WMS for 3PL Warehouses

Handling the ebb and flow of such diverse products, order profiles, and special requirements is no small challenge. When each new client adds complexity, and every error can result in heavy penalties or a lost contract, you can’t afford to rely on manual, paper-based, or entry-level systems. You need a solution that also underpins a culture of continuous improvement. A WMS that supports your drive for innovation today and tomorrow. If that sounds good, here are nine ways modern 3PL warehouse management systems can help.

WMS for 3PL Warehouses: Scaling Multi-Tenant Logistics & Operations

With many different sizes and types of customers, including one who only wants warehousing space and doesn’t want any other services, a good 3PL WMS solution needs to not only incorporate all the traditional WMS functions but also connect all the different and specific business requirements of different clients with their operations. Happibytes WMS for third-party logistics can accommodate a catalog with millions of SKUs from multiple customers and have a different billing structure and SLA for each. It is built with a highly scalable, flexible, and client-configurable architecture and can easily handle the requirements and business models of different customers. New custom-developed functions can be quickly and safely made available to affected clients with minimal disruption.

Are you tired of wishing your warehouse management system would just keep pace with your business? If you’re like me, you’ve seen WMS platforms strain under the relentless demands of modern distribution. Silos of real-time data have given way to yesterday’s snapshots. How many disparate systems does your IT team juggle every hour just trying to keep things afloat? don’t make the mistake of thinking third-party logistics gets any easier if you just work harder at it. You and I both know the formula for success here. It’s scalability. New clients, more square footage, diversified services…your WMS has to grow with you. Or else they’re grown right out of your customer portfolio. Won’t happen with a cloud WMS. It’s infinitely scalable. See for yourself. Call or click to schedule a demo.

The Complex Reality of Third-Party Logistics (3PL) Management

The goal of any WMS is to optimize workflows to save time and reduce costs. But only a 3PL WMS equips managers with the tools needed to dynamically adjust strategies based on how priorities are shifting in the warehouse and across their client-base. Managing a 3PL warehouse means constant change. You’re bringing on a new client or losing an old one. A pandemic strikes and suddenly everyone expects more from their logistics partner. Your WMS should make it easy to pivot operations to accommodate these shifts.

Navigating Multi-Client Architectures and Unique SLA Demands

SLA compliance is one thing. Continuously exceeding client expectations is another. What if the system could not only streamline your internal process but actually transform the product into part of the service you offer customers? This more subtle approach to the value of the WMS differentiates itself exactly where competitors believe their “product” is good enough. The better you are at operating a warehouse (that most commoditized of assets), the more difficult it is to differentiate what you do compared to the competition.

Billing accuracy is often pinpointed as the difference between a profitable 3PL and one that is just getting by. Since you can’t bill a client for what isn’s tracked, you need to be sure that you are consistently capturing every billable activity. This begins from the time inventory is received at your third-party facility. Are you billing for receipt of each pallet or simply logging that a pallet of “X” arrived? Are you accounting for the time and materials it takes to customize each of your clients’ labeling and packaging requirements? Are you accurately billing for the actual labor involved in pallet, case, each, or inner-pack replenishments? Our integrated ecommerce warehouse software WMS module and RF device with touch screen interface offers complete labor and resource accuracy that feeds directly into our Customer Activity Based Costing Invoicing module.

Core Capabilities of a Modern 3PL Warehouse Management System

A healthy WMS for a 3PL warehouse provides a wealth of benefits besides just tracking inventory. Receiving modules check incoming orders against POs and highlight discrepancies immediately. Clever putaway algorithms sort and store products based on their speed, size, and even the rules specific clients have set. Armstrong Dematic will even incorporate machine learning to predict demand and adapt your slotting strategy accordingly.

Wave planning and batch picking are amazing features, right? I mean, when you think about it, how do they manage to group similar orders together like that? Fascinating stuff. And then you have pharmaceutical warehouse software, can we talk about that level of detail and control? It’s FDA compliant, which I assume is no small feat. And the automotive inventory management system that keeps track of all those VIN numbers? How can they handle it all?

How WMS Supercharges 3PL Profitability and Efficiency

Third-party logistics providers (3PLs) face relentless pressure to reduce costs. But with overheads spread across so many operations, it can be hard to know where to start. Labor likely represents the largest expense and the place to make the most immediate impact. A modern WMS will cut labor costs typically by 20-30% through task-interleaving. In other words, rather than making separate trips to pick, replenish, or cycle count, associates are directed on a single trip. This saves hours of wasted motion.

The artificial intelligence embedded in these systems continuously refines the math models controlling ordering, receiving, picking, and shipping. Highly interrelated variables like historical throughput, unit weight, and cube align perfectly in an optimal-functional-accessible storage matrix. Periodic big data analysis reveals improvements, but much is too nuanced for everyday user maintenance. Exception alerts quickly catch unauthorized access or sequence changes.

Key Evaluation Criteria When Choosing a 3PL WMS

You need a WMS that doesn’t entail massive organizational upheaval, one that provides a familiar UX and easily adapts to your unique processes with configuration, not customized coding. Issues will arise during implementation, no matter how slick the process, so 24/7 access to helpdesk support is crucial. Vendors offer different levels of post go-live support. Don’t overbuy, but don’t skimp either. Look to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant or your peers for guidance.

Better visibility and communication in multi-party logistics networks are pointless if workers find the tools too difficult to adopt. An outdated, densely packed screen risks workers missing key warnings or overlooking new features in their rush to get their job done. Smooth, easy operations that refine over time are the essence of successful logistics. Interfaces for users don’t differ in this regard from the broader processes, they’re points in the supply chain that should add value, not dependency. For instance, warehouse operators without the latest ergonomic designs for goods-to-picker processes might have to compromise movement speed or handling to adapt. The same goes for software and devices. Different networks demand different processes, but the ideal software should hardly require any change to gain a lot. It should bend toward you. Two ways to make this trade-off between change and coast reveal themselves when looking for third-party logistics software that’s easy to adopt: 1. The principle of least surprise: Innovations should match expectations, not force new ones on you. This reduces resistance to change, they can learn while operating. 2. Sliding to a stop: Migrating features and enhancements in the software should align with what users naturally grow comfortable with. They should be improvements that users come to depend on, not options they can easily skip using. Our down-to-earth approach grounds both these principles in reality. This makes radical change feel natural. New principles expand as needed into your role in the supply chain. New software or improvements should be adapted for obvious convenience, not enforced in nostalgia, old habits, or foundations of which you have no memory. We’ve seen how common-sense this is. Armstrong Dematic excels by applying unexpected insights, not shrinking from the expected. Small, invisible changes add up to whole orders of magnitude better.

Future-Proofing Your 3PL Business with Smart Automation

Automation brings true process improvements when it comes to managing consistent volumes. But what about peaks and shifts in demand? The answer is a balance of humans and robots. Manual labor rules the day when products arrive in your warehouse, and directly after, as the number of transactions for those products is small or unknown. Robots excel when there are enough high-repetition tasks to justify their cost. During those high-demand periods, like the gift-giving holiday season, a robotic solution passes off multiple items to a single human packer, decreasing the time the person spends walking from bin to bin. Likewise, hefting a 50-pound box every few minutes isn’t an efficient use of human energy or accuracy , save that for the robot. It’s easy to see why reports are favoring a hybrid approach: manually managed costs paired with automated efficiency to boost throughput.