6 Areas of Fashion Warehousing and Distribution

Do you want to improve the quality of your fashion services? Warehousing and distribution might be a great place to start.

Fashion warehousing and distribution form a fundamental part of e-commerce businesses. It is vital to fulfilling orders received from customers and building a brand reputation. Therefore, the whole process could go south if warehousing and distribution of the products are not up to speed.

In this essential area of business, we have 6 primary areas to focus on— receiving, putaway, storage, picking, packing, and lastly, shipping.

Optimising these 6 areas mean refined fashion warehousing and distribution for your business. It could reduce errors and costs, as well as improve productivity. Hence, let’s dig deeper into each of these areas and learn the ways to optimise them.

1. Receiving

The first and most important warehouse procedure is receiving. The warehouse must be able to confirm that it has received the relevant product in the necessary amount and condition and at the proper time to carry out the receiving process properly. Failure to do so will have negative effects on all procedures that follow.

Transferring ownership of the items to the warehouse is another aspect of receiving. As a result, the warehouse is responsible for keeping the items in excellent condition up until they are dispatched.

Also, you may screen out faulty items and escape obligation for them by properly receiving cargo.

Optimisation tip: Avoid accumulation at docks and receive the cargo efficiently. You can implement solutions such as conveyors and make for faster unloading.

2. Put-away

The second warehouse procedure, put-away, involves moving merchandise from the receiving dock to the best warehouse storage location. This movement between dock to storage has to be fast, effective, and efficient.

It’s an important procedure as the efficiency of the whole warehouse operation might be hampered by failing to store products in their most favourable position. There are various advantages to correctly storing products, including:

• Faster and more effective cargo storage

• Minimised travel time

• Product and personnel safety is guaranteed

• The usage of warehouse space is maximised

• Finding, tracking, and retrieving cargo is simpler and quicker now.

Optimisation tip: Consider using slotting and space management software that automatically assigns optimal spaces for each cargo. This streamlines the put-away procedure and maximises space efficiency.

3. Storage

Storage is the next step in fashion warehousing and distribution. Storing refers to the practice of placing items in the most suitable storage location. The storage procedure can fully utilise the amount of space in the warehouse that is available while also improving worker productivity.

Optimisation tip: KPIs are of so much importance in this part of the process. With the right KIPs, the tracking gets easier. Use software such as slotting optimisation to improve this process. Further, by using the appropriate warehouse storage system in accordance with the dimensions of your facility and product mix, you may maximise your horizontal and vertical space while enhancing warehouse productivity.

4. Picking

In order to complete client orders, picking is the warehousing procedure that gathers items from the storage points in the warehouse.

As the most expensive operation in the warehouse, streamlining this process will enable you to drastically save costs and boost warehouse productivity. Since mistakes can negatively affect your customers’ happiness, streamlining this procedure should also concentrate on obtaining improved accuracy.

Optimisation tip: Mobile and wearable technologies can streamline the picking process. They allow the staff to view picking lists wirelessly, access systems in real-time, and scan any part of the warehouse. An alternative to this is the ABC analysis.

5. Packing

Packing is the warehousing process of assembling selected products in a sales order and preparing them for shipping to the client. Making ensuring that there are as fewer damages as possible before the goods leave the warehouse is one of the main objectives of packing.

Further, packing needs to be simple and light enough to keep expenses under control while yet preventing the items from becoming heavier.

6. Shipping

Shipping can be seen as the last process of fashion warehousing and distribution or as the first step of the journey of items from the warehouse to the customer.

Shipping is only deemed successful when the appropriate order is processed and loaded, sent to the appropriate client, transported via the appropriate transportation method, and delivered promptly and securely.

Optimisation tip: You can use labour management systems to ensure the right allocation of resources. You can also have a mobile application that lets you access the right information in real-time about the shipments in transit.

Closure

Fashion warehousing and distribution Ecommerce Fulfilment Services are indispensable parts of your business. However, it would not matter if these processes are not working efficiently. So, as a business owner, you should always be on the lookout for new ways to improve these processes and, thus, customer satisfaction.

Most importantly, if you are considering outsourcing your fashion warehousing and distribution, Efficient Group is a great recommendation. They offer numerous services from garment steaming services to reworks with the client’s best interests in mind.

Read more: https://thelearnerblog.com/6-areas-of-fashion-warehousing-anddistribution/