Outsourcing your e-commerce order fulfillment process is one of the best things you can do. There are many factors that should be considered so that your system works faster and brings you more profit. Inventory management, packaging, and the shipping process, are roles an outsourced third-party logistics (3PL) company can perform far better, and at a more affordable price, than you on your own. Here are some important factors your e-commerce fulfillment company should consider for better success in the future.

Technology

E-commerce order fulfillment centers can benefit from working with a 3PL provider, as they can provide technology solutions that bring visibility and functionality. These solutions help your business run more effectively and efficiently. Two types of technology used for these processes include flexible Order Management Systems (PMS) and Warehouse Management Systems (WMS). These are the keys to your success. Make sure to evaluate the systems to make sure that they meet the requirements of your omnichannel strategy. Ask yourself questions like these: Does the 3PL company provide consistent consumer experience, and improve order accuracy at the same time? Are the efficient with processing orders?

Shipping Flexibility

Today’s e-commerce world is all about the consumer. As the need to meet the customer’s needs increases over time, you need to make sure that your 3PL provider is flexible when it comes to shipping options. They need to meet the current and future demands of your customers, by providing a variety of shipping options. They should provide both domestic and international delivery options, that work with consumer needs. Customers desire instant gratification when they spend money on your products, so, you should aim to find a balance between the most affordable shipping method per individual package, meeting the customer’s desired delivery times, and saving money on shipping charges.

Receiving of Initial Inventory

Third-party logistics partners can load all of your product information into their inventory system. From this point, you can send them any inventory of product that you would like them to prepare at their facility. The 3PL company will follow procedure and adequately fill product orders. Most of these companies use inventory management systems and forecasting, that allows them to determine the proper inventory levels that need to be maintained at the warehouse. When you are about to receive your initial inventory, the 3PL will inspect the product for damage, to make sure there are no damages or defects.

Printed Invoice or Packing Slip

A packing slip or printed invoice that reveals all the items ordered, operates as a helpful checklist to verify and pull orders. Printed invoices are more detailed out of the two, as it also includes prices. This is a great tool that helps you organize your product orders, and make sure that there are no discrepancies.

Returns and Exchange Processes

Returns might sound like a terrifying concept, but if you have a small percentage of returns it can actually be good for your business. By addressing your customers’ concerns by sending them a replacement product within a reasonable time, you can build trust with them, so that they will continue to buy from you again in the future. Your 3PL partner should provide a standard return policy, so that customers are aware of what are the acceptable reasons for a replaced product, and what reasons are not. Customers will usually fight to return orders, regardless of the issue, so you need to ensure that your 3PL partner can handle these situations, and that your bottom line can absorb the return, or the loss of the customer.

Outsource Your e-Commerce Fulfillment with Lean Supply Solutions

After considering these factors, it may be a good idea to speak with a reliable and reputable 3PL to discuss your approach and get more information. A 3PL can help you manage your operations so you can focus on making your business and brand more accessible to your online shoppers. If you’re looking for the right company to partner with, Lean Supply Solutions is the answer. We arise to the challenge of meeting our clients’ needs through our services which include product fulfillment, warehousing and distribution, e-commerce fulfillment, warehouse pick-and-pack, and order fulfillment. Lean Supply Solutions is able to offer consistent, accurate, and quality results. To learn more about outsourcing to our 3PL distribution team, or to ask any questions, contact us at 416-748-8982.

The automotive supply chain has many different aspects and is a very complex system. Companies who work within this industry have to be sure that their supply chain management system is functioning properly and that profits are growing as your customer base does. In reality, however, when the automotive industry continues to grow, challenges also continue to arise. Many of these challenges can be difficult and/or impossible to handle on your own if you are a small- to medium-size business. Strategic supply chain management must always be the top priority so that you don’t fall behind when these challenges appear. To prepare for some possible challenges you may face, here are the top seven supply chain challenges that are impacting automotive companies, and how a third-party (3PL) logistics company can help you overcome these obstacles.

Overstocked Inventories

Believe it or not, there is a sweet spot to inventory management. You should keep inventories well-stocked, but not overstocked. The automobile industry has been growing over the last few years, but that does not mean you need to oversupply yourself. You can maintain a balance by working with a third-party logistics partner. They use software that tracks and measured data about your inventory, and this data can inform you on which items are requested the most. When you have full visibility of the items you need to have well-stocked, you can make better decisions about what quantity of each item should be on hand each day.

