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December 6, 2024
Enhancing Customer Loyalty Through Exceptional Shipping Experiences
How Shipping Insurance Can Help SMBs Compete in the Age of E-commerce
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Ever wondered what happens to a product from the moment it arrives at a warehouse until it leaves?
While central hubs are for receiving, storing, and distributing goods from various suppliers to different destinations, warehouses are critical in ensuring customers get their orders on time. When warehouse operations run smoothly, they lead to quick and accurate deliveries. On the flip side, warehouse inefficiencies can result in profit losses, dissatisfied customers, and frustrated workers.
Today, we’re diving into the operational basics of a warehouse and tracing the journey of a product—from its arrival to departure from a fulfillment center.
From receiving to shipping, let's run through each step of the warehousing process and see how it impacts delivery efficiency and customer satisfaction.
When products arrive at a warehouse, they undergo a structured receiving process to ensure accuracy and quality. They are first unloaded from vehicles like trucks or containers before going through the documentation to ensure that the correct items and quantities have been received.
Product POV: Imagine you’re a toothbrush. After being manufactured, you are shipped to a warehouse until you’re shipped to a customer. You're unloaded onto the dock and checked against the delivery paperwork to ensure you're in order. The warehouse team also counts the other toothbrushes to confirm that you match the quantities listed on the purchase order.
During quality checks, products undergo a thorough inspection to ensure they meet the required standards before storage. Quality checks help prevent damaged items from being shipped to customers. This leads to higher satisfaction and reduced return rates!
In this stage, products are checked for signs of:
Functionality tests may be required for electronics or specialized items to ensure they comply with safety or industry standards. If issues arise during quality checks, the products are returned to the supplier or set aside for further investigation.
Product POV: After arriving at the warehouse, you'll undergo extra checks to see your condition. The warehouse team will also check your bristles, handles, and packaging to ensure they haven't been damaged during the trip!
After quality checks, products are sorted based on type, size, weight, demand, and other factors. The sorting process ensures that items are grouped for efficient handling and retrieval. After sorting, products are moved to their storage locations depending on demand, size, and storage requirements.
There are two types of storage systems:
Proper sorting and strategic storage placements help maintain efficiency, prevent inventory errors, and enable smooth warehouse operations.
Product POV: Once you've passed quality checks, you're taken to the sorting area with other toothbrushes to be grouped according to color and size. A warehouse worker takes you to a specific area to stay with the other toothbrushes based on your SKU or stock-keeping unit. Your location is logged in the system, so they know where to find you when you get picked.
In order processing, the warehouse team manages the steps needed to fulfill a customer's order accurately. A picking ticket or picking list is generated, including the products that must be taken from the storage location. Various picking methods are used based on volume, variety, warehouse layout, and efficiency.
Here are some common picking methods:
After the products are picked, they are brought to a packing station for shipment. Packaging materials are selected based on product type to ensure fragile and non-fragile items are protected. Before the order is shipped, the warehouse team conducts final quality checks.
Product POV: You’re being summoned! Someone has visited your company’s website and placed an order. It then goes from the site to the WMS or a warehouse management system the staff uses. A warehouse worker is assigned to find you and take you to the packing station to be prepared for shipping.
After packing, the package is labeled with key information, such as:
These details help accurately monitor the product's journey. Then, the packed and labeled products must be loaded onto delivery trucks or other transport vehicles and sorted according to carrier or delivery route. This requires proper coordination with the logistics team to ensure products arrive on time.
Once the products have been shipped, tracking can be done by tracking numbers, barcodes, RFID tags, and GPS systems to provide real-time updates. Then, an electronic proof of delivery will confirm successful deliveries.
Product POV: You are packed in a box, and a label is printed through Transportation Management Software (TMS) and then attached to your box. Afterward, you are handed off to a carrier to be shipped to the customer. You’ve made it through the warehouse!
During the warehousing process, several problems may arise that impact efficiency, accuracy, and customer satisfaction.
Products not appropriately stored in warehouses can lead to operational challenges, increased costs, and delays in order fulfillment. Common storage problems in warehouses may include:
What You Can Do About It: You can redesign the warehouse layout to maximize space utilization, such as pallet racks or automated vertical lift modules (VLMs) for vertical space usage. A Warehouse Management System (WMS) can also implement an automated replenishment system to prevent overstocking.
For perishable items, a First-In, First-Out (FIFO) or First-Expired, First-Out (FEFO) ensures the oldest products are used or shipped first.
Improper handling, inadequate packaging, transportation movement, and poor organization can cause damaged items. When a damaged item is detected, it is removed from inventory, reported, and moved to a designated area to avoid mixing with sellable inventory.
Meanwhile, if the damage is discovered after the customer receives the product, the company will have to issue order refunds and incur additional costs.
What You Can Do About It: Damaged items can be prevented by providing training on safe material handling and using handling equipment like forklifts, pallet jacks, or conveyor systems. Proper packaging materials like bubble wrap, form, or protective cartons also ensure items are secure and will arrive to customers in perfect condition.
Mislabeled products can disrupt the warehousing process since the inventory management system will record incorrect stock-level information. This could lead to overstocking or stockouts. If a mislabeled product is picked for an order, the customer may receive the wrong item. Warehouse staff may also spend extra time looking for the correct products if labels don't match inventory records.
What You Can Do About It: You can avoid mislabeled products by using automated labeling machines that print and apply labels based on data from the WSM, which reduces the risk of human error. Conduct regular audits, too, so you can verify that product labels match the inventory and quickly catch discrepancies.
When items are shipped incorrectly, they can lead to customer dissatisfaction, delays in order fulfillment, extra costs for return shipping, and resending the correct item.
Shipping difficulties happen due to:
These small mistakes may cause big problems like negative reviews, complaints, or loss of future sales.
What You Can Do About It: You can prevent these shipping issues by implementing automated picking and packing systems. This minimizes errors and ensures the correct items are selected. A manual or automated final order verification can also prevent shipping the incorrect item since this step catches any mistakes before the package even leaves the warehouse.
From receiving products, sorting and storing, to packing and shipping, each step in the warehousing process is crucial in streamlining your logistics operations. Effective warehouse management can prevent errors like mislabeled products, shipping issues, and unhappy customers.
Want to learn more tips on how to improve your warehouse management? Contact iDrive Logistics today, and we’ll help you find the right warehouse management strategy for your business.
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