The influx of eCommerce stores and growth in online sales has increased the need for logistics and transportation services significantly.
In addition, online customers have also grown, raising the demand for various delivery services such as pick-and-pack fulfillment, business-to-customer, same-day, priority, and next-day deliveries.
This requires a perfect solution that can optimize shipping speed and costs.
Therefore, since the logistics industry is the glue that holds the supply chain together, its efficiency is critical to the fulfillment of these orders.
And it doesn’t matter the industry you’re operating; you need logistics to complete your processes in one or another.
But the burden for supply chain efficiency falls harder on you if you’re at the heart of the chain.
You can’t afford to make any mistakes with your software either through custom logistics software development or commercial options.
What Is Logistics Management?
For you to understand the essential features of your logistics solution, you need to understand what you’re trying to achieve.
In simple terms, logistics is the movement of goods from the manufacturer to the end user.
However, the process does not flow as smoothly as it sounds, there are many stops in between.
Logistics management is how this process is coordinated from the source to the consumer.
You need to have a system that tracks and records the flow of goods from a manufacturer to the warehouse, in transport, to a retainer, and eventually to an end user.
Additionally, the process isn’t one-sided, there are also inbound orders that you need to track.
The entire process needs proper administration and coordination to ensure accurate and efficient fulfillment of orders. All this sums up logistics management.
Some of the benefits of using a logistics management system include:
- Fleet optimization including management of vehicles, routes, loads, and orders
- Better analysis and reporting for successful supply chain fulfillment and future business decisions.
- Better order, inventory, and warehouse processes
- Improved communication for better and quick conflict resolution
As an essential part of the supply chain management solution, these are the features your logistics software must have.
Order Management
You need to have a proper and accurate record of both inbound and outbound orders and their movements.
This is particularly the case when you’re dealing with high volumes. You need an order fulfillment feature that tracks your orders up to the delivery point.
For that, you need a management solution that allows you to automatically process orders, schedule delivery and dispatch, automatically generate and send bills, track orders, manage payments, and manage status.
This feature reduces the need for manual entries that are prone to errors.
Warehouse Management
Warehousing and storage are essential parts of the logistics process. You need to maintain the optimal condition of the inventory in storage.
You need to be able to optimize the warehouse storage and distribution processes with the least human control and intervention.
This feature generally allows you to maximize your facility’s physical capability and resources and simplify the intricacies of inventory movement.
Inventory Management
Another critical feature you need is the software to have inventory visibility and management.
Without proper visibility of your inventory, you risk having regular stockouts and slow orders. Both of these extremes are bad for business and can lead to massive losses.
Imagine running out of Christmas trees in December because the inventory ran out or receiving them in January because the orders were made late.
Naturally, you don’t want to be stuck with orders in the warehouse for months before anyone orders because they came in at the wrong time.
However, without proper inventory management, this can happen.
Your logistics management software should have this feature to help you keep track of the movement of your products to allow you to make necessary adjustments and plans that match the flow of purchases.
Integrations
Logistics and supply chain is a long process, with a wide range of decision-makers and control points.
You need a system that is able to integrate with other systems within the supply chain.
When you have all the systems speaking the same language, the supply chain flow becomes seamless.
Besides, seamless integration eliminates data silos that can lead to the use of confusion from errors caused by unconsolidated data.
Real-time Visibility
Traditional systems do not have proper visibility. In most cases, you have to wait until the order completes to get the full picture and then spend time reading back on the chain to identify issues and gaps.
But now modern software has this covered. The visibility and reporting feature allows you to constantly see the status of every section of the supply chain.
This way, you or your logistics manager can identify and solve issues before they occur and avert losses and poor customer relations.
For example, you can identify a delayed shipment that was on regular delivery.
Other than waiting to hear from a customer about undelivered products you can easily ship them on priority to cover for the lost time.
Access to real-time data on the status of your orders allows you to make better decisions fast.
Reports And Forecasting
Lastly, you need a report and forecasting feature. This feature helps identify patterns to help you optimize and coordinate all the functions better.
If you can identify periods of high and low demands, it makes it easier to keep your inventory in check.
The reporting feature also helps you to collect and synchronize data from all features for use by departments across the business.
Conclusion
The logistics and supply chain industries keep evolving, although the offering is still the same; enabling the fulfillment of orders.
But technology has improved the way the processes move and have improved logistics management.
When looking for software to manage your logistics department, you need to consider a lot of things, but the features above are some of the most critical and must-haves.
They will help you gain better visibility in all areas of your supply chain while collecting information and creating reports to help you improve your logistics processes.
Ella Marcotte
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