Shop Talk
Palletized-Freight vs. Single-Package Packaging Materials
Operations and fulfillment personnel have many issues to consider with respect to packaging. Not only is it important to choose the correct type of container to ship your product in; the appropriate materials and package testing are also essential elements in the process to make sure your customers are getting product that is undamaged.
How do packaging materials vary between the palletized-freight environment and single-package environment?
In the palletized-freight environment, most packaging engineers and shippers are packaging to protect from a possible one-time catastrophic event that can occur during shipping or when the customer gets that package home. For example, a customer buys a television and it is packed in hard, rigid polystyrene foam. That is a single-impact cushion. It absorbs the shock by cracking and breaking apart. A lot of packaging materials in the palletized-freight environment are not well-suited for the single-packaging environment, where shippers need to choose cushions that have better multiple-impact properties, such as polyethylene and polyurethane. You can manipulate these materials and they will bounce back to their original design position. They absorb the impacts that occur during the manual and mechanical handling process and provide protection through entire distribution cycle.
For more tips go to www.adeptivsolutions.com
(Source: multichannelmerchant.com)
Which Type of 3PL is Best for Your Business?
So, you know that 3PLs manage products and transportation for a company, but maybe you may not be aware that there are several different types 3PLs.
Third-Party Logistics Providers (3PLs) are organizations that provide logistics support for companies. This simply means that 3PL providers manage or control the movement and storage of products for the company that hires them. Depending on the type of 3PL, this management (and the 3PL’s involvement with the hiring company) can take on different characteristics.
Standard 3PLs perform basic logistics work. 3PLs in this category manage product storage, transportation, and distribution at the behest of the hiring company. Since these 3PLs only offer basic services, they often offer other services beyond logistics.
Service Developer 3PL
Service Developers offer the logistics support of a standard 3PL along with added infrastructure and management. Service Developers offer IT support, product tracking, and product security. Because of this added infrastructure and expertise, companies that hire Service Developer 3PLs can ensure the safety and reliability of their products.
Customer Adapter 3PL
A Customer Adapter 3PL in essence entirely runs the logistics at the behest of the hiring company. This type of 3PL inherits the logistical operation from the hiring company; it does not create its own operation. A Customer Adapter 3PL may enhance and improve the existing logistical infrastructure already in place.
Customer Developer 3PL
Similar to the Customer Adapter, the Customer Developer takes over the logistics of the hiring company entirely. But, unlike the Customer Adapter, the Developer 3PL integrates itself with the hiring business. While a Customer Adapter will run a company’s logistics department, the Customer Developer will in essence become the company’s logistics department.
Have other questions about types of 3PLs? Contact us at www.adeptivsolutions.com
Source: Types of 3PL Providers
By G.S. Jackson, eHow Contributor
Why You Should Outsource Your Fulfillment
There are multiple reasons why a business would outsource their fulfillment. In a recent article I read by Matt Konkle from multichannelmerchant.com, he gives four reasons to outsource fulfillment. I would be curious to know your thoughts or additions to this.
Every merchant wants the problem of rapid growth. But the issues that can arise from this scenario – delayed shipping, product backorders, and angry customers – are also every merchant’s worst nightmare. When the capacity of your operations is compromising the health of your business and the achievement of your goals, merchants should consider solutions that can put them back in control.
For many fast-growing companies, that solution is outsourced order fulfillment. Here are four reasons why:
Scalable Operations
Warehouse space isn’t free. As your business grows and you sell more product, you’ll need to stock more product – which will require additional facilities and staff. When you work with an outsourced fulfillment warehouse, you will have access to both without investing additional time and money on infrastructure or equipment. As your business continues to expand (via acquisition, expansion, or good old-fashioned sales increases), your fulfillment provider can scale with you.
Faster, better delivery options
Many outsourced fulfillment providers offer multiple warehouse locations, allowing a retailer to spread operations across a larger geographic area as their customer base continues to expand. By selecting a provider with locations central to its core customer base, a merchant can offer faster and less expensive shipping options to more buyers – and save on its freight costs as well.
Top expertise and vendors
Merchants who grow quickly often lack the leadership experience or knowledge to manage the challenges that come with that rapid growth. Partnering with a seasoned fulfillment outsourcer brings industry expertise to your retail team without having to seek out and pay for in-house talent. In addition, an outsourced provider also brings its clients a network of top vendors of everything from packaging supplies to freight carriers – all at a more economical cost than a stand-alone merchant can typically achieve.
Focus on growing your business
The day-to-day process of running a warehouse is hard enough – scaling labor, maximizing space layout, organizing and tracking inventory, etc. These tasks are multiplied when orders are coming in faster than they can be sent out. With a third-party provider, operational issues are addressed and handled by the operations team (makes sense, right?). This leaves the merchant’s management team to focus on more long-term initiatives and additional opportunities for growth.
www.adeptivsolutions.com
What is a Multi-Channel Experience?
Adeptiv Solutions understands that your customers place orders through different channels, and also need support through their chosen method of communication.
