3PL Outsourcing
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3PL Outsourcing – Strategic Considerations

Third-party logistics or 3PL Outsourcing, is an option exercised by a business, wherein parts of its distribution and fulfilment services are outsourced to a third party. This can occur for a number of reasons including outdated facilities and warehousing systems, as the business does not have the internal capabilities internally and could be experiencing a reduction in efficiency, an increase in time and costs, as well as a decline in customer satisfaction.

Such ramifications could lead to the competitive advantage of the business, its market share, brand reputation, or profitability being diminished. Thus, to stem the tide, businesses have had to look for external solutions.

In other cases, businesses may have set-up in foreign markets and need to globalise their supply chains to better serve their customers. However, in such instances, being able to completely owning their own supply chain could be prohibitive and an entry barrier into certain global markets. Here, businesses require 3PL support to bridge the gap.

However, businesses do not always have to outsource parts of their elements to third parties. Another method could be that of vertical integration, wherein a business invests in developing and owning some of the sections of the supply chain. This can be exemplified by the Ford Motor Company, which owns forests and steel mills. Another option businesses could use is to franchise the supply chain, which provides relatively tight control and integration over the system rather than outsourcing it entirely.

3PL vendors typically provide services such as contract warehousing, packing and distribution services, transportation management, and freight and inventory management. Here, it is up to the business to analyse the areas where vendors are required and plug the holes as they best see fit.

There is also the relationship between businesses and vendors as many businesses are keen to look to vendors who can align with their goals and objectives, processes, standards and performance, and quality parameters. Such parameters can even be in the form of an economic contract or agreement between the two businesses though it has the risk of allowing vendors to exit the contract as they deem fit.

Thus, depending on the business, its health, performance, market positioning, services, and many other factors, the decision to outsource to third party vendors almost always remains a strategic one. In this regard, there are a number of considerations that businesses must address before entering into such a strategic decision.

Transaction costs are always at the heart of the decision to ‘buy’ or to ‘make’. Here, costs can boost overall, long-term growth or help entry into a new market.

Performance and predictability of performance is another criteria. Businesses are likely to choose those 3PL vendors who offer efficiency in planning, adapting, and monitoring, i.e. where performance is predictable and risk is minimised.

Value addition is another consideration. Businesses are keen to partner with those vendors who add value through embedded knowledge such as competitor behaviour, deep-domain expertise, and market understanding as well as certain unique capabilities. However, such capabilities or value additions are only ‘order getters’ and not ‘qualifiers’. The day-to-day ‘qualifiers’ for 3PL vendors still remain delivery reliability, speed, and price.

However, price may not always be an incentive for businesses. A sudden price drop could arouse doubts and reveal larger problems within a vendor’s functional area or core capabilities.

Further, a 3PL vendor’s IT capability is another significant area that businesses may examine within their own decision-making process. As IT is seen as an enabler to reducing costs, supporting innovation and service quality, it is a core area of scrutiny.

Another area for businesses is the ease of interaction or customer relationship. It is evident that positive and trustworthy customer interaction goes a long way and businesses tend to stay away from vendors who have been known to be ‘difficult to deal with’. Positive dealings could include taking responsibility for notifications about likely delays or identifying parcels that were late, or informing customers in advance along with the reasons for the delay. In today’s highly competitive market, customer satisfaction is paramount and businesses require a vendor who will ensure that delays are minimal, are clearly stated, and can even go the extra mile when systems break-down.

Of course, vendor size is also important. Here the capacity, scale, and reputation come into play. Depending on the nature of the business, companies may opt to choose larger or smaller players within certain markets. This, once again, depends on the business’ own situation within its growth and development cycle.

Finally, there is also the capability for innovation as another option for the selection of vendors by businesses. Innovation is seen as a significant value add and a great customer satisfaction elevator. Here, vendors known to be flexible, unique, or standing out within markets may well be viewed positively, especially where there is less freely open information.

However, despite these factors there are still challenges in the strategic decision-making process for businesses looking to partner with third parties. Some of these include unreasonable and unrealistic expectations from a buyer. For instance, customers may have unrealistic (and unreasonable) expectations that 3PL providers may have the effect of reducing their annual transportation expenditures by 50 percent. Though this is factually incorrect this perception must be addressed before a deal is struck. Not doing so could lead to severe consequences going forward.

