How parcel shippers are leveraging accurate SKU data to save millions

Parcel fulfillment is more technologically advanced than ever before. New solutions hit the market on a regular basis, and shippers have access to an endless array of tools promising to help them meet the growing demand of today’s consumers. 

Emerging technologies can help shippers grow their businesses. Before you consider investing, be sure to have rock-solid fundamentals in place. For modern shippers, the first step to improving profitability lies in understanding their own operations – including knowing what items they are shipping and how those items should be packed.

When companies become more knowledgeable about their shipments, they often discover packing inefficiencies. Correcting those inefficiencies can be a serious source of cost savings. In fact, making minor changes can save shippers millions of dollars.  

“Fulfillment optimization is a journey, and the newest class of optimization solutions require that you know exactly what it is you’re shipping,” Paccurate Co-founder and CEO James Malley said. “That means knowing precise item dimensions, but it also means flagging certain SKU characteristics that might allow for more efficient packing than the raw dimensions might suggest alone.” 

Many companies disregard the need for accurate SKU data. With good product data and cartonization software, like Paccurate, shippers can optimize parcels around carrier rate incentives, packaging and fill costs, and even labor. This allows companies to dramatically improve crowd-pleasing key performance indicators related to fulfillment costs and sustainability.

“We hear the word ‘holistic’ thrown around a lot in any respectable supply chain practice, but most shippers don’t have the tools to measure the compounding downstream impact of small processes and data tweaks early in the fulfillment process,” Malley said.

Malley noted that seemingly minor changes – from more accurate SKU data to changes in packaging procurement – often have a butterfly effect that can be hard for decision makers to intuit on the frontend. 

Shippers will see the biggest benefits from these shifts when they team up with the right partners for their own individual businesses. 

“Capturing SKU data – and using it to uncover new waste reduction opportunities – are specialized use cases with quite a lot of depth. Because they have profound impacts elsewhere in an operation, it’s important to find best-in-class solutions,” Malley said.

For over 35 years, Cubiscan has helped shippers collect and interpret product, parcel, and pallet dimensional data to increase efficiency and profitability in material handling, logistics, supply chain, and freight handling operations. Cubiscan product data paired with Paccurate’s cartonization algorithm allow shippers to further utilize SKU master data to reduce fulfillment, labor, and shipping costs.

Join a webinar featuring Cubiscan and Paccurate on Thursday, August 24 to explore how small changes upstream in the fulfillment process can lead to unparalleled cost savings. 

During this webinar, attendees will be presented with a wealth of new information, including:

• Learning how to create and maintain healthy SKU data to optimize fulfillment
• Understanding how correctly profiling a single SKU can lead to continuous savings
• Discovering the potential cost savings of utilizing a more powerful cartonization tool

Click here to register for The Cost of Half an Inch: How Minor Tweaks Can Lead to Millions Saved on Parcel Shipping.

The post How parcel shippers are leveraging accurate SKU data to save millions appeared first on FreightWaves.

Source: freightwaves - How parcel shippers are leveraging accurate SKU data to save millions
Editor: Ashley Coker