On Wednesdays and Fridays parcels destined to the United States are picked up by our cross-border courier and international brokerage service so be deposited with the USPS office in Pembina North Dakota
• On Fridays parcels destined to addresess in Canada or elsewhere in the world are prepared and deposited with Canada Post. Also on Friday evenings orders to be picked up at Organic Planet are delivered so they may begin to be collected on Saturday
• When we get to the end of the production and shipping week, we prepare for the next week by taking care of administration, materials procurement, cleaning, etc. 
• On weekends I maintain the website, making improvements, etc., as needed and look after paperwork related to orders during the week that just passed so the cycle may begin again. 

For an illustrated look at how this works, please visit this collection of Instagram stories. For additional information about our process, please visit this IG post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZunlyFPc7G/ 

Thank you!
Milena