The tech industry is no stranger to inflated valuations and over-priced acquisitions that ultimately destroy shareholder value. One can’t help but ponder these facts when observing the bidding war being waged between industry titans Hewlett-Packard and Dell for a previously little known data-storage company, 3PAR. Prior to Dell’s initial acquisition announcement on August 16th, 3PAR had a market capitalization of around $600M. As the bidding war has played out, 3PAR’s valuation has rocketed to over $2B. All of this for a company with just under $200M in revenue in fiscal 2010 that has yet to register a profit.
To be clear, this is not a commentary on the wisdom of this prospective acquisition. However, it provides a good opportunity to consider why such an intense battle would be fought over a relatively obscure company. Finding growth opportunities is challenging for large companies. HP and Dell’s dogged pursuit of 3PAR supports the view that cloud computing is an area of intense interest to the firms and that it is viewed as a growth vehicle.
Cloud computing solutions (aka hosted solutions) offer an alternative to on-premise systems that have traditionally been deployed. Some of the many benefits of the cloud deployment model include lower total cost of ownership (no upfront capital expenditure), reduced reliance on internal IT staff, and the ability to easily stay current with software/hardware updates.
In the supply chain execution space, cloud computing solutions have been around for some time with transportation management systems being the most widely adopted. As IT budgets and resources continue to tighten, companies are looking hard at this model for a wider range of solutions. For example, demand is increasing for full-function, best-of-breed warehouse management systems that go well beyond basic inventory control systems that have historically been on offer as a hosted solution.
Time will tell if this particular acquisition generates shareholder value for the ultimate winner. What is certain, is that cloud computing is an area that is expected to continue to grow quickly. Having the heft of an industry leader such as Dell or HP leading the charge can only accelerate adoption and growth of cloud computing for a wider variety of applications… including supply chain execution solutions.
More than 500 million eggs have been recalled in recent weeks. Nearly 2000 people report being sick from eggs thought to be carrying salmonella. The eggs are traced back to a pair of Iowa farms with common ownership. Like many food products the eggs were then marketed under multiple brand names and through various distribution networks.
Some troubling information about this event is that despite the first signs of contaminated eggs occurring in May, the recall was not conducted until August. The finger pointing between producers, government agencies, and consumers continues today. Based on this recall, recent peanut recalls and growing concern by Americans over food safety, I would guess we will see more strict federal legislation governing food safety soon. In fact, the timing would be perfect for the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act to pass the senate in September.
While many industries fight additional regulation, many major food brand owners have advocated for this type of legislation. A CNN Money article highlights some of the financial impact on brand owners when a recall occurs.
• Kellogg’s took a $34 million hit in their 2008 earnings as a result of the peanut recall.
• Overall peanut butter sales volume declined by 22% at the beginning of 2009
As with most legislation, the Food Safety Modernization Act is descriptive in terms of authority, but vague in terms of how companies would implement practices to support improved safety in the food supply chain. Here are a few pieces from the current legislation and my thoughts on how technology can be used to help enforce the process.
“require that each person (excluding farms and restaurants) who manufactures, processes, packs, distributes, receives, holds, or imports an article of food permit inspection of his or her records if the Secretary believes that there is a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to such food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death”
This bill pertains to the majority of the food value chain. Food chain participants must be able to create and store records related to the products they handle. Clearly, technology can assist with the capture and storage of this information.
“Requires each owner, operator, or agent in charge of a food facility to: (1) evaluate the hazards that could affect food; (2) identify and implement preventive controls; (3) monitor the performance of those controls; and (4) maintain records of such monitoring.”
Again, technology will play a critical role implementing preventative controls and monitoring the performance of the controls. Supply chain technology can help support best practices such as stock rotation (first-in-first-out, first-expired-first-out), lot/batch tracking, product labeling, and quality inspections.
