Signs that indicate the need to hire a competent 3PL

by Tyler P. A Passionate Blogger - Entertainment

As businesses grow and evolve, the infrastructure supporting them also has to follow suit. This means adding more stock, office space, and employees, and narrowing your attention down to the things that you do the best. It also involves outsourcing the arduous logistics processes.

But, how would you know that it’s time for you to start looking for 3rd party logistics companies? After all, there is no pre-determined threshold to suggest the exact moment from when you will need a 3PL over in-house approaches.

However, there are some telltale signs to indicate that you should start looking for a 3PL provider. So, read on to see if any of the following signs sound familiar to you.

Your costs are registering a steady increase.

Fortunate timing and smart management can make a company grow faster than its expectations. But, this growth is not without some major hurdles as the logistics network of your company struggles to catch up.

With the costs of equipment, labor, staff, and material handling starting to skyrocket, your financial moves might not always receive their deserved consideration. In such a situation, the 3PL helps in standardizing and growing your logistic solutions in a scalable and logical way without the need for your constant time and attention.

Your team is unable to handle the overwhelming responsibilities.

In a bid to manage the increased orders and expanded SKU catalogs, you are left with no time to search or interview new logistics staff. In such busy periods, you need to focus more on keeping the operations going smoothly, instead of dedicating all your attention to staffing your warehouse.

The best 3pl distribution center knows the details of logistics hiring and even have talented individuals on board already. So, you can be assured that there will always be enough staff available to meet your demands.

Your customer service issues keep adding up.

Things have a chance of falling through the cracks when the order volume shows a sudden increase, but not in the case of a 3PL. The 3PLs are used to handling clients who have seasonal volume surges or sudden growth spurts. They already have plans in store for adding capacity, equipment, and labor when they need to support their client’s volume swings or growth.

Relying on the expertise of a 3PL in such areas can help you in growing your business without adding to the list of dissatisfied customers every single day. Moreover, 3PL systems also enhance order status visibility for your customers and customer care representatives. It can be the key to eliminating customer complaints that stem from not getting their answers in time.

Your inventory is reeling under the burden of obsolete items.

A huge burden on the financial statement of a company comes from the inventory carrying costs. Operational inefficiencies and low inventory precision can make companies increase the safety stocks as their buffer against demand surges. Obsolete inventory resulting from this situation is not just a financial liability but also maxes out the capacity of your warehouses. It hinders productivity and increases product safety issues.

The 3PL services offer the analytics, visibility, and operational capacities required for optimizing the inventory held by your warehouses. They will create more space for your in-demand products and lessen stock issues. Moreover, a 3PL is able to expand your distribution networks by bringing in more raw materials, finished products, or components, as per your company’s needs.

Thus, being the partners of an experienced and reliable 3PL service can be a major turning point for your business. The 3PL system forms a dependable support network that can help in launching your company into the trajectory of sustained growth.