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"TYING IT ALL TOGETHER"
But how do you match and even exceed these ever increasing demands and challenges in your everyday operation? How do you ensure that your customer's order of anything--from a prescription where an error can mean death to a blue dress for that very special occasion--doesn't become a customer service nightmare for you and a nightmarish experience for your customer? And how do you do all of that while at the same time adhering to the complexities of both operational execution and carrier compliant requirements? Furthermore, how do you ensure you have the right operational components for your distribution processes to meet these challenges? Especially, how do you do it when your distribution enterprise includes diverse environments, multiple locations, and ever changing requirements. Happily, distribution professionals can now meet these challenges with a "mix and match" approach to technology and process components. They can select the necessary operational functions based on the unique needs of their distribution environments. CHOOSING THE RIGHT METHODS Flexibility is an absolute necessity in today's distribution environments. Parcel shippers face diverse requirements that can span an enterprise or be contained within a single facility. They need to face challenges of meeting the demands of single-item and multi-item packaging and compliant shipping. On top of that, they need to sort through a lot of product offerings. Any solution chosen to work through these problems must include components that are able to mix the operational demands of diverse product offerings and distribution systems with specific operational requirements. There are point-of-pack documents, order verification, carrier requirements, and fluctuating volumes--just to name a few. And of course, both the enterprise and individual facilities must run cost effective systems besides assuring accuracy with every order. After-sales costs and negative customer experiences can be very expensive. THE CARTON-PROCESSING COMPONENTS Packing stations are used where order validation and accuracy are the keys to success and, sometimes, even a matter of life or death. At CaremarkRx, for example, handheld packing devices are used at its mail-order pharmacy fulfillment centers to double-check the accuracy of prescription orders before shipment occurs. Packing stations are also heavily used in e-commerce, traditional B2C (i.e. catalogers) and manufacturing environments. There, the challenges of fulfilling retailer's and carrier's stringent requirements (including EDI) are enormous. Typically, packing stations are used to create and pack shippable units; verify order contents; and print packing lists, invoices, gift cards, pricing tickets, and shipping labels. Some industries require special processing during packing such as gift-wrap instructions, credit card validations, or special labeling requirements. Packing stations are usually configured with a workstation, scanner, scale, and printer(s). An example is the Shane Company, one of the country's most respected direct diamond importers and premier jewelry retailers. Shane uses packing stations to ensure that the customer's web order is executed in a manner that builds customer confidence--essential in this high-end industry. Here, packing stations not only ensure accuracy but they even display gift-wrap instructions. The packing stations can also print appraisal documentation and gift cards for the consumer. Finally, the packing stations can send credit card authorization information for immediate funds transfer at the ship point. At Eckerd Corporation, the nation's third largest retail drugstore chain, packing stations are used as quality control points. They verify the accuracy of Web-based orders before shipment occurs, helping to spur repeat business. The company has incorporated the packing function into its componentized distribution system including verification and audit functions. Packing stations at any facility must be built for speed and ease of use. Graphical user interfaces (GUI) and screen indicators walk the operator through the packing process without thought. Packing stations can also be configured to run as returns stations. Training on the GUI is minimal because the packing and returns interfaces are nearly identical. Using packing stations to ensure order accuracy means fewer service calls, a reduction in returns, a higher level of customer confidence and, hopefully, the elimination of human error to provide the perfect shopping experience.
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