New Technology Makes Fulfillment Operations More Efficient and Effective

Order fulfillment solutions are progressing to new levels, as manufacturers have become “truly focused on reducing end-user labor utilization and improving accuracy, throughputs and ROI,” says Ed Romaine, vice president sales and marketing at MHI member SI Systems.

Romaine and Austin Power, business development manager, MHI member Retrotech, led an Order Fulfillment Solutions (OFS) Council educational seminar on the “latest and greatest” fulfillment solutions at ProMat 2015 in March.

The continued evolution of e-commerce, mobility and omnichannel are forcing fulfillment operations to consider altogether different methods to remain competitive, Power says. Demands include channel logistics, order demand, coordinating the most cost-effective and fastest way to fulfilling and shipping particular products to end-users and handling returns.

“Say Amazon takes an order for an Under Armour t-shirt,” Power says. “Amazon might decide to fulfill from its center or EDI to Under Armour, in which case, Under Armour is going to fulfill that order directly. It depends on where the customer is located, the shipping method and then in the case of a pure end-user they might drop ship from a manufacturing facility.”

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert

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