Warehouse Technologies and the Future of Fulfillment

With key 3PL challenges and complexities including supply chain issues, driver shortages, and the rise in e-commerce, the expectations of the warehouse sector and 3PLs are ever-increasing.

The compounding effect of these challenges means that working more efficiently has never been more important. Being ‘just a warehouse’ is no longer enough; businesses and 3PLs need to adopt a forward-thinking, technology-focused approach that seamlessly connects people and services throughout the process. This is the rise of the smart warehouse.

1.

The state of the e-commerce industry suggests that the huge premises known as ‘mega sheds’ may no longer be a viable model for international and national distribution networks. Instead, a shift to more localised operations may be more sustainable.

The logistics lessons of ‘bottlenecking’ caused by the halting of supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the drawbacks of huge warehouses, while consumers’ desire for near-immediate deliveries mean that a new approach may be required to keep up with demand. Adopting local branch operations could offer more versatility, mobility and accessibility to inventory for businesses of all sizes.

Multi-tenanted warehouses are another option, where businesses can share a more cost-effective model, known as consolidation centres. Such warehouses are accessible locally and regionally to converging towns and dense urban populations nearby big cities.

3.

Data collection, processing and analysis is one area that is guaranteed to change for the warehousing sector. In fact, many businesses have already switched to fully digital data management systems, providing greater efficiency, security and accessibility across all daily operations.

Investing in a warehouse management system (WMS) will help to streamline your order fulfillment processes and optimise the daily running of your business. By harnessing API functionality, you can streamline processes and take control of everything in one place through reliable and fully integrable warehouse management software.

The warehouse automation technology trends to focus on will be the use of integrated tech to share information with other essential systems such as inventory management and accounting software, along with digital invoicing, which enables the automation of creating, sending and receiving invoices.

Trend in action:

Prior to implementing Mintsoft, the team of Mango Logistics were spending a lot of time carrying out manual processes for simple administrative tasks – from gathering and inputting client data into their systems, to using spreadsheets to manage inventory. All of which were not efficient – and also opened the risk to inaccuracies due to human error.

“If it wasn’t for Mintsoft, we wouldn’t have been able to go down the route of offering same-day and next-day delivery at the cadence our clients needed – or transform into a full logistics and storage solution.”

Henri Purvis, Commercial and Operations Advisor at Mango Logistics

Trend in action:

Off the back of expanding their current services, Fulfillable wanted to be able to offer a more streamlined service, as well as a professional looking platform that themselves, and their clients could use. They were looking for an Order Management System that offered all the features and services they needed, from one platform.

“Lots of time was spent on manual processes which Mintsoft has now allowed us to automate. Our ethos is to automate as much as we can so that we can reduce expenses by streamlining our operations where we can. Mintsoft has allowed us to do that.”

“As the future unfolds more eCommerce business are founded by young entrepreneurs who have grown up with / are used to using technology for the every day aspects of their lives. Modern fulfilment needs to meet their expectations and ideas.”

something Ben Chidzoy, Co-founder of Fulfillable, says is essential to the 3PL’s survival.