This white paper is intended as a guide for those responsible for the shipping department in a warehouse, distribution, logistics or manufacturing facility for the advantages that can be gained from deploying an automated shipping system with essential integrated features that can significantly contribute to savings.
Over the recent ten-year period, many industries flourished with business. During that time, companies tried to keep up with demand by applying new technologies, wherever possible. But within the past two past years, business has been experiencing just the opposite, with slowing orders and excess inventories. With sluggish times, many have been able to clearly ‘see’ the imperfections of their shipping departments and have begun to take corrective action. But, where?
Cost Alignment to Cost Savings
ADSI has observed that many customers using the ADSI Shipping Systems have found cost savings of approximately 40% and a reduction of errors by 50% based on a manual process using minimal technology. For our customers, that means saving tens of thousands to millions of dollars per year.
There are many different types of shipping systems offered in the marketplace today. Just like most industries, the shipping technology business has also been affected by the economy, which is why key attributes of the vendor’s organization need to be evaluated prior to product evaluation:
• Has the core shipping technology continued to be improved?
• Have the latest carrier-provided technologies been incorporated into the vendor’s products, in order to provide additional savings and return on investment?
• Does the company employ experienced service professionals who can help make process improvements, software customizations and a smooth integration into your current WMS, Oracle, SAP or other ERP systems?
• Do they have a centralized support team or is customer support the same people out on site installing/servicing the software?
Overall Benefits to Shipping Automation
A multi-carrier shipping system is intended to give an overall ability to identify and solve complex shipping issues in a cost-effective way. It is designed to manage multiple regional, national and LTL carriers, compare freight costs for best selection, as well as provide and incorporate transit times in the decision process.
By taking proactive control of your shipments, you can identify which carriers are best served by state, region or national scale. Not all shipping carriers are cost effective in the regions your company serves. This feature gives you the power to know who you want to use, for which products, and by territory. Again, customers have reported thousands to millions of dollars of savings by implementing that latest shipping automation technologies.
Shipping System Providers May Say They Have IT, But How Far Do They Take IT
There are key features that can be instrumental in your cost saving measures within your shipping department. Be sure to fully compare key features and their integration strategy as all shipping systems are created differently.
Automatic Identification of Residential Addresses
Shipping departments each day send packages to residences that were routed for business. This simple mistake can cause incorrect assessments of shipping costs and can mean the difference between profit and loss. “The built in intelligence with ADSI allows companies to automatically determine residential delivery addresses and realize the actual revenue without taking a loss due to inaccurate shipping rates,” said Phil Terman, Vice President of Services at ADSI.
Electronic Postage
Companies searching for ways to use lower costs by using USPS in their shipping department or those that want to be able to ship higher volume through the postal service can have that ability integrated into their shipping system.
An electronic postage system generates a bar code on a 4 x 6 shipping label which takes the place of a postage meter tape, offering further discounts to make shipping with the USPS a cost effective alternative. “ADSI has transparently integrating the electronic postage directly into its shipping system, resulting in a faster ROI ” continued Mr. Terman. Supported domestic services are for First-Class Mail, Priority Mail, Express Mail, Media Mail, Library Mail, Bound-Printed Matter and Parcel Post. International services are for First Class, Express and Priority. ADSI continues to offer an ROI analysis prior to implementation to help realize maximum cost savings.
UPS Fuel Surcharge Updater
The price of fuel continues to fluctuate daily. As the performance of the economy steady increases, so will costs, making accurate record fuel surcharges a major challenge. ADSI’s automatic fuel surcharge update feature, updates the rates as soon as UPS releases the adjustments, allowing companies to realize significant cost savings.
AES International
The paper SED which was replaced with the electronic online filing process is not only time consuming but errors can easily occur. These errors can have fines up to $10,000 per filing or if not filed at all. It’s critical for companies that ship internationally to have this functionality integrated directly into the shipping system. “ADSI recognized the significance of AES and completely automated the process eliminating filing errors,” added Mr. Terman.
The result as reported by an ADSI customer stated that shippers were using the same process to create customs documents, regardless of the carrier being used. The paperwork took one step – from the workstation right onto the package being sent. This eliminated hundreds, if not thousands, of manual keystrokes for international orders.
A process that involved numerous different workers to sort out paperwork and match it up with corresponding boxes, now involves only one shipper.
The Company
Search for a shipping solutions provider that has the resources necessary to deliver full service. From project start through project completion and ongoing support, all elements are important to achieve a return on your investment. A fully staffed help desk is critical to the ability to respond quickly to your concern. In addition, corporate stability and standing in the marketplace will be key to having confidence in a long term relationship.
A Complete Evaluation
It’s never easy deciding which technology is best for your business. But having key features that add significant savings to the bottom line and the capability of the selected provider may be the difference between breaking even and profitability. So be sure to feature ADSI in your evaluation as all of these and other cost saving features are available for our shipping solutions, helping to save labor, time and money.
About ADSI
Founded in 1997, ADSI has grown to become a leading systems integrator of distribution and wireless automation solutions for the warehouse, logistics and supply chain industry. Headquartered in Hoffman Estates, IL, and offices in New Jersey, New York, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Minnesota, California, Ohio, Utah and Pennsylvania, ADSI specializes in the design, integration, implementation, services and support for wireless, bar code and data collection system solutions. Visit ADSI at www.adsionline.com.
