Achieving Higher Order Fill Rates Through Integrated Channel Order Fulfillment
Inventory, one of the single – if not the single largest asset on your balance sheet, utilizing that inventory efficiently is the utmost priority in most multichannel businesses. So you might be asking, so what does inventory have to do with order management software. Lets take a look at some great examples of utilizing your order management software and integrating it fully to your other business applications.
Jos A. Bank, were an early adopter of cross-channel order processing. Store associates at Jos A. Bank have access to the inventory positions in their other retail locations via MICROS-Retail’s Tradewind Point of Sale and to their direct commerce operation utilizing MICROS-Retail’s CWDirect Order Management System, all from their point of sale terminal. As an example, a store associates can place an order against direct commerce inventory and that order will seamlessly flow through the fulfillment process as if it came directly from the customer.
Title Nine Sports is using MICROS-Retail’s Cross-channel Inventory Broker (Locate). Title Nine Sports can identify inventory in alternative channels and have those items reserved against demand. Those orders will be shipped to the customers’ home, office or gift recipient or set aside at their appropriate retail location for store pick-up.
MICROS-Retail Locate’s Order Broker module has system controlled business rules that determine where a product can be picked and shipped from. Prior to Order Broker a user had to manage all the decisions. Order Broker has decision rules for checking to see if there is a purchase order that will come in within days at the distribution center, the location that has the most inventory, stores which are not available for picking (e.g. new store), and determine where to ship the product from. Once this is done the appropriate order picking and shipping documents are produced to fulfill the customer’s request.
So let me ask you this – are you taking full advantage of your total inventory position to satisfy your customers and achieve a higher order and item fill rates?
Paul Sobota is a Vice President with F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm with expertise in multichannel systems, warehouse, call center, inventory, and benchmarking; Learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com.
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