Sheer Amount of Recalls

If for some reason, you have to conduct a large amount of product recalls, this can be a high cost your company. Failures in your supply chain services like this can be a long and complex issue that can tarnish your name, disrupt your system, and affect your customer reputation. Especially if you have a complex global chain, there is a higher risk of negative consequences. Your teams will need to trace and receive all of the affected products, and deal with quality control. When it comes to the automotive industry, the health and safety of your customers should be your number one priority. If you ever have to deal with an airbag inflator recall, it can severely damage your reputation and cause long-lasting effects on your business.

Control Over Supply Chain on a Global Scale

If you are an automotive manufacturer, distributor, or supplier, you’re providing and sourcing a wide range of products internationally. To contain costs, you must be able to move towards “just-in-time” operations. To achieve this goal, you must have a full visibility of each element in your supply chain, and have all the data necessary to create a plan for future growth. Third-party logistics companies can provide software that allows you to automate your process, and have full visibility at each stage.

Logistics Chain: Flexible and Reliable

When adapting to changes in demand, or responding to competitors, you must be flexible and reliable. In high season and low season, you need to be able to adjust and manage each aspect of your operations so that you are continuously profiting and benefiting from a good return on investment. It is a good idea to work with a third-party logistics partner, who is as flexible as you are, regardless of the conditions. Having a trustworthy and reliable partnership can guarantee a successful logistics chain.

Tracking the Geographic Expansion

It takes careful planning to grow your business, track your geographic expansion of customers, and add new facilities in different locations. To succeed, you’ll need a logistics partner who completely understands your processes, and can execute your plan in any location. They need to be aware of the local standards and conditions of the region, and should have a trustworthy and open communication with you at each stage of the supply chain.

Cost and Location

As the intensity of manufacturing increases due to innovation, consumer demand, and technology, vehicle manufacturers will want to see their suppliers working locally. Automotive companies will want their suppliers to be available in every jurisdiction where they have a manufacturing president. Each business location must be evaluated by the following factors: financing, relocation or recruitment of the workforce, rules and regulations of a new jurisdiction, maintaining client production output quotas and quality, optimizing production lines during the transition, closing down one facility and setting up the other, etc., considering cost and location requires effective financial planning, otherwise companies can miss out on profits.

Environment and Ethics

Supply chain management in the automobile industry involves a multitude of quality standards and regulations that make you responsible for the safety, ethical, and environmental impacts of you company. Your third-party logistics partner needs to understand these quality demands of your industry. They should have a recognized track record in providing solutions that meet those demands, and the internal controls necessary to manage the international challenges of your business.

Partner with LSS for Automotive Supply Chain Support

If you are looking for a reliable and successful third-party logistics partner to help you avoid or overcome these challenges, Lean Supply Solutions can help you. We make ourselves aware of supply chain management trends and issues in the automotive industry as they arise to help our clients get the most out of their operations. We understand the demands and obstacles that rise as your company grows, and we are committed to making sure your operations do not fall behind. Our third-party logistics, packaging, and supply chain management can streamline your processes for better success. By striving to ensure that the right products are provided to the right customers at the right time, Lean Supply Solutions is able to offer consistent, accurate, and quality results. To learn more about outsourcing to our 3PL distribution team, or to ask any questions, contact us at 416-748-8982.

Did you know that transportation costs can make up over half of a company’s total expenses and logistics? Factors like labour, global business growth, new market penetration, complex supply chains, and increasing the material prices are becoming more and more important when calculating transportation costs. Thankfully, transport integration has been saving businesses money by making their system work more effectively and at a better overall cost.

Integrated Transportation Solution: How Does It Work?

An integrated transportation solution works by adding an additional layer to existing transportation to optimize it and better serve a shipper’s needs. This dedicated solution provides shippers with greater coverage and flexibility to scale their assets as necessary. It provides reliability, customer service, and control that a shipper would normally expect from a private fleet.

Strategic Transportation Network Planning

The optimization process for integrated logistics begins with strategic planning. This entails planning an optimal transportation structure for a new market or product, and defining a cost structure. These costs can be reduced by the following:

• Optimizing the structure at large, and levering network synergies
• Optimizing processes like improving “empties” runs
• Optimizing packages such as increasing capacity levels, or using containers that are foldable
• Optimizing tariffs which can be achieved by re-tendering and benchmarking current tariffs

Digital Supply Network in Logistics

A digital supply network uses new technologies to change the way products are designed, sourced, made, moved, stored, and serviced in the supply chain. Transportation is a key component of the digital supply network, and it can help companies establish a competitive advantage and contribute to sustained and profitable growth. Implementing additional supply networks with an integrated transportation strategy is beneficial, and it has become central to a company’s growth. With this system, companies can gain a significant advantage over their competitors who still see transportation as a bunch of disconnected elements, rather than a vital, strategic, and unified system.