In the end business must internally decide whether to opt to use 3PLs. This depends on their own growth strategy, vision, functionality, costs and market forces. Once a decision has been made however, there may space to nurture the partnership given that the right-fit provider has been sourced. To do this there must be clear and transparent communication between both parties, an assessment of ground market realities, and a clear understanding of each other’s capabilities. Of course, the relationship is key and businesses function best with both sides working together and collaborating closely – and in the area of logistics, distribution, and fulfilment, this requires even closer examination.

Warehouse 3pl
/ By Karan Mudliar / Blog • Uncategorized/ • • / 0 Comments

How Outsourcing Impacts Warehousing, Distribution and Packaging Services?

Running a company is a time-consuming affair— regardless of the involved manpower and existing technologies. Despite the operations being tedious and stressful, it is important for the companies to abide by the federal guidelines when it comes to the quality of products. Manufacturers, therefore, are responsible when it comes to the quality standards and there are times when addressing the aspects of warehousing, packaging and distribution becomes nearly impossible. In this keenly contested arena, it is always advisable to outsource certain services by hiring experienced professionals. A good logistics company can therefore do the trick for the entrepreneurs, assisting them with some of the trickier aspects of retail.

Outsourcing Warehouse Services: Enumerating the Benefits

Maintaining a sizeable warehouse space is difficult, especially for companies that are already manufacturing the products. While constructing personalized storage facilities can incur massive costs, hiring specialized services from logistics companies of repute is always a better option. Needless to say, a startup or even a medium-sized firm cannot afford to spend recklessly on building and operating a bespoke warehouse. Therefore, outsourcing warehouse services is one of the most efficient techniques to grow bigger in this competitive market.

That said, an outsourced warehouse usually functions on a contractual basis which simplifies things further for the manufacturers. Shared storage facilities are quite common as the warehouse expenses are then distributed among select manufactures. A large warehouse offers a host of amenities and multiple small businesses can make the best use of the same without paying up exorbitant rates.

Why Packaging Services Need to be outsourced?

Ecommerce Warehouse

In the modern era, product packaging is more of a compulsion and less of a choice. The entire process is a highly regulated marketing charade that influences a product’s state of well-being. It is necessary that manufacturers opt for the most appropriate form of packaging based on the product and its longevity. Then again, it gets extremely hard for the manufacturers to plan out the packaging strategies, all by themselves. This is why companies need to hire specialized 3PL service providers for outsourcing their packaging requirements. One must understand that packaging is a highly technical process and should only be handled by specialists.

Is it Important to Outsource Distribution Services?

Warehouse Distribution , Logistics 3PL

Put simply, the answer to the question asked would definitely be a big ‘Yes’. For manufacturers to grow their business, it is important for them to cater to diverse customer bases. However, a lot of planning is involved when it comes to making the products available to the customers, via offline and online retail chains. Outsourcing distribution services can help as logistics companies maintain sizeable fleets of dispatchers and skilled drivers, helping the manufacturers with the outreach. While it is important to manufacture a quality product, making it available within a competitive marketplace is what solidifies the position of the concerned brand. Customers will keep purchasing only if the product is delivered to them with care. Proper packaging, as mentioned previously, is an important aspect, synonymous to distribution centers.

The Concept of Outsourcing

Entrepreneurs prefer maximizing revenues without having to invest a lot. For this to materialize, they should take strategic decisions involving qualified 3PL service providers. Product manufacturers already have their hands full and it is therefore necessary that they rely on 3rd party fulfillment services for handling warehousing, distribution and even packaging.

While packaging is essentially a technical aspect, most 3PL service providers basically concentrate on warehousing and distribution for serving the manufacturers better. For a business to grow, it needs to gain competitive advantage as a startup. Outsourcing can eventually simplify the entire process of growth by offering best-in-class benefits to the concerned organization. The good thing about hiring third party services is that the storage facilities and distribution warehouses offered by them are closer to the client base. As outsourcing is mostly a contractual process, it becomes all the more important for the logistics company to offer the best set of services for the existing price point. This approach makes the retail sector extremely scalable.

Bottom Line

Based on a reliable study i.e. The State of Logistics Outsourcing, 2007— at least 69 percent of companies across the globe rely on third party logistics for handling warehousing and distribution services and a majority could already measure the return on investment, synonymous to these services.

Outsourcing isn’t a complicated process when it comes to the implementation. However, the perfect service provider must be zeroed in, based on a company’s manufacturing and marketing requirements.

