How do 3PL companies work?
Third-party logistics (3PL) companies provide transportation and logistics; this includes warehousing and distribution on your behalf. It can work in tandem with supply chain solutions, which is the flow of how your materials, products, equipment and finances are transported.
How Warehouse Anywhere fulfillment services make your business more efficient
The value of well-run and executed 3PL companies and supply chain solutions is that your product or service is optimized for maximum customer value with a competitive advantage. The key to a successful logistics solution is that the physical flow and information flow must work together seamlessly – and that's where Warehouse Anywhere excels.
While the physical flow is about transportation, movement and storage of goods, it will only be smooth and successful if the long-term and short-term tracking and inventory transportation and logistics data is 100% accurate.
What is forward-deployed inventory?
Forward-deployed inventory is a strategy that uses a hub-and-spoke system for warehousing and distribution. In other words, we're moving the storage of inventory from a large-warehouse, single-point-of-distribution model to smaller hubs.
In a traditional distribution center model, your goods and materials travel from a centralized location to your points of demand.
If your company is providing goods, materials or equipment to a large geographic area, transportation could be one of your most significant expenses. As you know, today's consumer demands speed. Whether you're direct-to-consumer or offering service-level agreements to business-to-business partners, you know that overnight delivery (or close to it) is what your customers want — and to be competitive, you need to want it as well.
That's what differentiates Warehouse Anywhere from other 3PL companies — our forward-deployed inventory strategy will increase your bottom line. If you are servicing a large national market, you can place fast-moving parts, materials or products in multiple fulfillment warehouse locations that are closest to your points of greatest demand. Beyond a distribution warehouse or fulfillment service, though, we've added a layer of technology and expertise that a traditional 3PL warehouse doesn't have.
That means that you're saving transportation and logistics expense, while achieving excellent customer service.
Warehouse Anywhere enables you to move your goods and materials much closer to points of demand, drastically reducing time needed for delivery or retrieval.
What's the difference between fulfillment services and a 3PL warehouse?
Fulfillment services include receiving, packaging and shipping a product. It can mean either direct-to-consumer goods, or equipment intended to fulfill service-level agreements. Suppliers and retailers use 3PL companies to manage the movement of a resource from its origin to its final destination. While some 3PL companies are simply logistics-based, Warehouse Anywhere offers the transportation, logistics, warehousing and distribution of your assets.
Each Warehouse Anywhere facility is more than a distribution warehouse. The forward-deployed inventory model allows us to store your resources on the ground everywhere that you need them to be.
Here's an example:Your company sells large home appliances with a same-day service guarantee. When your customer - who lives in a remote location - experiences a mechanical problem with his refrigerator, you immediately dispatch a service technician to assess the issue. When the tech determines that the refrigerator needs a specific part, what happens? Do you tell the customer that shipping the part will take three days, and then provide a loaner for that time? Or, can you have parts on-hand at a distribution warehouse within an hour of any location where your appliances are serviced? If that's the case, your tech drives to the warehouse and uses our proprietary mobile app to gain access, gets the part he needs and satisfies the customer.
Here's another scenario:You run an e-commerce site with guaranteed overnight or two-day delivery. An order arrives that is outside the reach of traditional shipping logistics. Now, because there's a Warehouse Anywhere fulfillment warehouse within a few hours' drive, your couriers can meet your customer's deadline.
These are just a few examples of how Warehouse Anywhere supply chain solutions can save your business time and money. Our customers appreciate the efficiencies of a fulfillment service warehouse that can offer logistics solutions quickly and cost-effectively — they avoid rush air shipping costs, and they meet their customers’ needs every time. That’s the benefit to our logistics solutions and technology.
Spyglass: The technology behind the Warehouse Anywhere supply chain solutions
Our software and RFID technology can free your business from traditional warehouse and distribution solutions, and offer greater transparency and accuracy in inventory tracking.How does Warehouse Anywhere streamline shipping logistics?
Spyglass is the Warehouse Anywhere software solution to your logistical demands. Spyglass enables our clients to configure and manage data in the way that works best for them. We employ real-time tracking and high-tech RFID technology for every item entering our warehouse facilities; this means that you have all of the information you need at your fingertips.
Locations - Warehouse Anywhere has a network of more than 10,000 Life Storage or partner distribution warehouse facilities, which means that we can provide logistics solutions for your assets anywhere you need them. Our geolocation software means that we'll house your assets in the nearest warehouse to your needed inventory.
Automation - Why rely on a human to run the warehouse, when our high-tech automation systems eliminate the possibility of human error? The accuracy of our automation software is far greater than any human team. In fact, one of our clients was shocked when his company's audit result was 100% accuracy!
Couriers - If you've used 3PL companies, you know that sometimes there are limitations on where your materials can be delivered. This is not the case for Warehouse Anywhere. Our proprietary courier service means that we'll deliver inventory from your storage unit anywhere you need it to go. No exceptions.
Web and mobile app: Spyglass - The Warehouse Anywhere Spyglass web portal and mobile app are management tools intended for either your central office executives and staff or field team to access all details about any location where you have inventory. This solution includes hardware with scannable RFID tags so that every item in your storage inventory is scanned and tracked from the moment it arrives on site to the moment it is delivered to its next destination. The app also allows your field team to unlock access to the storage units.