Any company that operates a distribution center recognizes the importance of being nimble in its daily operations, as businesses of all stripes scramble to meet escalating customer demands in a tumultuous market. Fortunately, logistics technology and automated equipment providers seem to introduce new tools every month that are designed with agility in mind.
But that expanding toolbox comes with its own demands. In the warehouse tech world, no solution is an island. In order to reach their full potential, these new tools—whether they’re wireless scanners, tablets, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), goods-to-person (GTP) systems, or specialized software apps—must be tightly integrated with the warehouse management system (WMS) that controls daily operations in today’s high-tech DCs. And making that happen is easier said than done.
“Interfaces are easy. Integrations are hard,” says Mark Fralick, chief technology officer at warehouse software developer Softeon. Teaching two devices to exchange data is a fairly simple task, but training them to work in an orchestrated fashion gets tricky, he says. What’s missing in many cases is a “vendor-agnostic” mechanism that allows technologies from disparate providers to work together toward shared goals.
For example, some companies need a tight connection between e-commerce platforms and pick-and-pack operations, while others need a way to integrate their fulfillment and shipping activities. Here are two real-life examples of companies that successfully integrated their new WMS systems with other technologies.
CRAFTING A SOLUTION
Crafter’s Companion is a craft and art materials retailer headquartered in Durham, England. Founded in 2005, the company now employs more than 200 workers and exports products from its warehouses in northeastern England and Corona, California, to more than 40 countries across Europe, Asia, Australia, and North and South America. Crafter’s Companion operates as a multichannel retailer, selling its products directly to consumers online and through its retail stores, as well as via its trade, wholesale, and TV shopping partners.
As part of a recent effort to boost warehouse efficiency, the company implemented a cloud-based e-commerce WMS from software developer Descartes Systems Group. Among other advantages, the e-commerce WMS, which is designed to help direct-to-consumer brands and e-commerce retailers streamline their order fulfillment processes, helps ensure that users are able to ship on time, ship the right items, not oversell existing inventory, and have full transparency into warehouse operations, according to the developer. In order to make that possible, the solution comes pre-integrated with major e-commerce platforms, like ChannelAdvisor, Shopify Plus, and Brightpearl. Order information is automatically available to be executed via mobile-driven multi-order pick-and-pack processes and then fed into a variety of parcel shipment systems.
For Crafter’s Companion, the new solution was a game-changer, the two companies say. In addition to realizing higher customer satisfaction levels as a result of faster order processing, the retailer saw a significant drop in fulfillment errors—a result of adding barcode-based scanning to its existing pick-and-pack process.
“The software is helping us operate to our full potential,” said Mark Allsop, CEO of Crafter’s Companion, in a release. “With the new solution, we have achieved a 25% increase in fulfillment efficiency with an error rate of less than 1%.”
HARVESTING FULFILLMENT SUCCESS
The online retailer Titan Brands specializes in fitness equipment, commercial and farm attachments, and outdoor items, with corporate headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, and DCs in Memphis; Horn Lake, Mississippi; Visalia, California; and Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. According to its website, the company’s mission is to “provide customers with premium products without the premium cost,” which it does through “superior product acquisition, leading-edge e-commerce capabilities, … and world-class service.”
In line with that strategy, the company recently launched a project to transform its end-user experience, with goals that included providing real-time inventory information, increased delivery date accuracy, and a shorter customer service cycle. To help make that happen, the company partnered with software developer Körber Business Area Supply Chain, implementing an integrated combination of Körber’s order management system (OMS)—which tracks a customer’s purchase throughout its lifecycle, from order to fulfillment to returns—and Körber’s WMS.
Over the course of the project, Titan Brands essentially overhauled its supply chain by increasing real-time visibility, optimizing fulfillment and labor productivity within the DC, and eliminating error-prone processes, according to Körber. In the process, it has reduced back-orders by 70% and inventory adjustments by more than 90%. On top of that, the retailer has achieved an order-to-ship cycle of hours, instead of days.
“Modernizing the supply chain is a substantial undertaking for e-commerce retailers across the globe and one that requires comprehensive solutions to address each aspect of performance,” Sean Elliott, CTO software, Körber Business Area Supply Chain, said in a release. “Körber’s streamlined OMS and WMS provide the solutions that today’s retailers need to remain competitive through optimization and accuracy.”