What is a multi-channel experience? It’s the experience a customer has of a brand gained from all interactions through managed and unmanaged points for the duration of that relationship.An example of customer engagement would be the repeated interactions that strengthen the emotional, psychological, and physical investing that a customer has in a brand. When coming up with a multi-channel strategy, there are several challenges.
The first challenge is that we’re in an increasingly attention deficit society. People sometimes need to be consistently reminded in order for them to act.
Secondly, we live in a “I want it now” society, which means that if we can’t get it instantly, we’ll go somewhere else.
Thirdly, there is a challenge of monetization. How do you make the money you need with what you’re doing?
Here are three possible approaches to creating a multi-channel strategy:
1.) Choose your channels– strategic criteria for channel change and adoption (experience, pre-emptive strike, access, risk, and cost)
2.) Design your channels
3.) Create a plan
For information on how Adeptiv Solutions can help enhance your business operations, feel free to contact us at www.adeptivsolutions.com
How Packaging Can Make A Difference
This is an article from Supply Chain Brain that I thought was very well said. It discusses packaging and troubleshoots the problems many retailers face.
Packaging is beginning to affect a greater portion of a company’s global operations, according to Tom Blanck, principal and practice leader in the Packaging Optimization Practice of Chainalytics. Improvements in that area “have the opportunity to ripple throughout the supply chain,” he says. “They help lower transportation costs, maximize the utilization of a warehouse, affect pallet loads and cut down on labor.” Blanck says the rising cost of transportation has caused companies to become more aware of the possibilities of achieving savings through better packaging.
The key is to minimize the amount of air in a package. “The best way to reduce your transportation bill is not to ship something,” says Gary Girotti, vice president of Chainalytics’ Transportation Practice. For that reason, savings from packaging innovations are usually credited to a company’s transportation group. “We work to make sure that [the issue of] overall savings is corporately addressed, so that a company can understand that it’s a good thing for all.”
Often there’s tension within the organization as package designers struggle to achieve the right balance between efficiency and aesthetics. The latter is a subjective skill, while the supply-chain function requires a more “hard-core” approach, Girotti says. But waste is more than an issue of direct costs. Increasingly, companies are factoring in the need for sustainability and environmental responsibility. “Packaging needs to be more green,” says Blanck. “Sometimes that drives packaging costs up.” Companies need a system that can optimize the entire process, based on all relevant criteria.
Security is another key concern. Often a maker of electronics or other types of consumer goods will encase the item in hard-to-open packaging. But that approach can entail an excessive use of materials, with resulting higher transportation costs. (One possible solution is radio frequency identification technology, which allows for closer monitoring of high-value products.) The same dilemma occurs when packaging is geared toward minimizing damage to goods in transit. The tendency is to over-protect items, with an incomplete understanding of what kind of damage is likely to occur in various modes of transport. Girotti says companies need to understand what they are shipping, and how the product is moving.
Source: The Impact of Packaging on Transportation Efficiency and Sustainability
SupplyChainBrain
Cloud Storage–What is it? How Does it Work?
Most of you reading this blog have been using the computer for a fairly long time. You may use it for work or just personal things, but for many it’s hard to delete everything consistently. It seems that everyone with a computer spends a lot of time acquiring data and then trying to find a way to store it.
For some computer owners, finding enough storage space to hold all the data they’ve acquired is a real challenge. Some people invest in larger hard drives. Others prefer external storage devices like thumb drives or CDs. Desperate computer owners might delete entire folders worth of old files in order to make space for new information. But some are choosing to rely on a growing trend: cloud storage.
While cloud storage sounds like it has something to do with weather fronts and storm systems, it really refers to saving data to an off-site storage system maintained by a third party. Instead of storing information to your computer’s hard drive or other local storage device, you save it to a remote database. The Internet provides the connection between your computer and the database.
On the surface, cloud storage has several advantages over traditional data storage. For example, if you store your data on a cloud storage system, you’ll be able to get to that data from any location that has Internet access. You wouldn’t need to carry around a physical storage device or use the same computer to save and retrieve your information. With the right storage system, you could even allow other people to access the data, turning a personal project into a collaborative effort. So cloud storage is convenient and offers more flexibility, but how does it work? How can you use it for your business? At home? For school? Adeptiv Solutions has the answers for you. Call today to speak to us about how using the Cloud can be to your advantage.
(Source: Jonathan Strickland)
It’s Time to Evaluate Your Leadership Style
Have you reflected recently about your leadership style? Are you someone who you’d like to work for? As we begin the new year, think about how your employees see you as their leader.
Studies have shown that employees feel the most comfortable in a FAIR work environment. Performance tends to be a fairer way to measure workers. Steve Hopper of the Progress Group recently gave this for an example. He says, “Think about measuring the productivity of two people working on an order-picking line who were supposed to pick 220 lines per hour. If one is picking anvils and the other is picking feather pillows, it is not a fair comparison. But when we set up a standard based on the content of the work, the worker can be measured more fairly. Having a fairer form of worker measurement makes for a better work environment and happier employees, he says. Workers thrive in an environment where they feel they are being measured fairly and accurately and where they are rewarded and empowered to do their jobs.”
