LABELS IN 3PL
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While many senior management teams across 3PLs and their customers refer to cloud-based dashboards from their supply chain software providers, to gain a deeper understanding of the performance of their DCs and throughput, it is generally the people on the warehouse shop floor who interact
and providing vital information to staff about goods – and the state of the distribution centre – as stock is picked, packed and shipped to customers for 3PL clients. Most of these technologies are cloud-based today and offer fulfilment centre operators and their clients impressive analytics about stock passing through their DCs – such as what’s old, what’s moving fast and what to put on sale. While these technologies are increasingly vital as part of improving operational efficiency, there is one set of tools that continues to be core to the successful functioning of many 3PL businesses: label printer and barcode scanning technologies. Essentially label printers across the supply chain print labels with key information on them – including 1D or 2D codes – according to requirements set out by various manufacturers, retailers and shipping companies. They get stuck onto pallets, boxes and stock as they are unpacked, delivered and pass through the supply chain. 1D and 2D codes carry the key information that aligns with many OMS, WMS and TMS systems. They provide a single source of truth that scanners can work from, allowing the supply chain to communicate and organise itself. Today, label printers can be found at many locations within a 3PL. Stationary desktop label printers are often located at areas where pallets are received from clients before they
are unpacked, labelled and redistributed through the fulfilment centre (FC). They can generally be located at packing stations too – where goods are packaged and labelled according to an array of shipping companies’ preferred label configurations. Mobile printers are also widely used to support the relabelling of racks or awkwardly shaped goods that are too bulky to fit at packing stations. Additionally, many label printers support the growing trend to use RFID to help ensure inventory management and traceability within DCs or FCs is more accurate in real time. The RFID labels can be coded with vital SKU data and be printed on with standard 1D or 2D codes where required; to provide a failsafe for when the RFID system is down. This RFID approach helps further automate inventory management in real time and provides an accurate view on throughput. Providing the tools to succeed While many senior management teams across 3PLs and their customers refer to cloud-based dashboards from their supply chain software providers, to gain a deeper understanding of the performance of their DCs and throughput, it is generally the people on the warehouse shop floor who interact with barcode scanners and label printers daily. It is important to remember that for these vital frontline staff members, a barcode scanner or printer is just another tool for
with barcode scanners and label printers daily.
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