Fulfillment
/ By Karan Mudliar / Blog • Uncategorized/ • • • • • • • • • / 0 Comments

Benefits of Recruiting an Efficient Fulfillment Partner

When it comes to optimizing an existing supply chain framework, organizations must clearly emphasize on the fulfillment services. Moreover, fulfillment service providers also play a vital role when it comes to handling and improving the shipping logistics. While certain organizations opt for in-house fulfillment services, some prefer outsourcing majority of their work to experienced service providers which can also handle the basics of distribution.

While having a strategically situated fulfillment center comes in handy, fulfillment partners must also look to streamline and simplify the supply chain process. Moreover, an efficient service provider must also aim at improving the customer experience, across multiple channels. In the subsequent sections, we shall look at the topmost traits pertaining to a highly efficient fulfillment service provider while enlisting the most prior ones for improving productivity.

Better Order Management Framework

Organizations must have high expectations from their fulfillment partners and the ability to address order management should be at the top of the pecking order. The e-commerce fulfillment service provider should be able to pair all of its attributes with innovative technologies. That said, efficient order management must cater to multiple channels while being able to handle the nooks and crannies of product demand and order placements.

Inventory Management Capabilities

Every organization needs to be careful about the product inventory, spread across diverse marketing channels. Therefore, an efficient fulfillment partner must offer considerable levels of visibility for tracking real-time and continuous inventory-specific developments. This trait helps companies manage the supply chain in a better way.

Reporting in Real-Time

A functional fulfillment service provider must be able to report about e-commerce whereabouts in real-time. This, in turn, offers an expansive and detailed view of the inventory; thereby helping customers complete orders in a quick and seamless manner. Real-time reporting feature is probably the most underrated aspect of supply chain management and an efficient fulfillment service provider should bring the same to the fore.

 

Hassle-free Fulfillment Completion

A fulfillment service provider should at least be able to complete the tasks associated with fulfillment in a precise and seamless manner. A service provider that can cope up with the promotional sales and seasonal demands can be easily considered as bankable. However, it’s all about pairing services with advanced technologies, in order to achieve fulfillment perfection. Needless to say, an efficient fulfillment partner can improve the visibility of the concerned brand by rendering back-end expertise and other intuitive ideas.

Ability to Fix Warehouses

A fulfillment partner with considerable levels of expertise can help a warehouse with the designing elements. There are times when a non-scalable warehouse starts busting out at the seams courtesy lack of spaces and necessary adjustments. Fulfillment service providers handle the internal affairs by making the warehouses more conducive to work.

Handling Customer Relationships

Customer relationships are important, especially when e-commerce services are concerned. Fulfillment partners allow company owners to track the buyer journeys; therefore allowing them enough time and resources to personalize the service sets. This minimizes the number of complaints and helps improve productivity, almost immediately.

Can we do without Outsourcing Fulfillment Services?

Every fulfillment-specific requirement is usually handled by the 3PL service providers, as a part of an expansive package. However, small businesses usually do not have the financial backbone to invest in a third-party service provider and they usually resort to in-house options for addressing the requirements. If an unbiased consideration is taken into account, a fulfillment service provider with the above mentioned traits is necessary as the absence of the same can cause the sales volume to fluctuate and that too, regularly. Apart from that, companies without innovative fulfillment technologies are bound to experience order errors. In addition to that, an efficient fulfillment partner also eliminates the shipping, processing and product-specific errors.

Companies without reliable 3PL services also lack scalability i.e. the ability to adapt and innovate according to the market sentiments. An efficient fulfillment partner renders scalability to the organizations by streamlining the processes related to packaging, inventory control and shipping.

/ By Karan Mudliar / Blog • Uncategorized/ • • • • • • • / 0 Comments

Benefits of a Transportation Management System

Companies dependent on retail chains and ecommerce solutions usually deploy TMS or Transportation Management Systems for simplifying certain fulfillment based tasks. A functional TMS plan is highly beneficial to businesses as it allows them to transport products in a very cost-effective manner. In addition to that, Transportation Management System also involves intermodal freight movements, comprising of inbound, outbound, domestic, international and commercial shipments. The best thing about TMS is that it can seamlessly function with the concerned company or even with an outsourced fulfillment or logistics partner.

Why Companies are Emphasizing on TMS Solutions?

TMS or Transportation Management System is the only supply chain tool that reduces additional freight costs. Having this strategy on-board helps organizations immensely as they can pair up logistics with functional analytics and optimization techniques. TMS solutions work way better than some of the more conventional supply chain management techniques and in the subsequent sections, we shall enlist some benefits which set them apart from the usual ones.

Better Customer Satisfactions Levels

Improved Warehouse Efficiency

While some might argue that a transportation management system has nothing to do with warehouse management, there is a direct correlation between the two. With a functional TMS solution on-board, companies can quickly dispatch the shipments; thereby saving a lot of time for performing warehouse duties. Moreover, with the TMS module integrated alongside the ERP, data entry issues and associated errors can be readily avoided. In a nutshell, TMS and WMS work together for improving the efficiency of the concerned supply chain framework. The inadequacies are duly minimized followed by higher levels of cost savings.

 

Better Delivery Options

Transportation Management System helps optimize the shipping techniques of the companies; thereby offering a host of exciting fulfillment options to the customers. Be it the inbound shipping programs or the pool-point shipping ideas, having a robust TMS module can open a door of opportunities for the customers. In addition to that, this approach to shipping and fulfillment also covers multiple locations and serves as a precursor to the Omni-channel customer experience. Lastly, one person with remote access can easily manage the entire delivery schema for multiple networks.

Reduction in Inventory

Organizations dealing with surplus inventory issues are best served by a TMS module on-board.  As companies can now ship products at a faster rate, it becomes easier for them to plan out the stocks in a better manner. This eventually minimizes the issues related to surplus stocks and can help businesses improve productivity.

Improved Cash Flow

Needless to say, a functional transport management system can also help an organization improve the overall cash flow. With freight accounting made easy, improved cash flow is something businesses can expect going into the future. Moreover, a TMS module offers a leeway to the shippers as they can now save a lot of money by tweaking the structure of inbound logistics. For those who are interested in facts and figures, companies can easily save something in the ballpark of 2 to 5 percent by cutting out duplicate payments, inaccurate charges and other logistical pitfalls.

Advanced Analytics

While we have addressed this aspect in some of the previous sections, it’s only appropriate to discuss more about the analytical side of transport management system. The associated analytics identify low-cost shipping options for businesses; thereby helping companies save a lot of money. Moreover, with shippers having fewer issues to worry about, the entire management team can concentrate more on warehouse and inventory control.

Inference

Over the past few years, it has become easier to implementing TMS solutions to the entire process of warehousing, fulfillment and inventory control. The best part about using this business strategy is the backhaul support and consolidation opportunities where companies can save a lot of additional costs without having to compromise on customer satisfaction levels. What makes most sense is to link a robust TMS module with a highly efficient warehouse management system. While this promotes better visibility of the entire supply chain, it can actually improve the process of inventory forecasting and minimize the data-specific errors.