Additional Resources:
Fisher Nuts improves traceability in manufacturing and warehousing operations with HighJump warehouse management (WMS)
Three Components of Product Traceability in the Food and Beverage Supply Chain
Mom’s Foods Case Study
I was reading an article a few weeks ago which said that by the year 2020 most users will be living in the cloud. This comes as no surprise when we look at the way technology is trending. More and more users everyday are adopting cloud-based applications for their personal use, and much of the reasoning behind using a cloud-based format for personal applications is applicable to business as well.Not too many years ago I recall a time when essentially every application on my computer was purchased from a store and came on a disk. The Internet was either nonexistent or too slow to support any large applications. We have come a long way to the point where purchasing programs from a physical store rather than the "app store" is unheard of. The software now is almost always free to start and then you either pay a monthly fee later or pay by letting advertisers put their message in front of you. This has made most software much more accessible to everyone who wants to partake.
• Storage Space
With all of the cloud-based programs I use, I know that I could not support them if I had to host all of that information on my physical PC. The ability to access information stored on servers makes it possible to utilize a much greater amount of information because I don't ever have to worry about whether I have enough space to house another application and its contents.
• IT Workload
I don't know about you, but my personal IT team is pretty small, consisting solely of typing any problem into Google and hoping it comes up with the right answer. That said, the adoption of cloud-based applications had lessened the requirements of the end user to keep the system up to date. Rather than having to download large updates and spend the time installing them, users log in and the updates and changes have already been applied. Now my personal IT team is able to spend time doing more useful things like checking the baseball scores from the previous night.
Related Resources:
Link to CNN article: “Experts say we'll be working in the 'cloud' by 2020”
HighJump Warehouse Management in the Cloud
Special Report: WMS In the Cloud - Real-World Option or Fluff?
Congratulations to HighJump warehouse management system (WMS) customer The Bon-Ton Stores for being featured on the cover of the June issue of Modern Materials Handling! The story highlights the company’s impressive growth, launch of e-commerce, and implementation of the HighJump WMS.
Read the story.
Most recently, The Bon-Ton Stores implemented the HighJump WMS in its Fairborn, Ohio distribution center, which supports operations for 70 retail stores. The HighJump system manages a fully automated material handling system and coordinates movement of store merchandise — 85 percent of which is routed onto outbound trucks within four minutes of arrival at the warehouse. The remainder of the merchandise is routed for value-added services like re-ticketing or tagging before being shipped to stores.
The Bon-Ton Stores has an aggressive growth plan for its online business and expects to double the number of orders it processes over the upcoming holiday season. The company has increased productivity in the area by 13.6 percent. Additionally, the solution has helped increase inventory accuracy and enhance visibility of the fulfillment workload, aiding planning for daily staffing.
Navarre Adds 3PL Services to Distribution Operation Using HighJump Warehouse Management System (WMS)
Computer Software Publisher and Distributor Uses HighJump 3PL Billing Management Software to Adapt Its Business Model
HighJump Software, a global provider of supply chain management software, announced Navarre Corporation is extending its service offering to include third-party logistics (3PL) services with the help of its HighJump solutions. Navarre is a distributor and publisher of computer software and home entertainment products. The company processes 2.2 million orders a year and manages 15,000 SKUs on a campus of three facilities with a combined 320,000 square feet in Minneapolis, Minn. and a 30,000 square foot facility in Toronto. After implementing the HighJump Warehouse Advantage WMS, Navarre has seen improvements in efficiency, worker productivity and inventory accuracy.
Read the full press release.
HighJump Software announced Foster Farms Dairy has selected the HighJump warehouse management system (WMS) to optimize its operations. The company processes a wide variety of dairy products at three plant locations and distributes throughout northern and central California from multiple branch facilities. In the project’s first wave, the HighJump WMS will be implemented in the company’s three manufacturing locations and one of its distribution centers.
Foster Farms Dairy recently began a search for a warehouse management system as part of its commitment to continuous process improvement and satisfaction of customer quality and service needs. Lon Nebiolini, Technology & Systems Director Foster Farms Dairy, said “We selected HighJump Software because of its strong reputation in the marketplace, successful applications in the food and beverage industries, and its full suite of supply chain execution solutions, which Foster Farms Dairy plans to take advantage of in the future. Another important factor was HighJump
Software’s adaptable architecture, which will maximize flexibility with respect to changing business requirements without excessive costs or business disruption.”
