Printing’s best practices: Fulfi llment

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Printing’s best practices: Fulfi llment

What’s inside:Defi ning the perfect order 3

How customers order today 4

Best practices for effi cient order fulfi llment 6Defi ning customer needs 7

Standardizing processes 7

Training employees 8

Measuring and tracking 9

Accountability 10

Profi tability of order fulfi llment 11

The benefi ts of fulfi llment management 12

EFI E-BOOK SERIESEFI E-BOOK SERIES PRINTING’S BEST PRACTICES: FULFILLMENT

DEFINING THE PERFECT ORDER

According to the Supply Chain Council, the perfect order is:

Delivered on time, according to the requested date and/or commit date

In full

With no quality issues

With the correct and matching invoice, PO and receipt

EFI E-BOOK SERIES PRINTING’S BEST PRACTICES: FULFILLMENT

Social media

Call center

Email

Fax

Store kiosksOnline

Mobile

Driven by their experiences in other industries, customers expect a seamless, blended experience when dealing with a single company. Whether it is a POD, pick and pack, product, special event or conference, kitting and assembly, or POP displays, the orders need to get there on time and be correct. And if the order is refused or returned, it needs to be accounted for and recorded.

Let’s take a look at how customers order today.

CHALLENGE:

Is it possible to fulfill the perfect order? Let’s explore best practices to accomplish this.


continued

DEFINE

Create a questionnaire that leads you through the fulfi llment process to defi nethe customers needs.1.

STEP

Printing’s best practices: Fulfi llmentThere are steps that can be taken to fi ll the perfect order — delivering it on time, in full, with no quality issues and with the correct invoice and receipt.

SAMPLE FULFILLMENT QUESTIONNAIRE

COMPANY: CONTACT:

1. What types of items will be sold?

2. Are kits being sold? Built on the fl y? Kits in kits? Off the shelf? Pod in the kit?

3. What are the allocation rules?

4. What is the billing going to look like? Item, order and process? Handling, freight or both? Sales tax?

5. What are the documentation requirements? Pick slips? Labels?

6. Is there a specifi c shipping company that must be used?

7. Do you have your own storefront?

8. If Excel or text fi les are provided, will you require updates for your external system?


Best practices for effi cient order fulfi llmentThere are steps that can be taken in order to fi ll the perfect order—delivering it on time, in full, with no quality issues, and with the correct invoice and receipt.9. What are the specifi c allocation rules (if applicable)?

10. Replenishment at the level of the item or at the location?

11. How do you want the items picked? FIFO? LIFO? No preference?

12. What are the shipping rules?

13. Is data collection needed?

14. Are order approvals required?

15. What key performance indicators are required?

16. What SLAs do you need to meet?

17. Storage charges — how many SKUs will you store? How many skids?

18. How many orders a week will be processed? How many lines per order? On average?

SAMPLE FULFILLMENT QUESTIONNAIRE (continued)

1.STEP

Printing’s best practices: Fulfi llment


TRAINING

“Using a fulfi llment management system allows us to look at our programs, plan in advance and operate as effi ciently as possible with little administrative overhead.” SALLY GILBERT, PROJECT MANAGERGILSON GRAPHICS

STANDARDIZE

It’s vital to standardize the processes across your enterprise.2.

STEP

• Orders should fl ow the same through production whether they were taken by phone, fax, email, imported or placed online.

• Standardize protocols across departments, from customer service to the warehouse and shipping.

• By establishing the rules with the customer up front, a system can be implemented that determines where the stock is pulled from, what is billed, when items are released, when emails are sent, the content of the emails and what is printed.


• Does your customer service team know the fulfi llment processes if they are helping for the week?

• Do inventory personnel know why they were asked to bring stock to a location?

• Do the pickers know why you set the customer up with a dpl instead of going into the racks?Do they know what a dpl is?

• Why would we use Pick Confi rmation versus not?

• Is serialization needed?

• Ensure everyone knows about each type of fulfi llment you provide so they can speak intelligently about it when someone approaches them.

Inkjet Printer Training Services

VERSION 1

VERSION 2

TRAIN

Training all employeeson the process. 3.

STEP


Operational Excellence The number of orders/lines that are processed complete divided by the total orders/lines processed within the measurement period

Percentage of Orders Requiring Rework (For example, by cause type)

Order fi ll rate The number of orders/lines that are processed complete divided by the total orders/lines processed within the measurement period

Order Lead Time This is a measure of an organizations ability to quickly serve customer demand. This fi gure measures speed of service and indicates the average time from order placement to customer receipt.

• Track performance

• Highlight opportunities for improvement

• Determine the value of those improvements

• Prioritize what to do and in

what order

• Have you established a standard — do the

pickers know what is expected of them on an

hourly basis? Is anyone monitoring this?

• Is there a “black book” that details the

project’s expectation?

Defi ne how to measure it!

MEASURE

Measure and track. A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a measurable value that demonstrates how eff ectively a company is achieving key business objectives.

4.STEP


• Simple procedures for accountability will provide huge benefits in historical data

• Setting solid expectations with each department will minimize confusion

• Dock-to-stock time limits are critical to the success of the process.

- Using the unidentified feature in PrintStream eliminates the excuse of “I didn’t know what it was so I couldn’t receive it in.”

• Do you allow production team members into inventory or do you transfer the stock with an inventory team member — what determines this?

• How do you track insurance values?

Create accountability measures.

ACCOUNTABILITY5.STEP


Labor • Are you logging time?

• Are your hourly rates accurate?

Materials • Are you logging all materials?

Freight — cost versus sell • Are you tracking this?

Warehouse space • This should be a wash for fulfi llment — is it?

Commissions• How creative are you being?

• Is this causing more work than it is helping?

Production jobs If you are doing POD and production work with machines, are these costs accurately refl ected?

Does every job, every order need to be tracked? • No, but every customer and process should be – returns, pick and pack, kit building, fold, insert,

digital and off set.

• Costing is critical.

Profi tability — how do you know you are making money on fulfi llment projects?

PROFITABILITY6.STEP


A fulfillment management solution that is integrated end-to-end provides full visibility. This enables efficient, profitable management of warehouse and fulfillment operations.

Such a system provides:• A high level of expertise for all types of fulfillment

• Gives your team the ability to address complexities in your fulfillment operation to maintain a high level of performance and return

• Is highly configurable, allowing you to refine the software to match your unique fulfillment needs

EFI’s PrintStream® fullfilment management system offers:• Mass import and release orders on a timer

• API for order submission, edits and inquiries

• Backorder rules by customer and item

• Substitution on an item or kit component

• Price lists

• Complex pick rules

• Ship from warehouse

• Kit definitions

• Returns

The benefits of a fulfillment management solution

“Before, the customer order would come to us, and we would manually re-enter everything into our system. Now, with an integrated fulfillment management system, we’re able to take the needed data from those same Web-to-Print sites and push it automatically without having to touch much of anything.”

TONY MARAVDO, CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER GILSON GRAPHICS

Schedule Your Demohttp://www.efi.com/about-efi/contact-us/how-to-buy/

Talk to a Specialist800-875-7117

Learn Morewww.efi.com/printstream

Nothing herein should be construed as a warranty in addition to the express warranty statement provided with EFI products and services.

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Printing’s best practices: Fulfi llment

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