Brian Barry
Brian Barry, president of F. Curtis Barry & Co., has 24 years’ experience consulting with clients on multichannel operations and systems projects. He started his career working on IT projects include developing client strategies for selection and implementation of ERP, OMS and WMS. Brian has worked with hundreds of clients on warehousing and supply chain operations. He helps them develop multi-DC strategies, including network planning and site location; apply automation and technology; reconfigure existing centers to increase capacity; process improvement; and customer service excellence. He also works with a network of 3PLs and service providers to help craft client solutions that deliver results within budget constraints.
Many ecommerce businesses realize 60% to 70% of their profits in the fourth quarter. For multichannel businesses and wholesalers, their peak season starts months earlier to supply retail and ecommerce. Take the time now to analyze your fulfillment successes and failures and develop an improvement plan for this Q4 using these 7 steps.
Order picking is one of the most important functions in the ecommerce fulfillment center. The customer experience can be a good or bad one based on accuracy and timeliness. Assess your operations to determine how and at what cost changes can be made to processes, technology and automation.
A horrible experience with an Amazon order for a child’s Christmas gift quickly morphs into an object lesson for your ecommerce fulfillment operations. You may never get a chance to make a second impression on a new customer. Here are 6 ways to help you ensure that the experience for your customers is consistently excellent.
An agile ecommerce supply chain is focused on speed, cost savings, productivity and responsiveness and flexibility to market demands. Supply chain management (SCM) exists to improve a company’s long-term performance. Here are 10 steps to help you improve your ecommerce supply chain agility and performance.
Many ecommerce fulfillment centers spend much of their time implementing reactive tactics without ever thinking through the strategy of what they’re trying to achieve. Often the terms “tactics” and “strategy” are incorrectly used interchangeably. Here are 8 supply chain strategies to help you improve your ecommerce operations.
Many multichannel companies have found 3PLs to be comparably priced to internal ecommerce fulfillment while providing quality services. But negotiating a contract to work with a 3PL partner takes time plus a combination of business sense and legal guidance. As you build an agreement, here are 9 key considerations to keep in mind.
Vendor compliance is achieved when a merchandise vendor shipping a retailer’s purchase order satisfies the retailer’s requirements, typically specified as a condition of the retailer-vendor relationship and the purchase order negotiated by the retailer. Here are 9 tips to help you develop a successful vendor compliance program.
If you’re thinking about replacing your inventory management system, a search will turn up literally hundreds of commercially available systems, including specialized ones that may not fit your multichannel business. Here are the top 6 features that you should be considering when upgrading your system, and what to look out for.
Shipping and manifesting systems have used barcodes for a long time, but not to their full potential. In recent years adoption is increasing as businesses find they can dramatically increase control of their fulfillment center operations. Here are 11 ways barcode can provide greater operational efficiency, cost savings and a good ROI.
To determine if your ecommerce fulfillment center is running as efficiently as possible, start with an operations audit or assessment, taking into account quantitative and qualitative aspects of all processes and systems. Here are 11 ways to reduce costs, make your operations run smoother and improve the customer experience.