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Safety Guidelines for a Warehouse Workplace Environment

Customers usually rely heavily on the logistical processes of enterprises for ensuring proper storage and distribution of concerned products. Be it an authorized distribution center or a proper warehouse, safety happens to be the primary concern when it comes to controlling hazards and ensuring the well-being of workers. Warehouse safety, therefore, is one logistical balancing activity which is often overlooked in the wake of industrial growth.

Although safeguarding a warehouse comes with myriad set of benefits, there are times when inadequate resources, insufficient time and lack of opportunities come out as the main reasons why the same gets compromised in the long run. However, results are readily visible when the safety measures are implemented— assisting enterprises with higher productivity and improved employee satisfaction.

Why Warehouse Safety is an Important Logistical Cog?

Disregarding warehouse safety readily kills off the reliability quotient. Companies, often lose out on a loyal customer base if the condition of products— stored and distributed via warehouses— isn’t top-notch. Moreover, strengthening the safety regulations readily minimizes the risk of injuries and workplace disruptions caused due to uncalled mishaps.

Apart from that, warehouse safety also lowers down the equipment downtime— associated with any industrial setup.

How to Go about Warehouse Safety— Enlisting the Safety Guidelines

In the subsequent sections, we shall be talking about the existing safety guidelines— associated with a warehouse or any distribution center. These measures should be diligently followed by workers and employees— for minimizing injuries, product damage and everything that negatively impacts the growth of the logistical interface of an organization.

  1. Using Safety Equipment

When it comes to managing a warehouse, special emphasis must be given to the heavier items in play. It is therefore advisable to work with hydraulic dollies and even forklifts for lifting the same. In addition to that, warehouse staff should use proper eyewear at work. Hard hats should be made mandatory in a similar working environment.

Educating employees about fire exits and installed sprinklers— in case of fire-based emergencies— is advisable. Adding to the list of equipment is therefore important when it comes to strengthening the warehouse safety guidelines. While these attributes take out the obvious issues of injuries, they also instill faith concerning the workplace environment. Enterprises flinching about the increased costs must understand that having warehouse safety covered readily pays off in the long run.

  1. Eliminate Safety Hazards

Potential hazards are common to a warehouse working environment. However, it is important to eliminate most of them via regular safety checks. Elementary precautions include keeping the floor free of liquids, stray cords and items that spill off. Covering pits and floor cracks in also an important aspect towards handling potential threats.

  1. Label Hazardous Zones

Warehouse safety guidelines seem incomplete without the hazardous zones getting a mention. When it comes to a warehouse environment, it is important to label zones for safe walk and other non-professional activities. However, it isn’t advisable to arbitrarily assigned zones as proper signage and authorization are needed.

Black paint, tape and even white stripes can help if the enterprises are vigilant about the safety of workers and concerned employees. Having hazardous areas marked can easily avoid accidents.

  1. Incorporate Safer Techniques while Lifting

Most warehouse inclusions are heavy and need to be transported with care. Therefore, it is important to assess the best options available for lifting goods. Firstly, warehouse superintendents need to ensure the best possible route for the product in picture. Once an obstacle-free pathway is identified, safe lifting strategies must come into the picture.

Some of the best tactics include using push methods instead of pull. Moreover, it is also advisable to lean in the exact direction of the load— while moving the object. Enterprises using forklifts must train drivers and only authorize experienced personnel for lifting.

  1. Provide Refresher Course and Training

Warehouse staff should be updated about the workplace environment and even safe practices at work. Education and training are the important aspects to better adherence and staff members need to be fully aware of the risks involved. Cutting corners— in terms of staff training— often lead to catastrophic consequences. That said, warehouse management must be aware of the repercussions and this is why courses and training should be given precedence.

  1. Promote Warehouse Awareness

Probably the most overlooked aspect of warehouse safety— overall awareness is a pertinent aspect which needs to be promoted— in every possible manner. One way of achieving the same includes healthy communication between the staff members. Moreover, the employees need to be vocal about their requirements and even discrepancies at work. One example would be a simple yet important “coming through” alert which lets coworkers know that something heavy or inflammable is crossing the pathway.

Every person— within the warehouse— needs to learn about the terms and terminologies used by the coworkers.

Warehouse safety is a critical aspect and even plays an important role in customer satisfaction and retention. While most of the mentioned tactics are easy to implement, it must be understood that all of them are interlinked and readily work towards the betterment of the workplace environment.

 

KPI for Warehouse
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Why Are KPIs Important in Warehousing & Fulfillment?

