A third-party logistics company helps distributors, manufacturers, and eCommerce retailers manage their inventory, store it in their facility, and ship products. There are many reasons you may choose to work with a 3PL. These include a better location to ship goods from quickly: improved order and shipment handling. Using an outsourced vendor for their skill sets, automation capability, and, especially nowadays, human resources may also help you to grow your business. It is a common challenge to hire, maintain, and develop your warehousing workforce.
What Value Does A 3PL Bring Your Supply Chain Capabilities?
Additionally, good 3PLs can provide even more value. They may be able to help with procurement, assembly, or packaging. There are some challenges, though. Depending upon the vendor, supply-chain viability and control can be lost if systems and plans are not in place.
Our company works with distributors and manufacturers who normally use a hybrid of on-premise warehousing and shipping, along with a 3PL for some types of products or customer locations.
Does DCWarehouse Support 3PL?
Within DCWarehouse© Automation, there is functionality that supports the transmission of picking and shipping information in and out of our software for remote warehouse locations that do not use it. This feature is designed for our clients who do not want to spend a lot of money on remote DCWarehouse Users, Integrations into other WMS/ERP Systems, or overspending on EDI Solutions to resolve a simple problem, such as recording and tracking shipments.
We also have some customers that license DCWarehouse Automation, and the 3PL Vendor’s team uses the scanning devices for all inventory and shipping activities as if they were actual employees. Although this approach is a little more expensive, it provides instant and real-time data.
What Questions Should You ask A Potential 3PL Vendor?
- Do you handle both Warehouse & Fulfillment Solutions?
- Do You Support These Activities and Shipping? Less-than-truckload, Truckload, Managed Transportation, Last Mile? Dedicated pop-up fleets, Expedited, Air, International, Inter-modal/Rail? (Base these on Your Needs)
- Are you willing to work with our in-house software/shipping solution to make it easier on us?
- Can you use our shipping accounts or is it cheaper to use yours?
- Do you handle Canada or Mexico Cross Border?
- Do you handle International Shipping?
- Will we have a dedicated Customer Representative or Account Manager?
- How do you charge for your services? Storage? Shipping?
- Do you offer shorter term “trial contracts” to see how well we work together?
- May I speak to a few customers as a reference for your services?
- Can you use our system to enter activities such as shipping etc.?
There might be even more questions about your particular situation. Set up a test scenario and note each step of the process and what questions arise at each step. Ensure you have a comfortable working relationship with the 3PL company and are satisfied with their answers. Let them know collaboration and honest feedback are important to you. You should be able to work together to achieve a solution that works for you.
