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ORDER PICKING T
MINIMISING DOWNTIME WITHIN 3PL AND SUPPLY CHAINS: THE ROLE OF QUALITY LABELS
Third-Party Logistics (3PL) providers play a vital role in today’s supply chains. They execute fulfilment for many brands across an array of industries. They handle the receipt, storage, picking, packing and delivery of goods for customers. Further, for many growing ecommerce businesses, they are essential for growth. When operating at capacity, 3PL distribution centres (DC) are extremely busy, as they carry out an array of fulfilment services. The key to the successful running of these complex operations, though, is ensuring warehouses are meticulously organised, that senior management and warehouse staff have a strong handle on inventory at all times, and that staff can pick, pack and ship goods accurately on-time for clients to their customers. DC throughput ultimately supports revenue and profitability for 3PLs and their clients. Many factors drive success though. People, strong operational processes and technology are playing an increasingly vital role. However, today, across the world 3PL staff are in short supply. Automation technology proves value ever more, and fundamental technologies like barcode scanners and label printers continue to keep warehouses in order. Jeremie Brocas, BIXOLON Europe, explains that embracing these technologies enables 3PLs and similar logistics organisations, to improve traceability and ensure that their entire supply chains run smoothly.
he 3PL market is ripe for the picking. Statista says the global logistics market was worth 8.4 trillion US dollars in 2021 – whereas by 2027 it forecasts that this market will exceed 13.7 trillion
US dollars. Evidently, there is immense opportunity for fulfilment organisations to thrive. The supply chain technology provider,
Extensiv, recently published its 2023 Third-Party Logistics Warehouse Benchmark Report too. It shares insights about growth opportunities available to 3PL companies; saying that acquiring new customers is the greatest opportunity for 86 per cent of the companies it surveyed. Additionally, 50 per cent of companies say that automating processes in warehouses is key; and 46 per cent cite growth related to ecommerce as the third greatest opportunity. Others include diversifying services (39 per cent), adding warehouses in new locations (36 per cent), creating a 4PL network (36 per cent), and other (25 per cent). Opportunity doesn’t come without a backdrop of business challenges though. The same research points out that the top challenge for many 3PLs will be managing costs (48 per cent). Other challenges cited include: finding new customers (36 per cent), finding and retaining workers (32 per cent), operational efficiency (32 per cent), technology implementation and integration (29 per cent), growing revenue (27 per cent), inflation (18 per cent), finding and acquiring warehouse space (15 per cent), customer retention (10 per cent), and customer communication and requests (seven per cent). Descartes Systems Group provides additional insight about the staff shortages too in its report – How Bad is the Supply Chain and Logistics Workforce Challenge – where it states that 76 per cent of logistics leaders reported labour shortages.
ENHANCING TRACEABILITY AND INVENTORY MANAGEMENT It is clear here that technology has a key role to play in supporting operational efficiency within 3PL and wider supply chain organisations. It offers benefits at all areas and levels; ranging from transportation operations, to warehouse operations and to knowledge workers within distribution centres. We see order management systems (OMS), warehouse management systems (WMS) and transportation management systems (TMS) taking the lead in organising warehouses and providing vital information to staff about goods - and the state of the distribution centre - as stock is picked, packed and shipped to customers for 3PL clients. Most of these technologies are cloud-based today and offer fulfilment centre operators and their clients impressive analytics about stock passing through their DCs – such as what’s old, what’s moving fast, and what to put on sale. While these technologies are increasingly vital as part of improving operational efficiency, there is one set of tools that continues to be core to
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