Everything You Need to Know About 3PL Fulfillment Services

3PL fulfillment services are pivotal in managing and handling a business’s supply chain operations. As your business grows, the need to handle logistics and inventory also increases. Managing the supply chain along with other business operations can be time-consuming and require costs, extra resources, and technologies. However, the majority of companies use third-party logistics services such as warehousing and distribution centres to outsource all the operations within the supply chain. Leveraging fulfillment services, most businesses have improved productivity and fulfilled the demands of their customers, ensuring high customer satisfaction. In this article, we’ll learn everything about 3PL fulfillment services and how they boost a business’s supply chain’s productivity and efficiency. 

What are 3PL Fulfillment Services? 

Third-party fulfillment services are a source to whom you delegate all your supply chain tasks, such as order receiving, product storage, shipping, and delivery. You won’t need to handle the entire fulfillment by yourself. Instead, your 3PL partner will help you manage all the tasks, ensuring the customer’s demands are fulfilled before or within a given time. 

You might have the below questions in mind: 

• How can a fulfillment service manage the entire supply chain process? 
• Would it be good to rely on a 3PL partner to delegate such crucial tasks?

To answer this: 

• A 3PL fulfillment service uses various modern technologies and advanced services, such as warehouses (storage service) and other services, to streamline every critical task. 
• Relying on a 3PL partner can help you handle your logistics and inventory. However, it is crucial to choose a 3PL that aligns with your business standards and can understand all your supply chain requirements. 

How Fulfillment Services Work? 

Informing 3PL About Available Stock: Once you have selected and collaborated with a 3PL partner, you must provide complete information about the available inventory and logistics to keep them informed about what type of products and goods are available in stock, when it’s required to ship and deliver the product, what type of orders packaging service customers like, and the estimation of on-time demand that can be generated in the future. 

Using Warehouse for Storage to Order Fulfillment: The next step is to send all your products, goods, and other equipment to the selected warehouse. A warehouse is a storage service that handles all your inventory, including storing the products for order fulfillment. We’ll discuss the services of a warehouse below to help you understand better about it:

• Storage: Workers in the warehouse first receive all the products from a business and then store them in a storage space specifically designed to handle inventory. The products and goods are stored in an organized way to ensure accuracy and maintain quality so that there should not be any errors or defective/damaged products throughout the delivery process. 
• Picking and Packing: Once the customer has generated the demand, workers start executing the picking and packing process, in which the products are picked from the warehouse shelves and then packaged. This is considered the most costly and time-consuming process in most warehouses because it is the primary process and should be done effectively. However, some warehouses use modern technologies such as WMS, Robotics, Batch Picking, etc, that streamline this hectic process and reduce the need for additional time throughout the service. 
• Quality Check: Once the picking and packing are done, the next step is to perform quality checks to ensure every product is in the right place. Quality checks allow workers to cross-verify the orders, and if there’s defective or dead stock or a wrong product in the order, it should be immediately removed to assure quality and accuracy. 
• Shipping and Order Fulfillment: Once the orders are prepared, workers start loading the orders, including products and goods, into trucks or any other transportation source. This is also time-consuming, but using boost-cutting technologies like dock plates and lift tables can help simplify the loading process and reduce the risk of injuries or accidents to the workers. After loading, the products get shipped to different locations and delivered to the customers. 

So, this is all about the warehousing services. However, these are the primary operations performed in a warehouse; many modern technologies and services are used to streamline every operation, which can also help reduce cost return rates and provide real-time visibility to businesses. Let’s discuss some boost-cutting technologies and services: 

Warehouse Management System: This software is used in many warehouses to track every operation. It handles inventory levels, order fulfillment, and kitting and assembly service. Moreover, this software can integrate with other transportation and inventory management systems to boost efficiency and productivity and streamline supply chain operations.

Inventory Management System: This software tracks, manages, and optimizes inventory-related operations. It automates tasks like reordering and monitoring product shipment from one location to another.

Both the WMS and IMS provide real-time visibility to businesses to keep track of every process of supply chain.

Benefits of Fulfillment 3PL Services

The following are some of the benefits of fulfillment 3PL services: 

• Scalability: A 3PL can be scalable and flexible, allowing you to use the space required for your inventory. This can save you time and money. 
• Customer Satisfaction: 3PL ensures high customer satisfaction by enabling quick and accurate deliveries.
  
• Return Rates: Warehouses or distribution centres reduce the risk of return rates when they deliver on-time orders by considering quality and efficiency.
  
• Reduced Costs: 3PL reduces additional costs and efforts by implementing various technologies and services.
  
• Boost Productivity: A fulfillment 3PL helps businesses improve productivity by streamlining tasks and reducing the additional time spent on a particular task. 

Conclusion 

Third party fulfillment services are not only storage solutions; they offer numerous benefits that help businesses overcome challenges that can hinder growth. However, it’s essential to choose a 3PL partner by considering your business standards, and if you’re running a more significant business, you should opt for a warehouse that can provide ample storage space to handle all your inventory. Seek reputed companies in Canada that offer reliable services from a trusted 3PL, and consider your business and supply chain needs. Moreover, ask for recommendations from business owners and then make an informed decision.