Five ways to fill the perfect order

Getting it right is more than getting the right product in the right quantity at the right time.

By Bob Trebilcock, Editor at Large -- Modern Materials Handling, 9/17/2007

The perfect order is one of the metrics used by more and more DC managers to gauge the success of their operations.

By most measures, that means getting the right product, in the right quantity to the right customer at the right time. Sounds simple, right?

Not so fast, says Cal Petty, supply chain director for the Colorado-based consulting firm Ciber. While getting all the “rights” perfect is important, it’s also important that orders arrive undamaged, along with the documents and labels that make them easy for your customers to process and for you to do accurate billing. 

Petty presented five ways to improve the perfect order last week in San Diego at Innovation 2007, HighJump Software’s annual user conference. They include:

1) Cartonization: “This is one of the most ignored processes we see in the DC,” says Petty. “But under-utilized boxes drives up shipping costs and under-utilized shipping space can lead to product damage during shipping.” Petty urges clients to create a cartonization strategy that goes beyond a one-size fits all approach. That may include using a warehouse management system to do a pre-carton assignment of orders.

2) Labeling: In addition to getting the right product in the right quantity on a pallet to your customer, you also want that pallet of product to be easier to process than your competitors’ shipments. One way to do that is to standardize the placement of shipping labels on pallets, including placing labels on multiple sides of the pallet. Another is to share shipping data with carriers as well as with customers. In addition, Petty urges clients to make shipments unique to distinguish them from the competition. One tip is to create a paper manifest that goes on the pallet for complex shipments. A second is to create a unique look to the pallet. “We have one client that always uses blue stretch wrap,” Petty says.

3) Use ship notifications: Advance shipment notifications (ASNs) allow your customers to prepare to receive your shipments and to reduce the number of customer checkup calls to your distribution center. “Still, more than 50% of customers we first visit are doing nothing in the way of ASNs,” says Petty. Petty says most companies can implement an e-mail ASN process for a minimal investment.

4) Provide customer self-service: The most common questions to customer service numbers are relatively easy to answer: When will my shipment be delivered; what product is being shipped; can you fax or e-mail me a packing list; has the shipment left the warehouse; and can I change my order? That’s why Petty suggests providing a Web portal that allows customers to answer those questions for themselves. “We’ve seen customers reduce the number of service calls they receive by 36% in the first year,” says Petty. The biggest challenge: Providing up-to-the-minute order information requires a real-time picking and shipping system.

5) Delivery confirmation: Following the lead of parcel shippers, like UPS and FedEx, more and more leading distributors are investigating electronic delivery confirmation systems. “This is one of the most common solutions we’re being asked about by customers and prospects today,” says Petty. The benefits: Capturing confirmation of a delivery reduces delivery disputes and credits after the fact, since information like short shipments and damage to product can be captured with reason codes at the time of delivery. The most important consideration before implementing a system is the cost of the software and hardware, including equipping trucks and drivers with phones, plus the ongoing phone and service delivery charges.