Bert Moore

Today, there is a marvelous variety of tools and technologies available to give you an incredible view into the product pipeline.

With Web-enabled shipment tracking, you can quickly find the status and location of products you've ordered to help you schedule work flow and order fulfillment. Web-based purchasing can also help you make quicker purchasing decisions by being able to check quantities available from a supplier, compare costs and calculate shipping. All this helps you run leaner inventories.

Bar code receiving, putaway and inventory lets you know exactly what you have, where it is and how much you have in any location. It can also enable you to identify when it was received so you can practice whichever inventory management method makes the most sense: FIFO (first-in-first-out), LIFO (last-in-first-out), or even WCJPI (who-cares-just-pick-it). Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags can track totes, pallets or even items within the facility. Real-time location systems can even allow items in your facility to broadcast their location.

Improved WMS systems, and more affordable ones to that enable medium-sized companies to enjoy their benefits, help you keep track of everything and, when integrated with fulfillment and shipping systems, can streamline the whole picking, packing and shipping process.

Cube and dimension systems can store values for each item before it's put into inventory then calculate the size container you need to ship an order for even greater efficiency. Cube and dimension systems can also help you manage your putaway more efficiently by helping you select the proper storage location with enough, but not too much, space available for the item. And cube and weighing systems on the shipping side can help ensure proper freight costs and even provide a double-check of carton contents (that is, if the contents should weigh a certain amount and there's a significant variation, there's something wrong).

Wow!

When you think about it, all these tools are available to help you do a better job.

In fact, they may require you to.

The same visibility you have into a supplier's process is now often available to your customers. With the greater level of product visibility, you have nowhere to hide.

Inventory is one key area. If your customers can check your inventory levels, they'll know whether they should order from you or a competitor. The phrase "back order" on a web site can be the kiss of death. On the other hand, if you are tracking your own product orders, you can confidently post "ships within 3 days." But if you promise to ship within 3 days, your customers will know whether you've kept your promise or not.

Bram Johnson, corporate vice president for strategic development for FedEx Ground, observed at the Carrier's Roundtable at the 1999 Parcel Shipping & Distribution Expo, "You used to be able to claim that you'd already shipped a product and 'the carrier must have lost it.' You can't do that any more."

The moment your shipment goes out the door on a carrier that offers web-based tracking, it's visible on the customer's radar. And if it doesn't ship when you've promised it, they'll know it. And you'll hear about it.

The process used to allow for a bit of slack in even the best-run operations. Today, that slack has all but disappeared in many businesses. Even small inefficiencies in your operations suddenly show up for the whole world to see.

That's the double-edged sword of technology. It not only allows you to run a more efficient operation, it requires it.