Warehouse business is a back-end operations business. You don’t control sales, only deliveries. The efficiency of the operations is the key to extracting maximum profits from a warehouse. So you need to know that you are getting maximum return on your investment in this business, just like any other business. But since most of it is a fixed model, B2B business with caveats of B2C (retail deliveries), you need to understand and measure the nitty gritty of the warehouse operations and fine tune them. That’s where the KPI or Key Performance Indicators come in.

A right det of KPIs tells you the detailed performance of your warehouse. Couple it with past indicators, your forecast of business growth and you can figure out where you are heading in future. For example if you are already at maximum space utilization, you cannot expand. A client whose business is growing very fast will need more space. If you can not offer him more space, he will go to someone who has more space. That will reduce you space utilization and also your revenue. Not to mention, you now need to get your sales to run and find a client who can utilize the now freed up space. So while on the face of it a full utilization of warehouse space sounds good, it is not good for a growing business. That is why, it is not only important to have the right KPI, but you also needs to set the right standards for those KPIs. Standards should be the ones that work for you. (Is 80% space utilization good for you, or you prefer 95%?)

Similarly, KPI also help you in benchmarking. benchmarking tells you how good you are doing as compared to others in the same industry. If your KPI is below the industry standard, that means you are not utilizing your warehouse to the best possible extent. You might be making money, but lower KPI means that you are leaving money on the table. You could get more profits by improving those KPIs. On the other hand if you are beating industry KPI but still not making money, something else is wrong somewhere. A well designed set of KPI itself would direct you to where to look. If you are beating the KPI and making money, it looks like a good sign. But it can also mean you are stretching yourself. If you are extracting higher productivity from your machines and spending less on maintenance, you might have to bear a high depreciation and replace the machines faster. If your order cycle time is very less, you might not have any contingency built into the process. That is risky.

Whether you want to stay with the industry benchmarks or set your own benchmark standards, is entirely up to you. While industry benchmarks are there for a good reason, (most of the industry works at those levels) you don’t have to be bound by them. Your KPIs will vary depending on your niche value proposition and your operating model. For example if you specialize in handling delicate products that need more space for storage, your floor utilization will be lower. Also, the KPIs for 2PL warehouse will be very different from the KPIs for 3PL warehouse.

The Supply Chain Operational Reference Model (the SCOR Model), created by Supply Chain Council, provides for over 200 KPIs for monitoring the overall performance of a supply chain. These are broken into various levels to get more granular picture of the business. Some of these could be used for measuring performance of a warehouse as well. Research them to identify which one are suitable for you. Now that we understand what KPIs means and why we should measure them, let’s look at some of the key KPIs for warehousing business.

The main KPIs for a warehouse should focus on Receiving, put away, storage, pick and pack and shipping.

Inventory Accuracy: What is the accuracy of the workers when preparing the product (or order). It is measured by taking the headcount of the items in the stock and comparing it with what’s recorded in the books. This one has direct impact on your working capital and order fulfilment capacity.

Perfect Order Rate: This measures the number of orders shipped to the customer without any incident. The incident could be damaged goods, inaccurate orders, late shipment etc. Needless to say, this one tells you how well is your warehouse operating where it matters the most, the final fulfilment of order, shipped out of the warehouse.

Productivity: This measure tells how many orders are ready to be picked up by the shipper, per hour. Depending on your warehouse business model, it could the number of orders per hour, or total line items per house or it could be the total dollar value of the orders per hour.

Equipment utilization: This one tells about how well your equipment is being utilized. Underutilization of the equipment means you should stretch it more and achieve more. Overutilization mean higher maintenance and replacement costs. Idle equipment depreciates without giving any return. Over utilized equipment can lead to breakdowns and stop the whole chain, leading to higher losses. Your equipment must be running at the optimum rated utilization to extract maximum value from it.

Cycle time: This KPI measures the total time taken since the material came in as inventory and was picked up by the shipper for delivery, as a part of the order. The shorter the cycle time, the lesser the money tied up in working capital. An end to end cycle time would include the transit and transportation time taken by the shippers for the final delivery to the customer’s premises.

Average cost per order: This KPI measures how much are you spending in running the warehouse. It is calculated as total orders fulfilled divided by the total cost incurred for the warehousing operations. The costs include the manpower costs, cost of rejects and returns absorbed by warehouse, cost of damaged products that are absorbed by warehouse, variable costs for running the warehouse (utilities, taxes, rents, insurance,), equipment cost (consumables and depreciation for large equipment) and all other costs. This should be always be as low as possible, as it eats straight into your profits.