Read more about Foster Farms Dairy's selection of the HighJump warehouse management system (WMS).
HighJump Software is proud to have been named to the Inbound Logistics Top 100. Every year, Inbound Logistics editors recognize 100 logistics IT companies that support and enable logistics excellence. Drawn from a pool of more than 300 companies, using questionnaires, personal interviews, and other research, Inbound Logistics selects the Top 100 Logistics IT Providers who are leading the way in 2010. Editors seek to match readers' fast-changing needs to the capabilities of those companies selected. All companies selected reflect leadership by answering Inbound Logistics readers' needs for simplicity, ROI, and efficient implementation.HighJump Resources
Watch a Video: 3PL achieves supply chain success using the HighJump Software warehouse management system (WMS)
Watch a Video: Fox Racing doubles distribution productivity with the HighJump warehouse management system (WMS)
A constant battle in any working environment is finding ways to best utilize your time so that you are doing what you do best and not spending your time on other tasks. As an example I have seen warehouses in which the warehouse manager spent nearly all of their time taking orders from paper and entering them into the computer so that they could print the pick ticket, and then after the order is picked he or she has to update the system and print the invoice. They hardly leave their office, leaving them essentially no time to see what is going on around the warehouse or look for ways to improve operations.
I think Marcus Buckingham has it right when he says "Do what you do best, Outsource the rest". We only have so much bandwidth when it comes to day to day activities and sometimes it is important to step back and re-evaluate priorities to find out what tasks can be "redistributed". In the case of the warehouses I mentioned above, a warehouse management system(WMS) would not only be able to free up those warehouse managers' time but allow them to take a look at their warehouses and see where they have opportunities to improve productivity, efficiency, etc. In the case of IT personnel who spend all of their time trying to keep their server up and running, a WMS in the cloud might be just what they need to free up the time to improve overall operations. And as for the warehouse logistics workers who spend much of their time fixing errors, running to find missed product, or trying to find where that last shipment was put away, there is substantial time saving. Even the time and hassle of shutting down your warehouse every month to do a physical inventory count can be overcome with cycle counts, also decreasing the number of errors which the people in the office have to sort through. So the next time you find yourself thinking, "There has to be a better way to do this," there probably is and it might be worth your time to look into a system that would help you do what you do best.
Greetings from 35,000 feet! I am on my way to the west coast for meetings with another prospective HighJump warehouse management system (WMS) customer. This visit will likely be consistent with several meetings recently with large companies who are looking to standardize their WMS platform and move away from homegrown systems. This sounds like a fairly straightforward proposition…until you get into the details.
In each of my meetings, the company has strong feelings that their current homegrown WMS system provides them a true source of competitive advantage. It is not that the system contains “industry best practices”; these homegrown systems enable distribution processes that are actually sources of differentiation from competition. The processes and the systems supporting them are years in the making and unique to each business. By definition, many of these competitive advantages will not be found in traditional commercial off the shelf software – they are proprietary, confidential, and not available to everyone in a given industry.
These companies are pursuing commercial software as a means to reduce IT complexity and reduce total cost of ownership – common objectives of a WMS standardization initiative. However, there is reluctance to proceed based on the sources of competitive differentiation these companies have with their homegrown systems. In the traditional enterprise software approach, these companies will be forced to purchase commercial software, pay exorbitant fees for customizing it to enable their competitive advantage processes, pay exorbitant fees to upgrade (or elect to stay on old technology), and risk that their technology vendor will think their practices are so great that they should be put in the next version of the “standard package” (thus making the competitive advantage available to everyone).
HighJump offers a unique approach.
HighJump’s Supply Chain Advantage suite is architected with an expectation that you will want to enable business processes that are sources of advantage on our technology stack. It is HighJump’s philosophy that 80% of supply chain practices are not sources of differentiation and should be covered by industry supply chain best practices enabled with standard product. However, we also expect that there are 20% of your supply chain processes that are potential sources of competitive advantage. For this 20%, we provide a flexible workflow architecture that allows end users to modify the workflows in the product to support their sources of competitive advantage.
