Article 001: Outsourced Logistics providers looking for a WMS technology platform:

Business and Operational Dexterity to deliver maximum value

Are you a 3PL looking to find ways to not only take operational efficiencies to the next level but also further improve your margins?

Would you like to :

1. Without much hassle and spending too much money leverage the same technology platform for all your facilities and all your customers ?

2. But at the same time using the same technology platform to give every single customer personalized services ?

3. And most importantly have clarity on how not only profitable your customers are but also how profitable you are by diving deeper than ever before with visibility of key cost components like direct labor cost and other overhead costs ?

Core Competencies in 3PL

Are you looking for a system that goes beyond basic inventory management and basic WMS . A system that was built specifically for various levels of 3PL operations ranging from level 1 to level 5 warehouses ?

1. A Multi Warehouse , Multi client , personalized business rules at client level , at customer levels and even at sku profile level ?

2. Confidence that all activities , all time based storage ,all over head costs are accurately computed and accounted for and is dispute free billed to you end clients ?

3. Have the ability to stand out by having the capability of offering new value added services via tools that come out of the box built specifically for various industry verticals ?

A system that scales not only just for operational complexity but is also allows flexible user adoption of more sophisticated functionalities .

1. Can run paper based operation or RF based operation or even a fully automated warehouse with LGVs & AGVs …all from a single platform.

2. Can create new facilities , warehouses and onboard new customers on the fly making you more competitive that your competitors.

3. Can allow you to comfortably turn on more sophisticated functionalities as and when your customers demand that of you .

Profitability Guaranteed.

Do you have the right profitibilty model for all your billable operational activities as well as billable storage built into your technology platform ?

1. Use less people and have no more reliance on inaccurate excel sheets

2. Utilize less back office staff to calculate , compute , tally and generate invoices for your customers.

3. Roll out new attractive customer service contracts that give them the best value while ensuring your own profitability.

Your customers appreciates your ability to ‘bend’ to their needs.

Make it easy for your own users to cater more effectively to your customers by providing them with a system that they know and like to use without any technical knowledge . Have a ‘vendor free’ or ‘vendor less’ approach to onboarding new customers and their unique requirements with ease while protecting your margins.Customize only what you absolutely have to but configure the rest approaches that ensure future upgradability of your mission critical systems .

In a thin margin game , TCO is critical .

Your finance and executive management teams will see increased revenue projections as a result of the TCO of your mission critical technology platform which now cost lesser and lesser each year to manage because it’s a system that was specifically built for the 3PL world.

1. A new customer project done in weeks vs months

2. Rapid switch over with minimal down time

3. Full readiness to transact when customer goods arrive at your facility

With a built for purpose WMS technology platform , you only need people with 3PL core competencies to run your platforms , not high calibre technical and IT staff . Acquiring this basic edge will further improve your overall margins .

Variable Org Setup : Multi Company

Are you looking for a flexible solution that can have variable organization setup that would take a lot of money and time to setup in your ERP?

A single instance of your technology platform that will handle unique orgs providing different services or even shared services with common resources but different legal entities ?

Complexities in SKU ownership : Multi-Customer

Are you looking for a multi-owner , multi customer setup ?

The ability to use shared resources (Personell , Material Handling equiptment , facility) to manage goods that may belong to only one customer or goods common across multiple customers while having clarity on indivual customers stock levels .

Platform Convergence : Multi-Warehouse

Are you looking for a single platform to service all your warehouse facilities ?

1. Manage one company to many warehouse relationships.

2. House the same customer in many warehouse facilities or multiple customers in a single warehouse facility.

3. One interface , one dashboard for macro level reporting or micro level reporting for individual customers , order profiles , sku profiles Paper based operations , RF based operations , fully automated or a hybrid all .

If these are all questions you have when embarking on a new WMS technology platform , then you are on the right track .

Get in touch with me if you want the recommendation of a 25++ Supply Chain industry insider .