There are many other KPI that you can measure to understand the efficiency of your warehouse operations. The finer the KPI, the deeper the control it can provide. However, at a bare minimum, you must keep an eye out for the top line (revenue), the bottom line (profits) and ROI (return on Investment).

Best 3pl in us, Co-packing
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Benefits of Eco-Conscious, Sustainable Packaging

As your business grows, so do your packaging requirements. More the products sell, the more packaging material is used. This gives you an opportunity to use your packaging wisely to your advantage as well as your consumer’s. A third very important view would be using your packaging for the benefit of the whole world. After it has served its purpose, which is, deliver the product to the customer, Packaging of a product generally becomes waste. As a responsible citizen of the word, everyone including your business should be looking to reduce waste. If you are not already, you should be looking for sustainable packaging solutions. They be called environmental friendly, Eco-friendly or sustainable packaging, but the basic principle is same, that is to reduce the consumption of resources used for packaging the product. PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted a study to understand the impact of sustainable packaging on the industry. Detailed report can be read here. As per the report, the pressure for sustainable packaging will continue to increase on the industry. There will be regulations that the industry will need to follow to ensure sustainability. The industry also needs to be more proactive to define what makes a packaging sustainable and how the sustainability should be measured.

 

So, what is sustainable packaging?

While there is no single definition or description that is accepted globally, sustainablepackaging.org has tried to describe what constitutes sustainable packaging. The key elements of sustainable packaging are

 

  • It is safe & healthy.
  • It meets market criteria for performance and cost.
  • It optimizes the use of renewable or recycled source materials and uses renewable energy.
  • It is physically designed to optimize materials and energy required for manufacturing the packaging.
  • It is effectively recovered and utilized in biological and/or industrial closed loop cycles.

 

Sustainable packaging is not only socially desirable but has business advantage as well. Let’s look at some of the benefits of adopting sustainable packaging.

 

Marketing Advantage/Reputation Boost. This is the one that has direct impact on your top line. Businesses that use environmental friendly practices generally have more favourable image in the market place. Increasing number of consumers are becoming environmentally conscious. When a brand makes an investment in environment friendly practices, it not only boosts its image amongst existing customers, but also gains new customers who are concerned about the environment. When customers, see a firm making a firm commitment to the environment, they want to support that brand. Most of the environment conscious consumers are very active on social media and social media, today, is a very important marketing platform. Imagine the kind of free advertising that you will get when these people talk about your brand. Moreover, many NGOs and Government agencies publish list of preferred companies or highlight the companies that have demonstrated the commitment to sustainability. The consumer activists are always looking at these sources and share their leanings on social media. Moreover, the newer sustainable materials increase the shelf life of many products, keeping them fresh for longer. (think cling film for vegetables) Many customers feel less guilty throwing away the packaging as it is now sustainable and doesn’t contribute to pollution (at least not to a very high extend).

 

Reduced resource consumption. Increasingly the companies that use recycled or sustainable options for packaging are discovering that it also comes with an added cost advantage. It is one of the known facts that sustainable packaging focuses on recycled material which leads to reduced consumption of precious, non-renewable resources. Redesigning the packaging to use lesser material and more compact shape helps in further reducing the use of that material. The key objective here is to reduce overall resource consumption, by reducing the amount of packaging used and reducing the energy used to produce them. Compact shapes translate into lesser space used for transporting, translating into more products being transported for same space and thus reducing the fuel or transportation cost. Given these facts, the investors and analysts have started loving the sustainable packaging options.

 

Reduced Storage. As discussed when using sustainable packaging, one the key objective is to reduce the amount of packaging used. Smaller packaging means reduced storage requirements leading to smaller bins and smaller warehousing requirement. This leads to savings in logistics not only for the supplier but also for the consumer. (Consumers need smaller space in their homes to store the product). Subsequently, the sustainability also helps by increasing warehouse productivity and reduces labour costs. Sustainable packaging also helps in disposing off the empty packaging/packaging. Smaller packaging is always easier to dispose and not to forget, it is easily processed (being sustainable). This reduces the overall disposal cost of packaging material.

 

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Today, every business is required to do CSR activities. Be it reduced energy consumption in terms of heating, cooling or electricity, water, paper and other resources. Sustainable packaging furthers that cause and can be used to present the company as socially responsible one. You help reduce the carbon footprint of not only your company, but also that of your customers, your logistics providers and society at large.

 

Thus, sustainable packaging is a must that companies need to focus on; both for environment and their own benefit.