Multiple Transportation Management Systems

Transportation Management Systems (TMS) can help your business increase visibility, improve performance, and reduce spending. TMS software provides a variety of benefits that include better management, simple monitoring, stress-free integration, and aggregated data. This technology also provides superior customer service, intelligence, and flexibility by improving freight logistics and management, scheduling, operations, and reporting. There are different levels of integrated transportation systems, but with full integration, business can have a chance at gaining data that find real and exact results. TMS provides companies more visibility to adjust their capabilities and collaborate. If the TMS is not fully integrated, companies can easily overlook problems due to limited visibility.

Real-Time Freight Data and Analysis

Real-time freight data analysis allows you to run reports and make better decisions based on your trends and history. Access to such valuable data at your fingertips can empower you to see the total cost of your choices as a business owner, and prevent future expensive bad decisions.

Freight Management and Freight Costs

TMS is flexible enough to help you regain control over freight management, costs, and risks. It achieves this by accommodating custom company business rules, and ensuring all users follow the policies that guarantee efficient and cost-effective shipping.

Shipment Order Entry

The benefits of using an integrated transportation system are seemingly endless. One of the detailed processes involved is shipment order entries, such as the type and quantity of containers, the sender and recipients, and the pickup and delivery schedules. Having detailed processes like these at hand, will allow you to create strategic and tactical planning efforts.

Detailed Dispatching

Detailed dispatching refers to loads that were already modelled and adjusted to allocate single orders to another load. An integrated transport and logistics system can help you get the most efficiency out of this process.

Set Up an Integrated Transportation Solution with Lean Supply Solutions

Integrated supply chain software can add real value to your business and allow you the visibility to create a strategic, tactical, effective planning solution for your transportation department. If you’re a small- to medium-size business, it can be quite a challenge especially if you wanted to see growth. While you should be focusing on your marketing and customer service strategies, you may find yourself struggling to manage your supply chain as well. This is why outsourcing to a third-party logistics company is a great idea.

Lean Supply Solutions can help you if you are looking for a third-party logistics (3PL) company with the latest technology. We make ourselves aware of the rising trends in supply chain transportation and always strive to stay up to date with the latest automation technology. We understand that when correctly employed, automation can drive many benefits to help a company’s bottom line, whether it deals with robotics on the manufacturing floor, features that eliminate manual processes, or features that provide information seamlessly as needed. Logistics automation in a transportation management system can help drive efficiency, eliminate waste, and save you money in this department. We offer our clients consistent, accurate, and quality results through our services, which include product and shipment order fulfillment, warehousing and distribution, pick-and-pack fulfillment services, and more. To learn more about outsourcing to our 3PL distribution team, or to ask any questions, contact us at 416-748-8982.

Today’s customers are increasingly choosing online retail over brick-and-mortar retail stores to get the products they want. The fashion supply chain has seen significant growth in e-commerce interest from customers. Many brands have set up web sites along with their physical stores to meet customer demand and increase the number of sales they can get. Amazon is one e-commerce giant that has launched its own fashion department, providing clothing and accessories from a huge selection of brands to their customers. Fashion retailers need to keep up with this growing change in how consumers seek out the products they want, and to do this they will have to provide and improve their supply chain services and apparel logistics. Here are some ways e-commerce is impacting fashion supply chain management, and advice on how you can get on board.

Supply Chain: Inventory Levels

Inventory management and serving multiple sales channels (online stores, physical stores, wholesale customers, outlets, international stores, etc.) increases the complexity of the supply chain. To meet this growing demand, stock has to be properly managed and products need to move quickly from one channel to the next. To make sure that inventory is properly measured and managed, you will need to have stock visibility across every channel. Automating your inventory management and using technology in the warehouse can help you achieve this goal and become more productive and efficient on the whole.

Sustainability

An important thing to remember when adding an online store to your fashion brand is to make sustainability a priority. This is a huge trend based on the growing awareness of consumers that economic globalization and technological progress cannot be separated from environmental and social conditions and impact. Since customers are more aware of the possible negative implications of globalization, sustainability has to be an issue that the fashion industry considers, and this directly impacts you.

e-Commerce and m-Commerce

Not only are customers buying more over the Internet, they are also using their mobile devices to shop for added convenience. This is known as m-commerce. If you are delivering a negative experience to your customers, you can really miss out on this opportunity. When shopping on mobile apps, customers expect the products they want to be available and delivered to their home quickly at minimal cost. For your business, this can be both a complication and a benefit—your store has to meet high customer expectations when you receive and manage orders, but you can also increase your selling opportunities and have an optimal return on investment.

