April 17, 2020
What effect has COVID-19 had on 3PL warehouse operations? With some businesses, like grocery and personal protection equipment, seeing massive spikes in demand and other industries like brick-and-mortar retail completely frozen, we wanted to find out what affects COVID-19 was having on our customers. So we asked. In early April 2020, using a short online survey, we asked our customers a few questions to see how they are being impacted. 16 percent of responders said COVID-19 has not affected their business. Of the 84 percent that are experiencing an impact, […]
April 16, 2020
This is Chapter 5 of 13 in our eBook on eCommerce Fulfillment for 3PL Warehouses. See the link below to download the full ebook. eCommerce fulfillment has shifted demand from Retail storefronts to warehouses which indirectly has put a strain on available warehousing space. With the increased demand for Warehouse space, this has increased the cost of adding more warehouse space. In order to keep storage costs affordable and delay the need to expand warehouse space, warehouses may choose to optimize their warehouse configuration. This is important to avoid having […]
March 30, 2020
This is Chapter 4 of 13 in our eBook on eCommerce Fulfillment for 3PL Warehouses. See the link below to download the full ebook. The next step in the fulfillment process is to pick the inventory for the orders. The process of picking orders from storage may vary. This process will happen after the orders have been batched. Some operations may use a pick aisle as the packing station, where the timing can be more independent. However, for the purpose of this chapter, we will assume the picking is happening […]
March 5, 2020
This is Chapter 3 of 13 in our eBook on eCommerce Fulfillment for 3PL Warehouses. See the link below to download the full ebook. The ultimate magic in efficient operations happens during Order Planning and is the next principle: All work is done in batches. A warehouse may receive orders all day long (or overnight for 24/7 Ops) and must determine when an order is “Ready to Process”. The client may explicitly dictate the date to ship, or a service level agreement may be in place where the date to […]
March 4, 2020
Right now, Camelot is preparing for our sesquiennial Camelot User Conference, where our clients from all over will meet with us in Charlotte, NC to learn more about the current state and future of Excalibur. Before going any further, I have to admit that I did research the proper way to refer to an event that occurs every 18 months, and that term is sesquiennial. While planning for our own conference, I’ve tried to consider how to bring the most value to our diverse crowd of users. The Camelot User […]
February 19, 2020
This is Chapter 2 of 13 in our eBook on eCommerce Fulfillment for 3PL Warehouses. See the link below to download the full ebook. In order to begin fulfillment, the warehouse must have a way to get the order information. With the growth in technology, the electronic transfer of data is the preferred method for obtaining orders. The first 2 principles of handling high volume eCommerce fulfillment are to Establish System-Driven Automation thereby Reducing the Manual Entry of Data into the system. The two leading methods of obtaining high volume […]