This presents a “best of both worlds” value proposition for our customers. Customers moving off homegrown systems get the benefits of commercial software (new releases containing technology and functionality updates, a worldwide product support organization, and technology partner that will stand by them in the long term) with the flexibility to support their business processes that are sources of competitive advantage.
Related Resources:
HighJump Adaptability Datasheet
GM2 Video: 3PL achieves supply chain success using the HighJump Software warehouse management system (WMS)
Sitting on the plane heading back from NA 2010, I am looking back over the questions I was hoping to get answered at the show. The first question was: what is the overall attitude toward the economy? The overall sentiment that I heard was a hopeful optimism. There are many signs pointing towards a slow but steady economic recovery. The recovery is being felt currently by some while others wait patiently for the effects to reach them. As one gentleman whose business provides material handling equipment pointed out, their business takes a little longer to incur the effects of the recovery because of the systems that need to be put in place in order for there to be a need for their equipment.
The second question asked what technologies would be most talked about at the show. While this is a difficult question to answer because of the many different types of vendors at the show, I will try to sum it up. In the supply chain logistics software industry there was a definite interest in SaaS or "in the cloud" solutions and how they are evolving. In fact, HighJump Software just announced the launch of HighJump WMS in the Cloud. And while I didn't get a chance to spend a whole lot of time in the material handling areas, there was a continued focus on automating every part of the warehouse to make it most efficient.
Finally what changes have been brought about by the economic conditions? The biggest change I saw was questions being asked much more about upfront cost rather than ROI because of the challenge of getting capital expenditures approved. Everyone seems pretty reluctant to call the recession over, but all signs seem to be pointing up.
With cloud computing, the WMS vendor hosts the software application and hardware infrastructure. The customer accesses the WMS via a Web browser. Cloud-based solutions are becoming a more common alternative to on-premise software as businesses seek ways to reduce IT requirements and simplify maintenance and upgrades. Because all system infrastructure is based in an off-site, secure data center, cloud solutions also eliminate up-front capital expense and reduce the risk and time required by on-premise implementations. HighJump WMS in the cloud is ideal for growing businesses because the Amazon.com cloud is elastic and scalable; more power and storage is available as demand changes or the business expands. One simple monthly subscription covers maintenance, upgrades and support.
Read the press release.
Our world is full of absolutes. I won’t define the term; you hear it every day. In response to a question with a pre-determined expectation of the answer, the responder emphatically exclaims, “Absolutely”! The statement leaves no room for doubting the emotion, resolve or position of the claimant! It is absolutely true that 1+ 1 equals = 2, and that F = ma (look it up - hint: Newton's second law of mechanics), but aside from math and physics there really are very few things in this world that are indeed absolute! Especially when it comes to the areas of business, economics, politics, or raising kids!
So goes the same for warehousing. Unfortunately, methods, processes, and procedures involved in running a warehouse are not absolute. While it’s true that the underlying concept of warehousing is the same for any company, the methodologies can and do vary dramatically. A former boss once told me that ‘Distribution is a simple business – you buy something for 50 cents, put it on the shelf, sell it for a buck, and ship it to the customer – what makes is so damned difficult are the customers!” What did he mean? Not hard to read between the lines really… customers want on-time delivery, discounts, special packaging, custom product labels, advance ship notices, free freight, and the list goes on. No absolutes here! Every customer wants something a little different and it’s up to a creative management team to provide all of these ‘wants’ to retain or gain a competitive edge. But if there are no absolutes to turn to when presented with all of these challenging customer requirements, what’s a company to do? Make sure the WMS warehouse management system you’re using or plan to acquire is completely, definitively, and categorically void of absolutes! If it isn’t, be prepared to endure increased operating costs and operational workarounds every time your business model changes, i.e. a new customer service request that they absolutely must have in order to continue doing business with you.
