Transcripts
Sit in a room, lock the doors, and don't throw the key in that room
Speaker:until everything is, is defined.
Speaker:But okay, any suggestions on who should be in the room?
Speaker:Welcome back, everyone, to Unboxing Logistics.
Speaker:I'm your host, Lori Boyer of EasyPost.
Speaker:Today, all my 3PL peeps out there, today's episode is for you.
Speaker:This is gonna be really exciting.
Speaker:I've been, feels like lately I've been chatting with a lot of 3PL people.
Speaker:3PL industry's really exciting right now.
Speaker:So we are gonna be diving into 3PLs, specifically about your margins and
Speaker:technology, and really just all that kind of stuff that's good to know.
Speaker:But before we do, I want to introduce our guest.
Speaker:Our guest today is the one and only Ryan Frankenfield of Datex.
Speaker:Hi, everybody.
Speaker:Ryan, welcome.
Speaker:Thank you very much for having me.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, a little
Speaker:bit about your company, what you do, so our audience can get to know you?
Speaker:Myself, I've been in supply chain for my entire professional career.
Speaker:Started on the ERP side working with SAP and purchasing, then I went and worked
Speaker:in a warehouse for a couple years, got boots on the ground, and then for the last
Speaker:about 13 years I've been on the technology side at Datex, which is a, a WMS provider.
Speaker:We specialize in third-party logistics, which is why I'm here to speak with you
Speaker:all but we deal with life sciences, pharmaceuticals, food, distribution,
Speaker:kind of the, the whole, the whole gamut.
Speaker:So Ryan, why supply chain?
Speaker:I'm always super interested in that, like, how that came about.
Speaker:Did you study it in school?
Speaker:Did you come from a legacy line?
Speaker:Did you just-
Speaker:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:You know, my, my grandfather and his father were in, were … No, no.
Speaker:Why-
Speaker:All the way back to Rome, I like to say, you know.
Speaker:All the way back to Roman times they,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's, it's funny when you ask how people's journey got to where they are now.
Speaker:Mine I was actually a, a human resource major.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:That was my degree, and the company that I started for after college, I
Speaker:worked in human resources, but they're on the defense contracting side.
Speaker:So after a little while I wanted to learn that side, which
Speaker:got me into the supply chain.
Speaker:I was, I was managing some of the suppliers for commercial and defense
Speaker:airlines, which was really kinda fun and, and interesting to get into.
Speaker:Yeah, really cool.
Speaker:And then that led into me getting into a warehouse and, and working
Speaker:on that side, so it was how to get the stuff, then it was getting the
Speaker:stuff, and now it's the full gamut of, well, how do the orders come in?
Speaker:How do you get the stuff?
Speaker:Where does it go?
Speaker:How do you track it?
Speaker:So that's, that's been my journey.
Speaker:I, I love it.
Speaker:I, I always think it's, exactly like you said, super interesting
Speaker:how people get into supply chain.
Speaker:It's not as often.
Speaker:Every so often, I'd say about 10% of the time, there's somebody who went
Speaker:in, always knew, studied it from the beginning, or grew up around it, but most
Speaker:of the time we kind of get into it sort of through a back door, so that's fun.
Speaker:I went to University of Central Florida, and it wasn't a degree there, but
Speaker:after I graduated it seemed like more and more colleges, universities wanted
Speaker:to get into it, and then we ended up, Datex partnered with the University of
Speaker:South Florida where they have a supply chain where our WMS can be in their,
Speaker:their courses and training and whatnot.
Speaker:So it's, it's definitely become a much larger I guess corporate work
Speaker:than what it used to be blue collar.
Speaker:Ah, yeah, I totally agree.
Speaker:So if any of you out there have studied it, went through programs, or, or
Speaker:know of amazing programs, let us know, throw it into comment, share because
Speaker:I do think that's super interesting.
