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Where your products arrive, and how they are handled is extremely important to you as an e-commerce business. What happens inside the warehouse is key to getting your products to your final customer. If the warehouse is in chaos and there is no proper process in place, it is very likely that your customers' orders will arrive incorrectly and/or late. That's why finding solutions that take that burden off your shoulders is important.
3PL companies have the responsibility to guarantee a unique and versatile solution. In addition, they are offering greater security and control in all operations. That said, we would like to share with you some of the characteristics of how warehouses work in 3PL companies.
How do warehouses work in 3PL companies?
Every 3PL company has its strategies and equips its warehouses according to what it offers. For example, byrd's European warehouses are equipped with pallet racking that fits most shapes and sizes, additionally making it easier for warehouse personnel to find everything and also providing direct access to all the merchandise.
Another option offered is inventory tracking software, a tool that helps you in real time to organize and manage your stock, orders, sales, and product deliveries. For any warehouse to be efficient, they have to be able to adapt to the multiple strategies that exist.
5 aspects you should take into account when managing your warehouse
Technology impressively helps us in several aspects of our lives and the management of your products in warehouses is no exception. Here we share with you the 5 features you should take into account when selecting a warehouse:
1. Connecting the warehouse with technology
Modern 3PL companies decide to develop a dashboard to connect the customer, their products, and the warehouse. In this way, the dashboard becomes an essential part of communication and inventory management. When you send products to the warehouse it is important that you know what is happening with them, whether they have already been processed or shipped to your customers.
At byrd, we have two dashboards that are connected to each other, one that you have as a customer and one that the warehouse staff has. Here you can create shipments with the products that you are going to send to the warehouse and the staff can see the details of the shipment, when the products will arrive, etc. On the other hand, when your goods arrive at the logistics center, you can also be aware of what step the warehouse is going through, i.e., if it has been accepted, if it has been unloaded, etc.
2. Efficient and intuitive software
Over the years we have confirmed that simple and easy-to-use software is crucial for excellent performance. The 3PL company software has to fulfill its mission, simplify processes and create a quick solution.
Make sure that in your customer dashboard, you have the option to define the shipping conditions. This information tells the respective warehouse what kind of stocks it will receive and must process. Some details are as follows:
- The respective SKUs
- Type of products
- If your products come in boxes or pallets (you must declare the dimensions and weight; this helps the warehouse to allocate space).
Once you enter all the information on the dashboard, a delivery ID is automatically created, this ID is assigned to identify the shipment that the warehouse will receive. The details of the delivery ID display show all the information about what your shipment contains. Once the ID is generated, our dashboard automatically creates a sticker for you to attach to the outside of the pallet or box.
Something as simple as your product description gives the warehouse a lot of information about how to handle what arrives in the warehouse.
Learn more about our fulfillment dashboard here
3. Warehouse personnel must be trained
What we mean by this is that it is not only important that they know how to unload products and process them. It is essential that they know how to distribute them in the right way, and how to handle the software that manages the number of products entering and leaving the warehouse. These details, which are not as small as they seem, are part of a successful supply chain.
At byrd, we not only develop efficient dashboards that connect the customer with the warehouse. We also provide training for the use of our control panels.
The dashboard communicates to the warehouse personnel how to handle the products, and they are responsible for verifying that all the merchandise that was previously entered on the dashboard has arrived at the warehouse. So, in order to do this, the personnel need an onboarding to the dashboard.
4. Order matters
Order is key, we know, especially when handling large quantities of SKUs. Make sure that the 3PL company that manages your products has an organized warehouse and above all that it knows clearly where each product is located.
When the products arrive at the warehouse, a space within the warehouse is assigned to those products, here it is of utmost importance that no mistake is made, as you don't want your customers to receive the wrong products. In order to prevent these mistakes, warehouse personnel must be trained to define how to accommodate the product.
5. Returns are also handled by warehouse personnel
In the case of returns, products, depending on the 3PL company but most likely, are sent back to the same warehouse where they were shipped. And it is important that staff know what to do with these products and especially where to return them to. Either they put them as a priority to go out on the next order because they have an expiration date or they return them to their designated space.
Conclusion
One of the biggest responsibilities of a 3PL company is that your customers' products arrive quickly and safely at their final destination. And for this process to be carried out, it is necessary to have an order about what enters and leaves the warehouse. Outsourcing your logistics to a third-party company has its advantages. With byrd you are only in charge of processing the products within our dashboard and that's it.
We have created a simple solution where you can have control over the management of your warehouses and how they are moving inside.