CASE STUDY How a 3PL Reduced Inefficiencies & Walking Time with a Custom Warehouse Management System Mobile App

Challenges & Opportunities

A 3PL that provides first-class service to its clients faced operational inefficiencies, errors, and decision-making delays. Due to these challenges, its relationship with its clients had been severely eaaffected. The 3PL contacted Cyzerg to communicate the challenges it was facing and understand the causes.

After visiting the 3PL’s warehouse and analyzing its operations, Cyzerg found that its employees could not perform some tasks due to the lack of WMS access while roaming the warehouse. Because of this, employee walking time was high and resulted in operational inefficiencies and delays. Additionally, not having access to the WMS delayed data entry, which caused latency in generating critical business reports and decision making. Finally, Cyzerg found that the 3PL’s output was inconsistent due to a lack of process systemization and enforcement.

Solutions

After identifying the 3PL’s challenges, Cyzerg implemented mobile solutions to address its inefficiencies and errors.

Cyzerg developed a custom warehouse management system mobile app that integrated with the 3PL’s WMS. Additionally, a comprehensive mobile solution composed of rugged mobile printers, computers, and tablets was implemented, so employees could stay connected to the WMS while roaming the warehouse. The custom mobile application was also designed to accommodate easy collection and processing of data in real-time. Finally, Cyzerg developed a workflow system that allowed the creation and sequencing of tasks based on rules to systemize and enforce the 3PL’s processes.

Results

Once the 3PL approved the recommended solutions, Cyzerg developed and deployed the custom warehouse management system mobile app and hardware.

With the custom mobile application and hardware, employees were able to roam the warehouse while remaining connected to the WMS. This resulted in a 27% decrease in walking time, increasing the 3PL’s operational efficiency and reducing data entry delays. Since data is collected in real-time, reporting cycle time was shortened by 95.8% from 24 hours to less than 1 hour. Finally, warehouse operational errors were reduced by 31% through process enforcement and systematization.

The results above confirmed that the 3PL addressed its operational inefficiencies, errors, and decision-making delays. This allowed the company to retain customers and protect its brand reputation of providing first-class service to its clients.