Speaker:Sometimes I wanna go back, I studied business in school, but sometimes I wanna
Speaker:go back and be like, "Maybe I should do something else with supply chain."
Speaker:So okay, speaking of the industry I've been asking everybody who's somebody
Speaker:in the industry that you really admire, or just even somebody, a role that
Speaker:you admire, or even somebody just in your own personal journey who's been
Speaker:kind of a mentor and example for you?
Speaker:I, I wouldn't say it's a particular person, it's more so the role.
Speaker:That's what, what fits me, is working with all these different warehouses, 3PLs.
Speaker:It's the GM of the warehouse, it's the operations manager, or the COO, because in
Speaker:3PL particularly, each customer you take on, it's, it's a different business model.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's a different industry.
Speaker:So that's what's, why I've stuck into it for so long, is each customer that you
Speaker:work with, you get to know a little bit about their world, their industry, so
Speaker:it's not just kind of the same monotonous thing that you do day in and day out.
Speaker:You get to learn a little bit, a piece of that business.
Speaker:So to be on the opp side of the warehouse, having to know how their
Speaker:customers work, what the costs are, technology, people, processes, all those
Speaker:things it's, it's a lot to handle.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I totally agree.
Speaker:I, and I think it's super fascinating.
Speaker:It's, it is an, a world that is so fun because it is so varied.
Speaker:I, I love it.
Speaker:Okay, so you mentioned Datex, WMS, you focus on 3PLs.
Speaker:You run implementation, right?
Speaker:So you do, like you mentioned, you get inside a lot of 3PLs.
Speaker:When you get in, and you kind of see how the business is running,
Speaker:knowing, like you said, that all of them are slightly different
Speaker:what surprises you about margins?
Speaker:So we're gonna be talking about margin today and, and where a
Speaker:lot of 3PLs kind of, kind of fall behind with their margins.
Speaker:So what, what ends up surprising you the most?
Speaker:Probably the fact that they don't know what the margins are.
Speaker:The, the complexity of some of these businesses, particularly 3PLs they,
Speaker:they don't track the margins.
Speaker:They think they're operating in one business model.
Speaker:Yeah, we have, I don't know, I'll just use 10 customers, for example, and we do
Speaker:all things the same way, but then once you hear about the complexities of each one
Speaker:of those customers, all those exceptions, those eat into the margins if their
Speaker:rates are standardized across the board.
Speaker:So unless they're really with a magnifying glass looking at the customers, looking
Speaker:at the processes, looking at their rate cards to see do the rate cards match the
Speaker:actual realistic labor the, the margins are sometimes unknown, and that's, I
Speaker:think, the, the benefit of the technology is the technology helps expose that.
Speaker:It's not fixing anything.
Speaker:It's just exposing that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So how often do you feel like it really is kind of a pricing problem versus a process
Speaker:or, or billing or just stuff's leaking somewhere from certain customers maybe?
Speaker:How… Is that more common?
Speaker:Almost always process from what we've seen.
Speaker:Almost always process.
Speaker:So the, the, the rates, I mean, you typically look at those
Speaker:hopefully at least once a year.
Speaker:So usually they're not going un- unseen or they're not blind, but it's the
Speaker:process that is, if it's undefined, you don't know what those, those rates are.
Speaker:For example, if I charge, say, 15 bucks for each pallet that comes in the door,
Speaker:but you don't know how many times you're touching that pallet to get in the door.
Speaker:If I touch it once, let's say it's 15 bucks.
Speaker:You touch it five times- Divide that by five, now you're at $3 a pop.
Speaker:So understanding the process first before you can actually define those
Speaker:rate cards is, is super critical.
Speaker:And I would think that the process is gonna be slightly different when you have
Speaker:so many customers with different needs.
Speaker:You know, some of them are gonna be you know, somebody that's constantly
Speaker:doing a whole bunch of small things, and, and you may have a different
Speaker:customer who has really specific route needs, or is that, like, a challenge
Speaker:of trying to fit a lot of different customers' needs into a single process?
