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Shipshape Distribution

Advice from true warehouse experts

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PathGuide Technologies ● 22745 29 th Drive SE, Suite #150, Bothell, WA 98021 ● www.pathguide.com ● clientservices@pathguide.com Q: When did you realize your warehouse's paper-based receiving, picking and shipping processes were overdue for a replacement? A: "We were at a point where the accuracy of our outgoing shipments to customers was not at an acceptable level. If customers received incorrect products or incorrect quantities, we would do our best to fix the problem, but the damage was already done. This was not only creating additional overhead for us in terms of freight costs, we were losing customers due to frustration." – Kyle Sutter, VP of Operations for Fisheries Supply Q: For distributors with unique warehouse processes, how important was the ability to customize your WMS' manifest and shipping system? A: "Out of the box, our manifest and shipping system was going to require some fairly extensive modifications to have it fit us perfectly. After a few iterations and further customizations, the system worked perfectly for us. Our business has indeed changed and evolved as we knew it would, necessitating a few more changes to the manifest and shipping system." – John Hanna, Atlanta Dental Q: Considering some of the products that your company ships are classified hazardous materials, like acid-based cleaners that are used to clean boat hulls, what was one specific pain point in your manual shipping process that required more precision? A: "The information on hazmat paperwork has to be filled out per very specific specifications that are set by the department of transportation. This is difficult to do in a world of manual shipments; even a misspelling or missed punctuation will violate the very specific documentation requirements and cause the shipment to be rejected by the carrier." – Tom Lorenz, Operations Manager at Lorenz & Jones Q: How important is ease of use in a WMS' manifest and shipping system? A: "Personally, I like that the manifest and shipping system is user friendly. Changing carriers, shipping methods, reprinting labels or documents, having visibility of shipping charges, cancelling shipments, all made simple to the user." – Customer wished to remain anonymous Q: How has your WMS' manifest and shipping system boosted productivity in your warehouse? A: "Our teams now have a stronger sense of ownership that has helped to improve productivity. By tapping into our WMS's database, we created a 'ticker' that displays the status of open orders on a big screen inside the warehouse. We promise to ship same day on orders that come in by 2 p.m. on weekdays, so if picking starts to fall behind, everyone knows about it. This lets team members see that they're not operating in isolation, and it has created a really strong sense of working toward a common goal. If we know, for example, that ten more orders need to go to customers today, our teams have shown that they can kick it into a higher gear." – Kyle Sutter, VP of Operations for Fisheries Supply Q: What problem in your shipping process were you able to resolve with the use of your WMS' manifest and shipping system capabilities? A: "Missed origin scans don't happen that often, but when they do, we can easily figure out if we need to reship the package or if we can rest assured that the package was shipped correctly, and the carrier just missed the origin scan. In that case, we wait for the next scan to take place." – Tom Lorenz, Operations Manager at Lorenz & Jones

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