How to Speed Up Shipping

All fulfillment warehouses that ship consumer products are faced with the age-old quandary: how to speed up the shipping process.  That includes both picking the inventory and packing out the orders. Most still do it the old fashioned way.  They staff up a manual order routing desk whose sole job is to physically print out, sort, and prioritize the orders into piles, and then give these orders to the order pickers for the inventory pulls.

There has to be a better method right?  After all how do you handle spikes in volume?   How do you optimize priorities in shipping service levels?  How do you build quality into the process itself?

At Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment, our fulfillment technology is second to none, and helps to always maintain our warehouse efficiency.  Vision does it by expert logic in the form of intelligent order sequencing: all order fulfillment planned in advance in real time by the most intelligent business rules created to ship your product on-time, on-budget, and on-spec - every time.

Our system automatically routes our operations to fit your pre-determined best practice business rules – all set up in advance based on sound warehouse picking and packing logic custom tailored to your service level commitments.  This includes sorting, prioritizing, and sequencing of tens of thousands of orders daily, based on the most efficient warehouse location walk sequence for both batch and wave picking, service level commitments, optimal pack out method, and shipping method.  The end result is faster shipping
out of your fulfillment warehouse.

We would love to give you a demonstration.  It will raise your expectations on how fast, efficient, scalable, and accurate your shipping can be.

Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment has decades of experience and industry expertise in consumer products fulfillment services.  No matter who your customer is, we treat your customer as our own.  We know what makes a raving fan out of an individual customer, as well as what makes a business partner trust you with their business.  Call or email us to learn how.  We’re certain we’ll be the best fulfillment warehouse partner you have ever had!


http://visioncpf.com
CPFSales@VisionMediamgmt.com

What is Predictive Packaging?

In a fulfillment warehouse, size matters in shipping - using the right size box for shipping minimizes dunnage, improves the presentation quality of your order upon receipt, and most of all avoids costly dimensional weight penalties.

Many warehouse operations have some predetermined number of standard box sizes, and the order packer manually selects the box in which the order will be fulfilled.  This results in very little consistency, not to mention the potential for a tremendous degree of waste – in extra dunnage and box cost.  An oversized box can also allow excess product shifting, adding to the potential that the product is damaged during delivery.  Lastly, and perhaps most impactful is that in many cases this also costs much more in shipping based on dimensional weight, because frequently a larger than necessary box is used.

Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment’s proprietary predictive packaging algorithms insure the right size is always used in fulfillment and warehouse operations – all done automatically in advance.  Our systems evaluate the order components, determines the best strategy for product combination within each carton, and then selects the most appropriate box size based a predetermined level of acceptable void space.

Ask your current warehouse partner or personnel about predictive packaging.  If you get back a blank stare, then you know you have the opportunity save cost!  If you’re considering a new fulfillment partner, you’ll be surprised at how much the right partner can present many opportunities to save cost while also providing your business with a scalable approach to managing your growth along the way.

Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment has decades of experience and industry expertise in consumer products fulfillment services.  No matter who your customer is, we treat your customer as our own.  We know what makes a raving fan out of an individual customer, as well as what makes a business partner trust you with their business.  Call or email us to learn how.  We’re certain we’ll be the best fulfillment warehouse partner you have ever had!

http://visioncpf.com
CPFSales@VisionMediamgmt.com

How does a Foreign Trade Zone work?

The Foreign Trade Zone Program provides many little-known import/export benefits for a wide range of business applications.  Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment has extensive experience and expertise with setting up and managing a FTZ.

• Duty deferral. Inventory is brought into the Foreign Trade Zone and held without duties and taxes being assessed until the product leaves the FTZ, presumably to be fulfilled as a paid order to a customer.
• Port Fees. For importers that are bringing in more than one container per week, there can be significant reductions in the port fees by utilizing a Foreign Trade Zone.
• Duty Elimination. Inventory re-exported or destroyed without ever leaving the Foreign Trade Zone does not ever get taxed as a US import.
• Speed to market. Product destined for the Foreign Trade Zone bypasses customs delays in the port because it will clear customs in the FTZ, thereby getting product available to sell sooner.

Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment is a certified General Purpose Foreign Trade Zone - #276. We are members of the National Association of Foreign Trade Zones, and we’re one of the few certified General Purpose Foreign Trade Zones in the Southern California area.

If you’re looking to take advantage of the tremendous benefit of leveraging a Foreign Trade Zone, Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment can help.  We have extensive experience at implementing and managing a Foreign Trade Zone warehouse, including coordinating all of your logistics activities straight from your manufacturer.  We’re a full service fulfillment partner.

Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment has decades of experience and industry expertise in consumer products fulfillment services.  No matter who your customer is, we treat your customer as our own.  We know what makes a raving fan out of an individual customer, as well as what makes a business partner trust you with their business.  Call or email us to learn how.  We’re certain we’ll be the best fulfillment warehouse partner you have ever had!

http://visioncpf.com
CPFSales@VisionMediamgmt.com

Leveraging variable labor in fulfillment

Managing the variability of your resources – facility, labor, and equipment – can make or break any business shipping consumer products.  Not actively managing variable resources can also create an unmanageable burden for both new companies and those going through a growth phase.  Leveraging your fulfillment warehouse’s variable capacity can not only transfer the burden and thus the risk to another entity, but can also provide even greater capabilities.

By its very nature, a fulfillment warehouse partner must manage complete variability in the usage of their facility, labor, and equipment – this is a core requirement of a successful fulfillment operation.  A company who does not consider their ability to manage variability as one of their competitive strengths is severely hamstrung in their operations.  This is an area where your fulfillment warehouse partner can shine by providing you the ability to seamlessly vary your scheduled labor, expand your storage footprint nearly at will, and to balance efficient combination of manual labor and automation.

Discuss variability with your warehouse partner as it relates to your fulfillment operations, and see what they can offer.  If you’re considering a new fulfillment partner, you’ll be surprised at how much the right partner can minimize your risk while providing your business with a scalable approach to managing your growth.

Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment has decades of experience and industry expertise in consumer products fulfillment services.  No matter who your customer is, we treat your customer as our own.

 We know what makes a raving fan out of an individual customer, as well as what makes a business partner trust you with their business.  Call or email us to learn how.  We’re certain we’ll be the best fulfillment warehouse partner you have ever had!

http://visioncpf.com
CPFSales@VisionMediamgmt.com