Speaker:That's, that's the fun about being in 3PL, is you need the flexibility.
Speaker:It's, it's a must.
Speaker:But the closer that you can standardize those operations,
Speaker:obviously the more handle or more control you have on the margins.
Speaker:I- we talk about EDI in our world, and we always say it's a, a four-letter word.
Speaker:It's just because EDI, everyone thinks EDI is the same way.
Speaker:Each trading partner's gonna do things the exact same way, and it's kind of like 3PL.
Speaker:You can say you do things the same way, but each, each project, each trading
Speaker:partner is completely different.
Speaker:The standards are different.
Speaker:Processes are different.
Speaker:So unless all of those things are, are defined on paper and you have a true flow
Speaker:of A to Z, that's where all those unknowns start to rear their ugly heads, and
Speaker:that's where the, that's what eats into those margins that we were talking about.
Speaker:Can happen so fast, too.
Speaker:So where do you see money actually leaking?
Speaker:So, you know, what are maybe the two or three kind of hotspots
Speaker:or areas that nobody's watching?
Speaker:I mean, the, the obvious is gonna be what's not billed for.
Speaker:So, you know, "Oh, yeah, I did this once for this customer. I had to
Speaker:do it again. I had to do it again."
Speaker:If you're not capturing that, that activity, you're going unbilled.
Speaker:Once, once the exception becomes the norm and you're not billing
Speaker:for that norm, that's, that's the easiest one to identify.
Speaker:Ooh, I love that.
Speaker:Don't let the exception become the norm.
Speaker:With the exceptions, it might turn into rework, right?
Speaker:So if you think, "Oh, I'm just doing this exception once or twice," if you're
Speaker:not doing it on a consistent basis, there could be rework involved, which
Speaker:is just further eating those margins.
Speaker:And then finally, the, the, the rates.
Speaker:So, yeah, if you look at those once a year, but knowing in the
Speaker:3PL industry, things change so quickly, like you mentioned.
Speaker:If your customer has a new process, a new sale, it's seasonal, those rates need to
Speaker:go hand-in-hand with those seasons or, or changes, and if they're not looked at
Speaker:on a, on a regular basis, that's gonna definitely eat into those margins, too.
Speaker:I'm gonna share another four-letter word, that is spreadsheets.
Speaker:Maybe it should be a four-letter word.
Speaker:I know I have a lot of 3PL friends out there, and sometimes spreadsheets
Speaker:start rearing a little bit of kind of those homegrown systems.
Speaker:And, you know, I love a good spreadsheet myself sometimes, but I, I think
Speaker:that is where things kind of get lost.
Speaker:So how do you, without being lost in spreadsheets, how, how
Speaker:do you find those exceptions?
Speaker:Like you mentioned, oh, the exception may become the norm.
Speaker:Like, how do you track things in a way That the complexity doesn't
Speaker:overwhelm everything, and you're using, you know, manual processes.
Speaker:You're trying to figure things out.
Speaker:How do you get things set up?
Speaker:What do you recommend so that things don't get lost?
Speaker:With spreadsheets, there's no one there to smack your hand if you do something wrong
Speaker:or if you fat-finger something, right?
Speaker:Let's say I, I'm using my, a spreadsheet to track inventory.
Speaker:I, I use spreadsheets too, I'm guilty.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:We're all, every person out there, I'm sure everyone listening right now
Speaker:no matter your industry, no matter your little niche, we all have a few
Speaker:little spreadsheets we're in, so.
Speaker:It's a great tool.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But the tool is only as good as what it's intended to be for, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So a spreadsheet can only go so far.
Speaker:I actually had a customer that we implemented, this is probably
Speaker:two or three years ago now.
Speaker:They were completely paper-based, completely Excel.
Speaker:So they're entire- they had three million square feet of
Speaker:warehouse space, all ran on Excel.
