We’ve often spoken of the order processing cost associated with drop shipping and OPAL’s ability to do things that reduce that cost to less than $1 per order.
But what about the cost of picking, packing and shipping by warehouse personnel? 90% of our customers did not know the utilization of their pickers and packers and we all know it’s difficult to manage what don’t measure. The warehouse component alone can add $4+ to the cost of an order.
So, obviously, this too is a significant cost component when it comes to drop shipping – or order fulfillment in general for that matter. To get a handle on this you, at the very least, you need to:
- Know today’s order volume
- Determine the Warehouse Location based on item availability and shipping location
- Determine the number of Packers needed based on today’s order volume
- Determine the number of Pickers needed based on today’s order volume
- Predict tomorrow’s order volume and staffing needed
But then, to really maximize productivity you also need to provide them with the tools and processes needed to expedite warehouse processing:
- Print different Picklists for Drop ship vs LTL to facilitate the picking process if both are needed.
- Print different Picklists based on SKU Prints to facilitate the picking process so they can pick with the least travel time.
- Print Picklists for Bills of Material so they can stage kits and have them ready for packing.
- Suggest a brown box picklist every morning so they can have all the boxes staged and ready before beginning the packing process.
- Suggest to Packers what size box(s) to use for the order to avoid wasted space and excess shipping cost.
- Scan Sales Orders for order packing accuracy to ensure that the correct items are packed for the order.
- Automatically generate Shipping Labels, Packing Slips, UCC128 Labels or Bills of Lading / Commercial Invoices without manual intervention.
These are just some of the capabilities that OPAL provides within one platform and without the need for numerous integrated systems. OPAL is a self-driving Order Processing and Warehouse Productivity Software Solution that enables your business to easily and quickly cut order processing costs to less than $1, increase the order handling capacity of your warehouse by 50% – 100% and achieve profitability expectations that you thought were unattainable.