When I first started implementing warehousing solutions for direct store delivery (DSD) and mobile delivery customers, I had come from a WMS background where picking activities were specific to a customer. The idea of aggregate picking was basically a foreign concept. So when a customer would ask for my insight into which picking method I would suggest, the answer always seemed obvious. My belief that this was the best way seemed to follow the industry “trends” at the time as well.
After gaining more experience, and perhaps more perspective on this issue, I now ask customers to question these points prior to committing to a build by order (or palletized) solution suggestion versus building by package (or aggregate) for their sideload truck deliveries. Given some of the responses I have received I think that the trend of palletizing may be losing some steam too.
Labor Cost
The most basic argument for palletizing versus aggregate is that labor costs more for delivery drivers, so you should try to minimize their effort. At face value this seems straightforward and an obvious reason for palletized order building. However, you should be sure that you are able to reap the benefits of reducing the delivery driver labor. If your driver takes an 8 hour shift to deliver while handling aggregate loads, do they really cut their time down to 7 hours (or less) if you provide them with palletized loads? Compare this with your warehouse staff where you have active management in house and stop the shift at the end of the work (or redeploy to other tasks). This type of control over a delivery workforce is difficult to achieve
Cost of Damage (Damage Prevention)
I have never done any research or statistical analysis on the frequency of damaged product that has been built aggregate versus palletized…but I have listened to a lot of warehouse management voice their concerns! A typical first step to alleviate this damage issue is to wrap customer pallets. This normally addresses the issue, but now you have to account for an additional time & materials component when comparing the costs between aggregate & palletized.
Vehicle Cube Utilization
This is probably one of the most basic arguments against palletizing. Utilization of vehicle cube is obviously much higher while building aggregate. The utilization argument assumes that there is sales volume to get to that level of capacity, which may or may not be the case…but assuming you do have the available volume, by improving cube utilization you may be able to remove vehicle(s) from the road.
Depending on your customer base you may also have to consider dock access. If your sideload trucks are servicing customers with docks where there is the potential of forklift pallet removal, this is a huge swing factor obviously.
If after considering these factors you decide building palletized orders by customer is the way to go, then more power to you! However, I hope that you consider some of these points before you make a decision based on the assumption that it is “cheaper.”
I was asked by a new HighJump Software customer to provide the welcome keynote at their annual sales meeting. This company is embarking on a shift from being primarily a provider of air cargo transportation services to providing a comprehensive set of solutions for their current and prospective clients. HighJump Software provides a key role in this transformation by providing the supply chain technology backbone for warehouse management systems and billing management systems.
I ran into several of the attendees the night before my presentation at the hotel bar where a good time was being had all. Surprisingly, the audience was very attentive for my 8 a.m. breakfast keynote even though many of them had a late night prior.
Some of the key points of my presentation were:
The Use of Logistics Service Providers is On the Rise
There are multiple market studies that have shown that an increasing number of companies are likely to outsource their distribution and logistics solutions. North America provides a substantial opportunity because the use of outsourced logistics is more prevalent in Asia, Europe and South America than it is in North America.
Economic Uncertainty Caused Businesses to Evaluate Outsourced Logistics Solutions, Warehousing Solutions and Transportation Solutions
It was reported that 3,000 domestic trucking companies went out of business in 2009 and over 1 million shipping containers remained idle as a result of the global recession. While overall volume certainly presented challenges for logistics service providers, the uncertainty in the economy caused many companies to rethink outsourced logistics solutions, warehouse solutions, and transportations management solutions. It also caused these companies to rethink their current relationships with their logistics service provider. As many companies were forced to do a deep dive on their financial performance, many concluded that using outsourcing allowed them to shift from fixed to variable costs and resolve balance sheet and cash challenges by selling assets associated with their supply chain.
IT Enablement and Broad Solutions – a Recipe for Winners
Buyers of 3PL services consistently state that IT enablement is a major consideration in choosing a logistics service provider. Cost continues to be the number one factor (as it should be) but logistics services providers can “change the game” by offering broad set of solutions, powered by technology and command premium pricing for these services.
