Ensure quick implementation of warehouse with 3PL provider in 4 ways

Abhinav Sharma
Market demand shifts quite frequently and as a business, you feel the heat to make the products available at the right time in your supply chain. Warehousing being the heart of your supply chain is a critical aspect when it comes to business expansion.  Most of the times, businesses come across a situation when they need to setup a new warehouse to sustain the increasing volume.

However, setting up a warehouse is a time-taking activity and takes a lot of effort to achieve the level of perfection. Doing so on your own may require involving your valuable resources and investing precious capital. 3PL providers like Holisol do this day in and day out and know at the back of their mind regarding what is required in terms of selection, warehouse design, process design and technology to implement the best-suited warehouse for your business in quickest time. Read on to know the 4 ways in which the 3PL provider ensures quick implementation of a warehouse.

Selection of a suitable warehouse location -Your supply chain reach depends largely on how centrally the warehouse is located. 3PL providers ensure that the warehouse is located close to the customer for faster order fulfilment. Not only this, warehouse accessibility for large vehicles and the connectivity with major roads ensure the speed across the supply chain. With the 3PL provider, you get all these advantages and the added benefit of starting the operations as soon as possible. In a situation when they do not have the warehouse in a suitable location, they make use of their network and established contacts to setup a warehouse in no time. Once this is done, they drill down the specifics like the layout, perfect storage design to make the optimum use of the capacity of the warehouse.

Cost-effective procurement and installation -To carry out operations within the warehouse, you need to have the right assets installed. Since the expertise lies with the 3PL provider, they know what would be the best equipment like racking systems, MHEs etc. for your warehouse. They know which technology would be the best to couple with your warehouse to build and sustain the momentum in inbound and outbound processes.

In addition to this, as the 3PL provider is constantly in touch with suppliers for procuring the equipment for their customers, they are better placed to negotiate best prices when it comes to your warehouse. Evidently, the prices offered to you otherwise would have been higher to what you get with the 3PL provider. This cost advantage is passed on to you leading to higher cost savings for your business.

Process Engineering -Warehouse is sustained by n no. of processes which are carried out every single day. Any glitches in the processes may lead to inefficiency in the operations. The 3PL provider designs processes for effective space utilization during inbound and outbound. Each process is designed keeping in mind the movement within the warehouse for accessing the products without any hassles.

Hiring& developing the right talent - You must have understood by now that 3PL providers know at the back of their mind all the key aspects required in setting up a new warehouse. You won’t have to bother about the manpower either when you have a3PL provider to assist you. Since they do this day in and day out, they would fulfil manpower requirement for new warehouse site in no time. They would not only fulfill the numbers but their tested training modules for the manpower would make them ready for operation as quickly as possible. You are sure to get the talent required to run an efficient warehouse.

It can be concluded from above points that the expert 3PL provider can assist you in getting the best possible outcome. Their support contributes to the growth of the business since operational efficiency will be comparatively higher than what you could have managed on your own. It is advisable not to take chance with setting up a new warehouse on your own and should look for a 3PL provider who can do it far more.

The Writer is a Supply Chain Consultant at Holisol.