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Logistics concerns like order fulfillment, inventory, and warehousing don’t often get the focus they deserve. These factors are essential to a successful business. You can make the best product in the world, but it won’t mean much if people aren’t able to get their hands on it.
So how do you navigate these important aspects of business? Are you going to learn an entirely new industry in order to support your core business? This can take a lot of time and money, which takes your attention away from the business you’ve built and continue to operate.
This is where third-party logistics (3PL) comes in. These are businesses that provide material handling solutions, as well as order fulfillment and shipping services to help your business continue to grow.
So what do 3PL services offer to expanding businesses?
You’re not in the business of material handling solutions. So why would you spend a considerable amount of time trying to find the best methods to optimize your logistics processes? It’s better to leave this to professionals so you can continue doing what you do best.
3PL services allow you to keep doing what you do, while remaining confident your products are going to get where they need to go.
You’re going to get better at something the more you do it. That’s how you’ve built a successful business in your industry. And that’s how a solutions provider like DCS has learned to efficiently offer material handling solutions.
Make use of this expertise. Use it to your advantage. There are a variety of areas this efficiency will benefit. Faster order fulfillment means happier customers. Accurate order tracking means less lost packages. And all of this is performed with the authority gained from ample experience.
DCS offers automated warehouse solutions to help your company reach its goals. This means you can use as much room as you need, but without the necessity of purchasing an entire warehouse. The upfront costs of securing warehousing can drag down a business. However, this is not an issue for those making use of 3PL services.
Avoiding these overhead costs frees you up to invest your capital where you need it most. Many businesses don’t need a full warehouse. 3PL is a great way to get the storage you need without blowing through the savings you need for other considerations.
But what if your business continues to expand and your needs change? Material handling solutions can ramp up or slow down operations as much as you need. There are no long-term contracts that need to be fulfilled, so you can use as much or as little help as you like.
This is great for seasonal industries that do a lot of business in one part of the year, and not so much in other months. You can tailor your 3PL services to your business needs.
Better logistics operations means your orders come out in a timely and accurate manner. Your vendors and customers will notice a difference. This leads to repeat business and the ability to expand. 3PL services streamline every aspect of your operations from shipping to inventory to material handling.
Many customers don’t think about the role these services play in their overall satisfaction after a transaction, but they’ll notice when the process has issues. 3PL helps avoid these issues.
There are many things that can go wrong during a shipment or during the material handling process. This is true for every business. Mistakes happen. There are elements that are out of our control. So how do you navigate a situation like a freeway closure due to a snow storm?
It takes an infrastructure of support and expertise to be able to properly handle these situations. This could come in the form of rerouting a truck, scheduling roadside maintenance for a breakdown, or communicating disruption due to weather. A 3PL provider will have the necessary tools to handle these situations so you don’t have to.
Technology has entered just about every industry these days. Material handling solutions and the 3PL industry is no different. There are services like ecommerce fulfillment, automated warehousing operations, tracking technology, and labor analytics that can be used to streamline your operations.
Chances are your company isn’t going to have the necessary technology to perform these tasks. There are methods that can be used to make up for the absence of technology, but this is going to cost you efficiency and money.