Related Resources:
- HighJump Solutions Page for 3PL’s
- HighJump LSP Datasheet
- HighJump WMS Brochure
- HighJump Billing Management datasheet
- Georgia Tech/Capgemini 3PL Study
- Eye for Transport Web Site resources
- Are 3PL CEOs Bad at Strategy? By Adrian Gonzales of Logistics Viewpoints
Many new phrases have become part of our everyday lingo as a result of the recession. One of my favorites is "Shovel Ready" It’s not nearly as cryptic or technical as "TARP" aka, Toxic Asset Relief Program, but it’s catchy! It’s a term that was used by President Obama in a Dec 7th airing of Meet the Press when he talked about the kinds of projects that the stimulus bill would help most. It wasn’t long after that when we began to hear every local politician use the term on the nightly news! Congress made the term quasi official when it incorporated the spirit of the phrase in legislation that provided stimulus money to construction projects that could be started within 90 days of receiving the funds. Meaning only those projects that had already completed the necessary preparatory tasks before the project could actually begin. Being an system implementation project manager, I’ve developed affection for the term!
Not all projects require a ‘shovel’ in the toolbox of things needed to get the job done, but all projects do indeed require a period of preparation before executing them. So, I ask… is your WMS - Warehouse Management System implementation project "shovel ready"? Perhaps you’ve just purchased a new WMS system to replace a technologically outdated one or to replace a paper based system. Either way, there are many things you can/should do to prepare for this life changing event! One of the more fruitful yet least desirable tasks in preparing a warehouse for a new system is general housekeeping!
- Got inventory that is aged or obsolete still gathering dust on your shelves? Write it off, toss it, donate it, recycle it, return it to the vendor, but by all means get rid of it! Got the same item located in seven different locations around the warehouse? Consolidate it to as few locations as practical.
- How about inventory sitting at the ends of the aisles, or on the office supply racks, or sitting on the floor of someone’s office? (really, I’ve seen this). Move it to where it should be - even if that means out the back door!
- How about old torn and faded shelf/bin labels that are now unused residue of a re-slotting project? Get the goof-off out and remove them, as it’s likely you’ll be doing some bin re-labeling as part of your WMS Management System implementation.
- Got any racking, shelving, material handling equipment like wobbly carts in need of repair? Do yourself a favor and include repairs as part of your ‘shovel ready’ preparations - it’ll be a visible demonstration of management’s commitment to change.
- Then there’s the data scrubbing task. Everybody has ‘junk’ in their item files – discontinued or obsolete items, duplicate items, and even non-existent items! Have your IT folks clean the data ‘house’ before you convert.
I could go on, but you get the idea. A ‘shovel ready’ WMS implementation will go a long way in smoothing the often bumpy road to a successful transition.
I spent some time last week with a HighJump Software customer who is considering further expansion of HighJump WMS solutions in their distribution centers. The customer is undertaking a massive ERP program that will allow the ERP system to be the IT backbone of their worldwide operations. They are also evaluating WMS solutions from this ERP provider.
In a meeting with senior IT leaders of this organization, I explained that I was highly confident the outcome of their pending due diligence regarding total cost of ownership (TCO). I contend that a best of breed solution will result in lower long term costs for this IT organization. Here are a few things that make me confident in my position:
Best in Class Functionality
While ERP-based WMS solutions have advanced significantly, they are limited to the “classical” warehouse operations including receiving, put-away, inventory control, picking and loading. Supply chain best practices such a labor management, slotting management, advanced wave planning, and last mile delivery are not traditionally supported with ERP WMS solutions. This means that when supply chain operations teams demand these capabilities, IT organizations are forced to address them with expensive customizations or bolt-on solutions with multiple integration touch points.
Upgrades
A WMS solution typically has a 10 year lifespan. In this lifespan a WMS could be upgraded five times. ERP upgrades are generally more expensive to upgrade because of the interdependencies between modules and re-application of source code customizations. Additionally, corporate IT governance and change management processes often make it difficult to upgrade a single module. Therefore the business users may be forced to wait for new features because of dependencies on modules that have nothing to do with distribution and logistics. View this video to learn more about HighJump’s approach to simplified upgrades.
