How to improve your fulfilment processes
Order fulfilment involves a series of steps that occur after a customer has placed an order. The fulfilment process starts with an order and ends with the delivery of the product to the customer’s property.
Although it sounds simple, there are several steps that must be completed in order for the fulfilment process to be successful. Improving just one of these steps might not much of a difference to your overall operational efficiency.
But by making improvements to each one of the steps, you can significantly improve your fulfilment process. You can boost the productivity in your warehouse and deliver more orders to your customers in less time.
Here are some top tips for fulfilment companies to improve the efficiency of their business operations and boost success.
Make inventory handling simple
Keeping your inventory organized is essential for a fulfilment business. This means getting your warehouse in check and categorizing all of your goods.
Your warehouse needs to be easy to navigate and your operators shouldn’t struggle to find the right products to fulfil customer orders. When products can be picked and packed with ease, your efficiency will increase and the speed of your shipments will quicken.
The best way you enhance your inventory management is to use an inventory management software. There are several different programs that you can use, all of which make monitoring your stock levels simple.
On your software, you’ll be able to track the number of each type of product in your warehouse and see whether a product has been picked and packed for shipping. You’ll also be able to see when the stock of a certain product is running low.
Most inventory management software enables you to order products through the program itself. You won’t need to worry about running out of a popular product because the software will alert you when stock is limited.
Standardize as much as possible
Minimizing the number of decisions that your warehouse employees need to make during their day-to-day operations will improve efficiency.
When employees don’t feel overwhelmed with making multiple decisions at once, they will pick and pack orders more quickly. They are also less likely to make errors during the fulfilment process. Fewer errors will save you a lot of money and time in the long run.
Create a set of standards for your workers to follow so that they don’t need to worry about making their own decisions. For example, create a protocol for picking large orders first or using specific packaging for certain products.
Automate various stages of your fulfilment Process
Another great way to improve more of your fulfilment process is to automate wherever possible. Automation saves time and money within the business by reducing the need for your workers to complete iterative tasks every day.
Your inventory management system is the perfect way to automate part of your fulfilment operations. For example, your software will automate the ordering of new stock so that your warehouse operators don’t need to spend time ordering products themselves.