Hopper says there are three factors that determine the performance of a worker: the method, technique and tools that a worker uses to perform a function; the pace at which he works; and time utilization, or the amount of time actually working vs. engaged in other activities. Companies wishing to improve labor performance need to address all three, but remedies do not have to be expensive or complex, he says.
“Often companies don’t take the time to evaluate how a worker is going about a task,” he says. “Sometimes simple, little changes can improve a worker’s method at little or no cost.” Using industrial engineering or crowd engineering techniques can improve elements of the job without investing in software or systems, he says. “It’s about finding the smartest way to perform a job.”
Better training, proper incentives and labor management systems can all help, he says. “But the very best thing a business can do is talk to and spend time with their associates. Don’t sit in an ivory tower. Ask the associate what is the right way to do the job and what tools and techniques will make them more effective.”
(Source: Steve Hopper, supplychainbrain.com )
Cloud Computing Basics (Part 8)
Making the Most of Your Cloud Investments
With the incredible growth of cloud computing resources, there are very few companies that cannot achieve significant time, cost, and efficiency benefits from entering the cloud. The key is identifying those parts of your business that are right for cloud computing — whether because they are data-intensive, involve partner collaboration or are otherwise well suited — then creating a close partnership with a trusted managed services provider.
The right partner should combine IT expertise and a commitment to security with a general business approach that helps you maximize your return on your technology investments. Cloud managers should understand both the applications you are running and the data you are storing, as well as how these resources can be applied to your core business challenges. This approach not only helps cloud computing deliver a lower total cost of ownership and quicker returns — but, more importantly, positions your business for a competitive advantage by turning technology and information into powerful strategic weapons.
As always, if you have any questions about Cloud Computing, contact Adeptiv Solutions. www.adeptivsolutions.com
Cloud Computing Basics (Part 7)
This is a continuation of an interesting article I read called
“Is Your Critical Data Protected in the Cloud– as Well as Leveraged to Its Full Potential?” by Joseph King from JDA Managed Services.
In his article, King discusses concerns that business owners often have about having their sensitive data in a cloud-based system and who’s minding it.
Even though cloud computing relies heavily on high-quality computing resources and stringent IT protocols, all these technologies and processes are managed on a day-to-day basis by people. It’s essential to ask and answer the question: Who is actually managing my data? What are their credentials and skill sets?
The best cloud providers will have teams of hundreds of experts supporting your cloud computing needs every single day. Not only should these cloud managers be subject to background checks, confidentiality agreements and daily security protocols that control their access to the cloud, but they should also have a broad range of hardware, software and business skills.
They should not only be technology experts, but also business generalists who understand your organization’s strategic needs for various software applications and operating information — and who can help custom-tailor the cloud’s capabilities to best meet your needs. Cloud managers should know not only how to store data but how to apply data to help customers streamline processes, reduce risk and expedite business results from software investments that are already in place.
While your internal IT team might only consist of a small group of people, the right cloud provider can supply a team of highly qualified, credentialed experts to supplement your team. By relying on this external expertise to streamline your daily computing needs and help you leverage your data to the fullest extent, your IT staff can focus on the core strategic priorities that are driving your business.
As always, contact Adeptiv Solutions for all of your Cloud Computing concerns. www.adeptivsolutions.com
Cloud Computing Basics (Part 6)
This is a continuation of an interesting article I read called
“Is Your Critical Data Protected in the Cloud– as Well as Leveraged to Its Full Potential?” by Joseph King from JDA Managed Services.
In his article, King discusses concerns that business owners often have about having their sensitive data in a cloud-based system and how to test the system for security purposes….
Accountability should be established via standard operating system event logs that are carefully maintained and monitored. Ongoing alerts should monitor both the health and performance metrics of each technology system. Networks and systems should be safeguarded with a variety of firewalls, including intrusion prevention systems, data loss prevention systems and Web application firewalls.
Cloud managers should ensure that all systems and processes are compliant with standards such as SSAE-16 (SAS-70) and Sarbanes-Oxley — and should schedule security audits on a regular basis to ensure that protocols are upheld stringently over time.
Viruses and system vulnerabilities should be addressed via a highly disciplined series of ongoing patches and scans. This is one area where cloud providers, with their hundreds of vigilant employees, can provide an enormous advantage. Each patch had to be fully tested and certified before deployment, which would represent a challenging feat for even the largest companies managing their own IT infrastructure.
Of course, clouds should also provide a high degree of redundancy and availability, minimizing the risk of an extended service outage. Full functionality and access should always be restored quickly, and companies with a high volume of mission-critical data should be able to create custom service agreements that guarantee an extremely fast service and data recovery window. Cloud providers should test their own disaster preparedness on an ongoing basis to assess and improve their capabilities.
For more information about using Cloud Computing for your business, contact www.adeptivsolutions.com