Why Should Companies Outsource Their Order Fulfillments?
Product packaging, kitting services, order processing—all of these sound familiar to any business trying to successfully deliver its products to customers. The overall procedure of receiving, processing, and delivering orders to send customers is known as order fulfillment. It involves receiving inventory, storing inventory, processing orders, shipping, and processing returns. As a company grows, its need for more warehouse space, additional employees, and better order processing and fulfillment also grows.
At this time of increased growth, a company should outsource its fulfillment. It should look to an outside product packaging company that offers an order fulfillment service to ease its burden of handling orders. Product packaging companies specialize in inventory management, packaging, and shipping, and are therefore a great partner when it comes to fulfilling customer orders. Companies who outsource their order fulfillment to packaging companies are better able to do the following:
• Focus on their growing business. The freedom to spend more time and energy on core business activities (like strategic planning, sales and marketing, and customer relations) that grow a business is one of the biggest and best benefits of outsourcing order fulfillments.
• Reduce shipping costs. Any product packaging company that provides an order fulfillment service should be an expert in product distribution and should know how to get better rates with carriers due to greater shipping volumes. These better shipping rates translate into cost savings for partnering companies.
• Eradicate shipping errors. With state-of-the-art inventory control systems, automated processes, and streamlined packaging methods, packaging fulfillment companies are able to process and handle orders efficiently and accurately.
• Expand at a more rapid pace. Since finding additional warehouse space, training new employees, and managing inventory is all handled by fulfillment partners, companies who want to expand at a faster pace can. They don’t have to worry about not being able to keep up with increased orders and demands from customers.
• Take advantage of the latest technology. Companies can pass on the responsibility of upgrading warehouse equipment and technology to their fulfillment partners so that they still reap the benefits of the latest technology without depleting their budgets.
As long as companies continue to grow and increase their customers, there will be a need for packaging fulfillment companies. In fact, there are around 100,000 packaging manufacturing companies in operation, representing 5 million jobs. The global packaging material and machinery industry generates $500 billion yearly, accounting for between 1 percent and 2 percent of gross domestic product in industrialized nations, according to the World Packaging Organization. Since it’s such a thriving industry, it’s smart for growing companies to invest a partnership in packaging companies.
What Are Kit Packaging Services?
What is kitting and what does it have to do with order fulfillment? Kitting is a term used in order fulfillment to refer to the assembly of individual items into ready-to-ship sets, or kits.
Kits are usually assigned a unique SKU number to set apart the assembled kit from its individual components, and to allow the kit to be inventoried and tracked as a single unit.
Kitting is frequently used for product samples, instructional packets and CDs, demonstration and display materials, game sets, media and welcome kits, and new product launches. Basically, any products that are sent out as a consistent set on a regular basis can benefit from kitting.
In What Ways Are Kitting Services Beneficial?
Now that the kitting service definition is cleared up, it’s important to understand how kitting solutions can help a company who has outsourced (or is thinking about outsourcing) its order fulfillment to a packaging fulfillment company. The following bullet points show some examples of why kitting manufacturing is beneficial:
• Saves facility space by reducing stock
• Makes operations more efficient by keeping parts within arm’s reach at each station in the line
• Creates a centralized location for assembly and storage
• Eases production changes by keeping bulk parts at a kitting area
• Improves employee productivity by eliminating the need to search for parts
• Decreases the time it takes to train employees
• Improves quality control by allowing inspection and verification to happen earlier on in the production process
• Improves overall efficiency
• Minimizes delays in the manufacturing process
If a company has products that can benefit from kitting, it would do well to partner with a kit packaging fulfillment company that can take over this packaging process and make all these benefits happen. Kitting fulfillment companies specialize in product kitting and can expedite the growth of a company that’s starting to take off. The better order fulfillment setup a company has (whether it’s kitting or just general packaging), the more successful it will be at satisfying all of its customers.
Contact Streamline Fulfillment Today to Learn About Our Kitting Services
If your business could use some help from an order fulfillment company that offers kitting services, call Streamline Fulfillment today. We have the technology, space, and employees to make any of your kitting fulfillment needs happen. We also provide pad printing services to businesses who are trying to personalize their products. Whatever your need may be, contact us today to consult with a Streamline representative by calling (801) 782-3660 or by visiting streamlineplastics.com.
