Pre-manifesting – a definition
Manifesting can be defined as
printing documents that are specific to a particular order, such as packing
lists, shipping labels, or invoices.
Normally, these documents are created after a “picking order” is
created. So, after your warehouse
personnel has taken the product out of inventory and delivered it to the
shipping department, the documents needed for shipping and invoicing are
created.
Pre-manifesting can be defined at
creating these documents prior to creating the pick order.
Why would we want to do that? Marketplaces, such as Amazon and eBay monitor
seller performance according to a variety of metrics, but one is how quickly a
seller can ship an order. By pre-manifesting, you are able to submit shipping
information to the marketplace that makes it appear that the item has already
shipped. For example, a UPS tracking number can be assigned to the shipment,
even though the item has not yet been picked.
Additionally, it may be possible to charge the customer’s credit card
earlier in the process. Should the
credit card be declined, you know before you have actually shipped the product.
Of course, you can be too aggressive
in this regard and it is inadvisable to pre-manifest if you have a
time-consuming activity (such as customization or repackaging) to attend to
prior to shipment. But, for standard
products that have a predictable order-to-shipment timeframe, it can be a great
way to improve rankings on the marketplace and get your invoice paid faster.
There are many practical
considerations about pre-manifesting.
You have to have excellent systems in place to monitor inventory levels
and shipment efficiency. It would be
terrible to pre-manifest and find out the item you told Amazon had already
shipped was, in fact, out of stock.
Document and information flow must be functioning at a high level. You must have a very effective and dependable
OMS (Order Management System) in place before even considering pre-manifesting.
Assuming you have a solid OMS and
your processes are predictable and well regulated, there are plenty of other
reasons why pre-manifesting can be a good idea.
Your operations can be more
efficient. Individual manifesting
documents can be assigned to individually picked items at the shipping station,
rather than having documents on the warehouse floor with the pickers.
You can avoid double handling of
picked items and documents.
With a good WMS (Warehouse Management
System) you can have a paperless warehouse, with your shipping label created
only as the product is finally packaged and ready to go out the shipping
door. All warehouse / picking processes
happen before paper is created, although the records that will create that
paperwork (e.g., the USP tracking number) will be virtually in existence and
ready for printing at the shipping station.
These efficiencies will increase
profit because you have fewer pieces of paper floating around the warehouse,
which can often get lost or intentionally avoided and you can take full
advantage of batch picking techniques.
Batch picking is where you can send a single warehouse picker to get all
of the green widgets to fill a large number of individual orders. The green widgets are associated with
particular sales orders only when they hit the shipping department. The profit impact of increased accuracy and
more efficient picking makes a tremendous contribution to warehouse efficiency,
and therefore, profit.
Of course there are things you ought
to plan for when moving to a pre-manifesting system. An automated (RF technology) method of
scanning the picked items to associate them with the paperwork for a particular
order is critical. You must have an
excellent WMS (Warehouse Management System) to accomplish this.
You will have to purchase RF guns and
other hardware to support the system, but these costs are minimal when compared
to the efficiency benefit.
Order accuracy must be monitored and
systematized. Again, an excellent WMS is
necessary to ensure that picked items are associated with the correct paperwork
at the shipping station.
On occasion, even the best system has
a problem. In those exceptional
instances (e.g., a stock-out created by erroneous inventory records) the
paperwork will have to be recreated.
Additionally, orders bound for
export must be identified and segregated
at the shipping department, but this is accomplishable because all of the
information required to pre-manifest a shipment is contained in the order entry
information.
If repackaging or kitting is required,
these challenges must be evaluated and assessed prior to embarking on a
pre-manifesting procedure for all orders, but even those procedures can be
anticipated in most cases. Where
pre-manifesting might not work is where the shape or size of an item isn’t
known prior to picking. Agricultural
items might have limited pre-manifesting possibilities.
Some systems use pre-manifesting for
certain items and post-manifesting (creating the packing, shipping and
invoicing information after the item has been picked) together in one
system. Once again, a quality WMS will
provide automated instructions to picking staff, so they know which is
which. Picking instructions as to items,
route of travel through the warehouse, equipment to be used in fulfilling a batch
picking order, etc., will provided wirelessly, via RF handheld equipment.
For all your OMS, WMS and
software development, customization, integration and implementation needs,
please give us a call.
Avectous Integrated
Software.
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