Over the recent ten-year period, many industries flourished with business. During that time, companies tried to keep up with demand by applying new technologies, wherever possible. But within the past two past years, business has been experiencing just the opposite, with slowing orders and excess inventories. With sluggish times, many have been able to clearly ‘see’ the imperfections of their shipping departments and have begun to take corrective action. But, where?
Cost Alignment to Cost Savings
ADSI has observed that many customers using the ADSI Shipping Systems have found cost savings of approximately 40% and a reduction of errors by 50% based on a manual process using minimal technology. For our customers, that means saving tens of thousands to millions of dollars per year.
There are many different types of shipping systems offered in the marketplace today. Just like most industries, the shipping technology business has also been affected by the economy, which is why key attributes of the vendor’s organization need to be evaluated prior to product evaluation:
• Has the core shipping technology continued to be improved?
• Have the latest carrier-provided technologies been incorporated into the vendor’s products, in order to provide additional savings and return on investment?
• Does the company employ experienced service professionals who can help make process improvements, software customizations and a smooth integration into your current WMS, Oracle, SAP or other ERP systems?
• Do they have a centralized support team or is customer support the same people out on site installing/servicing the software?
Overall Benefits to Shipping Automation
A multi-carrier shipping system is intended to give an overall ability to identify and solve complex shipping issues in a cost-effective way. It is designed to manage multiple regional, national and LTL carriers, compare freight costs for best selection, as well as provide and incorporate transit times in the decision process.
By taking proactive control of your shipments, you can identify which carriers are best served by state, region or national scale. Not all shipping carriers are cost effective in the regions your company serves. This feature gives you the power to know who you want to use, for which products, and by territory. Again, customers have reported thousands to millions of dollars of savings by implementing that latest shipping automation technologies.
Shipping System Providers May Say They Have IT, But How Far Do They Take IT
There are key features that can be instrumental in your cost saving measures within your shipping department. Be sure to fully compare key features and their integration strategy as all shipping systems are created differently.
Automatic Identification of Residential Addresses
Shipping departments each day send packages to residences that were routed for business. This simple mistake can cause incorrect assessments of shipping costs and can mean the difference between profit and loss. “The built in intelligence with ADSI allows companies to automatically determine residential delivery addresses and realize the actual revenue without taking a loss due to inaccurate shipping rates,” said Phil Terman, Vice President of Services at ADSI.
Electronic Postage
Companies searching for ways to use lower costs by using USPS in their shipping department or those that want to be able to ship higher volume through the postal service can have that ability integrated into their shipping system.
An electronic postage system generates a bar code on a 4 x 6 shipping label which takes the place of a postage meter tape, offering further discounts to make shipping with the USPS a cost effective alternative. “ADSI has transparently integrating the electronic postage directly into its shipping system, resulting in a faster ROI ” continued Mr. Terman. Supported domestic services are for First-Class Mail, Priority Mail, Express Mail, Media Mail, Library Mail, Bound-Printed Matter and Parcel Post. International services are for First Class, Express and Priority. ADSI continues to offer an ROI analysis prior to implementation to help realize maximum cost savings.
UPS Fuel Surcharge Updater
The price of fuel continues to fluctuate daily. As the performance of the economy steady increases, so will costs, making accurate record fuel surcharges a major challenge. ADSI’s automatic fuel surcharge update feature, updates the rates as soon as UPS releases the adjustments, allowing companies to realize significant cost savings.
AES International
The paper SED which was replaced with the electronic online filing process is not only time consuming but errors can easily occur. These errors can have fines up to $10,000 per filing or if not filed at all. It’s critical for companies that ship internationally to have this functionality integrated directly into the shipping system. “ADSI recognized the significance of AES and completely automated the process eliminating filing errors,” added Mr. Terman.
The result as reported by an ADSI customer stated that shippers were using the same process to create customs documents, regardless of the carrier being used. The paperwork took one step – from the workstation right onto the package being sent. This eliminated hundreds, if not thousands, of manual keystrokes for international orders.
A process that involved numerous different workers to sort out paperwork and match it up with corresponding boxes, now involves only one shipper.
The Company
Search for a shipping solutions provider that has the resources necessary to deliver full service. From project start through project completion and ongoing support, all elements are important to achieve a return on your investment. A fully staffed help desk is critical to the ability to respond quickly to your concern. In addition, corporate stability and standing in the marketplace will be key to having confidence in a long term relationship.
A Complete Evaluation
It’s never easy deciding which technology is best for your business. But having key features that add significant savings to the bottom line and the capability of the selected provider may be the difference between breaking even and profitability. So be sure to feature ADSI in your evaluation as all of these and other cost saving features are available for our shipping solutions, helping to save labor, time and money.
About ADSI
Founded in 1997, ADSI has grown to become a leading systems integrator of distribution and wireless automation solutions for the warehouse, logistics and supply chain industry. Headquartered in Hoffman Estates, IL, and offices in New Jersey, New York, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Minnesota, California, Ohio, Utah and Pennsylvania, ADSI specializes in the design, integration, implementation, services and support for wireless, bar code and data collection system solutions. Visit ADSI at www.adsionline.com.
