Automating Manual Processes

Posted on by Kallol Nandi

 

Automating Manual Processes

 

Our client was a third party logistic service provider having annual revenue more than 500 million USD, serving one of high-end fashion and apparel company. Our client’s specialty was in large-scale home shopping network direct to consumer operations.

Situation: 

  • USPS documentation gathered by hand from multiple systems
  • Returns required manual monitoring
  • No process capable of sending custom messages with gift cards

AUTOMATING PROCESSES TO INCREASE ORDER ACCURACY, DECREASE FULFILLMENT TIME, AND REDUCE LABOR COSTS

Our client had several manual processes that were causing their labor costs to be high and order fulfillment times to be long. First, some of their most popular shipping options, like FedEx and United States Postal Service (USPS), required the manual gathering of information from numerous separate systems. Secondly, their returns process required ongoing manual communication between receiving personnel and the receiving office, in order to determine when an entire return had been received. Lastly, our client wanted to be able to ship gift cards with customized messages to their customers’ friends and family, but were unable to do that using their base WMS package. They opted to have Initechs help them implement solutions that would pay for themselves in a few months of labor savings.

INITECHS’ IMPLEMENTED AUTOMATED SOLUTIONS

Our goal was to help our client automate these manual processes so that they could return their focus to their business. We worked closely with our client to develop practical solutions to their impractical problems. To make this happen, we:

  • Developed a collate label to combine USPS and FedEx Shipping Label, Packing List, Newgistics Smart Return Label, and Return Instructions into a single document
  • Created an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) process so that electronic manifests could be sent to USPS and FedEx
  • Automated their Returns process so that their WMS could take the correct action without human intervention when an entire Return shipment had been received
  • Integrated custom messages from their Order Management System so that messages could be easily be sent along with gift cards

SAVING MONEY BY AUTOMATING MANUAL PROCESSES

In the end, our client saw a 100% return on their investment in labor savings in just a few short months. In addition to the labor savings, our client experienced dramatic improvements in order accuracy and fulfillment times. Initechs is delighted to perform short-term projects with big returns for our valued clients.

 

RESULTS

 

  • Parcel documents automatically gather information from multiple systems
  • Streamlined returns process
  • Client able to print custom messages with gift cards