Survey: WMS' Underutilized
A recent Supply Chain Consortium benchmarking and best practices survey of 100 top retail and related companies from Raleigh, NC-based consultancy Tompkins Associates reveals that too many organizations underutilize their warehouse management system (WMS) investment or do not make sound upgrade and replacement decisions. ...
Protect Your Product: The art and science of void fill
Interior protective packaging helps products survive shipment from their point of manufacture to their ultimate point of use, we generally consider that these protective materials or systems will be designed to perform one or more of the following functions: cushioning, surface protection and void fill. ...
The Varying Impact of Rate Increases
Each winter, the big three parcel carriers—United Parcel Service, FedEx, and DHL—announce an average transportation charge increase of 2% to 6% for the coming year. The net impact of these increases to your parcel expenditure may vary widely within this range, depending on a variety of factors. ...
The Skinny on Small-Item Sorters
A small item sorter can dramatically increase your pick rates by allowing you to select requirements for many orders all at the same time....
10 Steps to Smoother System Selection and Implementation
Systems selection and implementation is serious business, and no one wants to make an already complex process more difficult or more costly. Over the years, we've determined some principles to follow during an implementation project that will significantly improve the chances of success for all parties concerned. ...
Merchant Service Processing: What You Must Know!
Most merchants need to accept credit cards in one form or another to survive in the current payment environment. Here are some tips to achieve the best merchant service relationship possible. ...
Training Champions
One of the most difficult jobs in the world today is that of a front-line supervisor. Front-line supervisors face considerable challenges each and every day—identifying and resolving critical business issues as well as tackling difficult human resource issues....
Three Solutions to Help You Think Vertically
If your warehouse is out of space for your smaller items, such as parts, vendor boxes, and totes, here are three relatively inexpensive vertical storage solutions. ...
Getting Ready for Post-Holiday Returns
If you’re a fourth-quarter business, you’ve no doubt already inspected your warehouse systems, double-checked demand forecasts, stocked your shelves, reevaluate labor processes to optimize order fulfillment. But in addition to preparing for the holiday season’s spike in output, you also have to get ready for the inevitable return of products....
Moving the Contact Center from a Cost Burden to a Strategic Asset
It’s remarkable that in today’s high-tech customer service environment, one company has managed to turn “press zero to talk to a human” into not just a selling point, but a major advertising campaign. ...
Buy Smart and Avoid Excess Inventory
Many companies are surprised when they find excess stock of fast moving items during a physical inventory. After getting over the initial surprise, they shrug their shoulders and say: “these are fast-moving items and they should sell.” What they fail to realize is that even though fast-moving items will sell, they carry unnecessary storage costs that affect their bottom line profit. ...
The Ins and Outs of World Class Order Selection
You don't always have to spend a lot of money on a new piece of automaton or software to save significantly in your order selection operation. In fact, many costly systems rely on one or more of the very same process changes we'll discuss here. By deploying one or more of these ideas, you can sometimes dramatically increase your labor efficiency (by 50% or more) and do it without any substantial risk or expense....
Lost Shipment Recovery: Reward Outweighs the Effort
For every shipper, staying in control of lost merchandise is vital. Packages sent but never delivered are costly—not just in strict financial terms, but also with respect to maintaining customer satisfaction. Because the process for claiming missing packages can be cumbersome, monitoring carrier inefficiencies often result in lost leverage and the waste of valuable dollars for shippers. But by using an external service for Lost Shipment Recovery (LSR), clients can see that the reward for keeping a closer watch on lost merchandise far exceeds the effort....
Ask the Fulfillment Doctor:
Question: I’m looking for a low-cost way to sample my customer service. What would you suggest? ...
Moving Toward the Talking Tag
You can’t pick up a supply chain journal today without reading about the monumental productivity advances promised by RFID. By allowing complete and accurate life cycle-tracking of a product, analysts claim that RFID will create faster shipments, fewer errors, and cost savings that more than justify the expense of these systems. ...
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