GROWING WITH THE CUSTOMER, OutBound Shipping SYSTEMS PROVIDES
ALMOST 15 YEARS OF EFFICIENT & SOPHISTICATED AUTOMATED
SHIPPING FOR CATALOG VENDOR
THE CHALLENGE
When a national $200 million company that depends on catalog
sales and e-commerce has trouble with its shipping solution,
there's a problem.
To ship its products, this company considered a number
of integrated automated shipping solutions, but most would
have trouble keeping up with the company's rapid growth.
However, an automated shipping system from OutBound Shipping
Systems is able to grow with the customer.
THE SOLUTION
In 1991, OutBound was chosen to provide an automated shipping
system because it was able to integrate its shipping system
into the customer's ERP and its warehouse system.
The first installation was a single workstation in a 100,000
square-foot warehouse; soon this expanded into multiple
work stations in order to utilize scanning equipment to
eliminate keystroke entry and permit data scanning.
Six months later, the customer moved into a 600,000 square-foot
warehouse in rural Missouri, and OutBound made the move
with them. Very soon, traditional packing and shipping stations
were replaced with unattended shipping equipment, including
conveyers, in-line scales, and scanning equipment. Weighing
and scanning are now handled in seconds, determining tracking
and order numbers.
In addition to being able to rate shop on true rates, this
OutBound system gives the customer the ability to rate shop
based on user-determined exceptions, such as service level
discounts and customer service integration.
Today, packing stations and packers have been eliminated,
helping this customer save on employee salaries and insurance,
as well as workman's compensation and other employee-related
costs.
THE BOTTOM LINE
In taking the customer from a single work station at a
single location to "invisible" or unattended virtual
shipping, OutBound has helped them realize average savings
of $162,000 annually after an initial investment of $30,000
in 1991. And after almost a decade and a half, the OutBound
system is still going strong; still growing to meet the
customer's needs.
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