Return Rates

Since customers aren’t able to test out or try on products, e-commerce has led to an increase in return rates. This process can cost you a lot of money and set you back if you are not prepared to quickly meet this customer demand. You need to maintain the availability of your products and ensure that as much stock as possible can be resold at full price. If your returns process is not diligently managed, the cost of markdowns and lost sales will continue to increase. That being said, there is a commercial opportunity for your returns process to generate additional profit since it can create good will and provide a longer-lasting connection with your customers. This is a good opportunity for you to really impress them so that they will become repeat customers and recommend you to their friends and family.

Outsource Your e-Commerce Fulfilment with Lean Supply Solutions

Managing an online store can be a lot of work, so teaming up with e-commerce fulfilment services in Toronto can be helpful. If you’re looking for a reliable company that can help your business grow, Lean Supply Solutions is the answer. We rise to the challenge of meeting our clients’ needs through our services, which include product fulfilment, repackaging in the supply chain, pick and pack warehouse services, distribution, e-commerce fulfilment, and order fulfilment. Lean Supply Solutions is able to offer consistent, accurate, and quality results. To learn more about outsourcing to our 3PL distribution team, or to ask any questions, contact us at 416-748-8982.

There are a lot of terms involved in the supply chain. Terms like kitting and product fulfillment services, reverse logistics services, and procurement process, are commonly used in this industry. But what do these terms refer to? What is supply chain management and what is the procurement process?

Here are some important things to know about these two terms and what their major differences are. Once you understand what these terms mean, you will be able to benefit from the many tips and services available to you when you partner with a third-party logistics (3PL) team in Toronto.

How Is Procurement Different from a Supply Chain?

Every agent involved in getting your product into the hands of a customer or end user, is known as part of a supply chain. This process involves raw material suppliers or gatherers, manufacturers, transportation companies, wholesale warehouses, in-house staff, stock room workers, and cashiers. To make the supply chain run smoothly, functions such as quality control, marketing, procurement, and sourcing must be involved. The supply chain is the entire process, while procurement is a part of it.

Procurement is defined as the process of getting the products and/or services your company needs to fulfill its business model. The procurement process involves several tasks including developing standards of quality, negotiating prices, financing purchases, buying goods, inventory control, and the disposal of waste products. Once your company has possession of the goods, procurement stops. For companies to profit from this process, the cost of procuring products must be less than the amount the products can be sold for, minus the processing and selling costs.

Supply Chain and Procurement: How Do They Work?

The supply chain refers to all of the moving parts from the time a product leaves the manufacturer to when it arrives on a customer’s doorstep. Supply chain management activities are all efforts made to improve efficiency and effectiveness across all stages along the way. It covers matters such as when products are distributed, material sourcing, manufacturing quantity, quality testing, product storage, and so much more.

Outsourcing your supply chain services allows you to avoid many errors in the system, because you are leaving all of the nitty-gritty duties to the professionals. These outsourced companies provide effective supply chain management by making sure orders are filled quickly while limiting errors along the way; tracking, maintaining, and organizing data to make the process works smoother each time; and getting the product into the customer’s hands faster.

Procurement is just one of the many roles involved in a good supply chain. It should be considered a core component of a company’s corporate strategy. Proper procurement management is vital because an organization can end up spending over half of its revenue on purchasing goods and services.

Procurement makes a huge difference between the success and failure of a business. The procurement process includes the following steps:

• Identifying requirements
• Approving the request for purchase
• Finding suppliers
• Making inquiries and receiving quotations
• Negotiating the terms
• Making a final selection of the vendor
• Creating a purchase order and goods receipt
• Shipping management
• Receiving invoices and making payments

Get Supply Chain and Procurement Services at LSS

If you’re looking for procurement and supply chain services, Lean Supply Solutions can help you. We stay up to date on current trends in the industry and adapt ourselves to be more efficient for our clients. Our third-party logistics, packaging, and supply chain management services can streamline your processes for better success. By striving to ensure that the right products are provided to the right customers at the right time, Lean Supply Solutions is able to offer consistent, accurate, and quality results.

To learn more about outsourcing to our 3PL distribution team, or to ask any questions, contact us at 416-748-8982.