Why the Future of CX & Logistics Efficiency Lies with a Unified Fulfillment Platform

Let's quickly highlight the key benefits of a unified fulfillment platform:

• Drive cost efficiency by eliminating the need to invest in integration resources, data management and project managers

• Access a single source of truth to gain real-time knowledge on what’s happening across warehousing, transportation and order fulfillment

• Drastically reduce dispatch time by completely eliminating double sortation requirements

• Significantly improve response to transportation risks like delays and improve management of docks and staging areas

• Improve workforce scheduling and route planning in a dynamic operational environment

To enable truly end-to-end logistics transformation for businesses across manufacturing, retail, and logistics service providers (LSPs), while at the same time ensuring a completely integrated fulfillment experience, a unified warehouse (WMS) and transportation management system (TMS) will be the future.?

Let's quickly glance through how an integrated WMS and TMS actually impacts a business.

Driving Cost Efficiencies

An integrated WMS and TMS platform is a perfect instance where "1+1=11." Without such a platform, customers would have to invest in a TMS and WMS separately. This would call for the need to invest in integration teams, separate data warehouses, or data centralization processes across both systems, and project managers to manage the disparate systems. These expenses significantly impact profitability. A unified WMS and TMS completely eliminates the need for such investments.

Having a Single Source of Truth

For shippers (retailers and manufacturers), having separate WMS and TMS results in the absence of a single source of truth for the different types of supply chain data needed. Today, businesses need a single view right from the start—even while placing an order, one should be able to know from which warehouse or hub that order will be fulfilled, and this is a function of both inventory and transportation.

For example, an auto spare part dealer must have real-time data available to know the most cost and time-efficient way to source and transport parts to a said customer. All four critical supply chain aspects, namely inventory, availability, transportation, and fulfillment, must work hand-in-hand to ensure the parts are successfully delivered.

62.5% of logistics leaders said that “less than 50% of decisions” are real-time data driven—Shipsy CXO Survey

Reducing Turnaround Time

Separate WMS and TMS cause significant inefficiencies in terms of time consumed due to double sortation. Imagine having a big warehouse with some 1,000 orders from different customers. In this case, to fulfill the orders, businesses pick customer by customer and place all the orders in a staging area. Then the logistics service provider creates trips and starts sorting orders based on the trips. In the case of a unified WMS and TMS, the pick list can be created at a trip level, keeping in mind how fulfillment will be executed. All the time consumed in the process of double sortation is saved. Simply pick, pack, and place at the loading bay.

Better Response to Unprecedented Events

Such a platform provides real-time visibility, aiding in prompt response to fluctuations. In many warehouses, even a couple of hours delay from a transport carrier can significantly impact daily operations. Foreknowledge of such delays enables proactive measures to reduce their effects. This allows for more efficient personnel scheduling, improved utilization of loading docks, better management of outbound staging areas, and other operational enhancements.

Enhanced Workforce Scheduling

In many warehouses, order patterns are dynamic, with few being able to anticipate all shipments for a month at its outset. This results in varying workforce and equipment needs. Effective route planning in a TMS and efficient workforce scheduling in a WMS are unattainable if these two work in silos. The more variable the operational environment, the more critical it becomes to have a unified warehouse and transportation management platform.

37.5% of logistics leaders say that only 40-60% of their demand planning is accurate—Shipsy CXO Survey

Shipsy’s strategic acquisition of Stockone, a leading cloud-based Warehouse and Inventory Management solution provider, was a major step towards empowering businesses to achieve these efficiencies. The partnership will completely transform how warehouse and inventory are managed? and orders are sourced and transported to the end customer. Check out the video below to learn more about the exciting future this partnership has to offer to the logistics industry.

The future of customer experience and supply chain resiliency lies in a unified warehouse and transportation management platform. While these were just five benefits of such a platform, I’ll gradually share more use cases that will help businesses delve deeper into the benefits.