Adaptability Tools
If your organization views distribution as a source of competitive advantage, then ERP-based WMS could be problematic. By definition, a competitive advantage must be unique to the organization. Business processes available in commercial off-the-shelf software packages (like ERP) therefore cannot contain business processes that are sources of competitive advantage.
To really ensure you have the flexibility to maintain and create further sources of advantage in your distribution operations, your supply chain logistics software must have the ability to create processes that are unique to your business.
HighJump has a unique approach that allows customers to define unique workflows that does does not involve any source code modifications. I am not aware of any ERP based WMS solutions with a similar architecture.
Without this architecture it can be very expensive for IT organization to deliver these workflow changes.
I recently received a direct mail marketing piece from a HighJump Software competitor. The mailer included a press release announcing that this company had “enhanced direct store delivery integration” and a one page datasheet which described a direct store delivery value chain as manufacturing + regional warehouse + mobile resources + retail shelf.
HighJump Software is the North American market leader for direct store delivery software solutions. If our primary competitor in the warehouse management systems market had encroached on our market position I needed to know. Perhaps they had acquired a route accounting solutions provider or acquired a provider of mobility solutions for mobile selling and delivery at the retail location. I consulted a trusted industry analyst who confirmed my suspicions… this was marketing hype and this company’s approach to direct store delivery still had significant “holes.”
Anyone familiar with the value chain of direct store delivery companies knows there are some specific complexities that must be addressed in order to have “comprehensive coverage across the extended supply chain.” Here are some things companies should consider when search for direct store delivery software solutions:
Certified Route Accounting Systems
Route Account Systems are unique software systems to manage the complexities of route-based sales and delivery. They typically manage the entire order-to-cash cycle and are geared toward the world where sales, inventory, and business metrics are all tied to a “route.” Although traditional ERP systems can be used for route accounting systems, they typically require customization to deal with complex pricing/promotion, cash settlement, truck inventory, and supplier e-commerce integration. To further understand the complexities in the beverage value chain read It is Hard for Anheuser-Busch to be Procter and Gamble.
Mobile Sales and Delivery Applications
Success or failure in a direct store delivery business is determined at the store shelf. Direct store delivery companies have large workforces of mobile sales and delivery professionals who need to be equipped with mobility technology for them to effectively accomplish their objectives. HighJump Software provides a comprehensive suite of mobility products which support industry best practices for order capture, goal-based selling, delivery tracking and cash settlement. For more details on these solutions read about our latest mobility suite product release HighJump Software Enhances Mobility Solutions With New Release of Mobile Route Sales and Delivery Software Suite.
Load Optimization
Optimized loading of side bay beverage trucks can be complex. While there are numerous packages for creating optimized load plans of traditional van trailers or flatbed trailers, optimizing for side bay beverage trucks is another animal. Additionally, this business problem becomes even more complex when you have a “peddle” environment (driver selling off truck without pre-sold orders) and driver preferences must be taken into account at the load and pallet level.
I think the moral of the story is “don’t believe the hype.” Direct store delivery software solutions are specialized for the unique needs of this industry. Direct store delivery software solutions deal with complexities of supplier integration, cash settlement and truck inventory. A WMS, TMS and retail workforce solution will not meet the needs of most food and beverage distributors in their direct store delivery operations.
Congratulations to Overstock.com, a HighJump WMS warehouse management system customer, for once again placing second in the NRF Foundation and American Express'slist of the top ten retailers for customer service. The list is based on a survey of more than 8,000 American shoppers, conducted by BIGresearch. See the full list. HighJump System has helped Overstock.com provide award-winning customer service through an increased order fulfillment rate and near-perfect accuracy. The HighJump Supply Chain Advantage suite has supported Overstock.com’s growth from $40 million in revenue in 2001 to $834 million today. The company has also reduced warehouse labor costs by over 30 percent while achieving more than 99 percent inventory accuracy by location, despite a highly volatile SKU base.
Read HighJump's Overstock.com's success story (PDF) to learn more about the online retailer's great customer service and how the company utilizes HighJump's supply chain technology to implement supply chain management best practices.
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