Eaches or Pieces Order Fulfillment, Design, and Operations Handbook

Book excerpt: If your business uses warehouses to deal with the sales of goods, then you know that facility operations, shipping, and customer service are important to your company's health. Eaches or Pieces Order Fulfillment, Design, and Operations Handbook offers insights for warehouse, distribution, or logistics professionals to make their "eaches or pieces" order-fulfillment operation more efficient and cost effective as well as provide better customer service. Created for direct marketing and retail store fulfillment operators, this handbook emphasizes the skills and knowledge needed to design, organize, and execute an order-fulfillment operation or concept. The first chapter reviews order-fulfillment activities and distribution operations. The author then proceeds to discuss docking; design parameters; storage; pick, pack, and ship activities; and power stock keeping units (SKUs). The final chapter discusses trash removal, vendor-delivered unit of product (UOP) rework locations and flows, and customer returns. Preplanned and organized order-fulfillment operations increase accurate and on-time deliveries, reduce costs, and improve profits. By developing and maintaining an order-fulfillment concept as outlined in Eaches or Pieces Order Fulfillment, Design, and Operations Handbook, you will discover useful strategies for your next warehouse or plant facility as well as improve existing order-fulfillment operations.