Speaker:So at the end of the day, I'd take all of my papers, I'd give them to Lori.
Speaker:Lori then goes one by one, updates her Excel sheet.
Speaker:That's manual labor, right?
Speaker:If Lori fat-fingers something, or if I wrote something down on a
Speaker:piece of paper that you couldn't read, now you're making guesses.
Speaker:That all just goes into a spreadsheet.
Speaker:There's nothing there that is standardizing the way
Speaker:that you input that data.
Speaker:There's nothing that's gonna catch those exceptions.
Speaker:And that's the value of, of having a WMS is if the process stan- is standardized,
Speaker:you have to do it a specific way.
Speaker:It's repeatable, it's measurable.
Speaker:And if something does get fat-fingered, you're gonna capture that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:Makes me think, 'cause I know in talking with Datex that, you know, I've
Speaker:heard of clients that you have that, you know, their invoices jump 30, 40%
Speaker:after going live with using technology instead of spreadsheets, right?
Speaker:I would love to kinda get into that.
Speaker:What, what were those 30 to 40% … You know, what type
Speaker:of issues were being missed?
Speaker:What, what was the operation doing before what was happening there?
Speaker:Most WMSs can do the same things, right?
Speaker:I can receive, I can move inventory, I can pick, I ha- I may have rate sheets.
Speaker:It's, it's not the WMS that is this magical wand, it's that
Speaker:you're forcing somebody to capture what you're doing in the WMS.
Speaker:I need to capture how I receive, I need to capture the rate
Speaker:for that receiving process.
Speaker:"Hey, customer, do you do physical counts for your warehouse?" "Yes." "Okay, but
Speaker:I don't see a billing line item here for how you charge your customers."
Speaker:"Oh, we only do it once a year. We're not gonna charge them for it." Well, that's
Speaker:missed out, that's missing out on revenue.
Speaker:So the WMS isn't a, a magical wand, but it helps expose those rates that are missing.
Speaker:It helps expose those exceptions that you're doing, it helps expose those
Speaker:exceptions that become the norm.
Speaker:So the WMS is just giving you the transparency of what
Speaker:your operations are doing.
Speaker:But regardless if you're using a spreadsheet, you're using a WMS,
Speaker:if you don't have your processes defined, that's, you're already
Speaker:setting yourself up for failure
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:No, that totally makes sense.
Speaker:I wanna talk a little bit about rates.
Speaker:You know, parcel's kind of a moving target right now, I would say.
Speaker:Peak season, peak surcharges they're always big.
Speaker:And, well, honestly though, Ryan, they're, like, tend to be, we got this
Speaker:5.9%, but it's, like, all the extra surcharges, all the accessorials, all
Speaker:the other things that get built up.
Speaker:How do 3PLs best handle dealing with kind of those moving targets
Speaker:of rates rate shopping, making sure you've got enough carriers?
Speaker:3PLs kind of, everything they have is just expanded, right?
Speaker:They're just like a regular shipper, but expanded by 20 different business models.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So what, what suggestions, tips, advice do you have for our 3PLs out there?
Speaker:For, for our parcel, we use EasyPost.
Speaker:We partner with EasyPost, so it's very easy to capture those different
Speaker:rates based on, do you want it they're the quickest, do you want
Speaker:it they're the cheapest, do you want it based on what the customer wants?
Speaker:With the WMS, what helps there is you can add a surcharge on top of what
Speaker:the carrier's actually charging you.
Speaker:So if you have a default surcharge built in, let's say 3%, 10%, whatever that value
Speaker:is, you can't control what the carriers are charging you, but you can control
Speaker:what you're charging your own customers.
Speaker:Can't control what the carriers are charging you, but you can control
Speaker:what you're charging your customers.
Speaker:And sounds like what you're saying, a lot of times that's an undercharge.
Speaker:We're not charging enough.
Speaker:Yeah, if, if you don't have that surcharge built in, so let's just say,
Speaker:you know, your, your seasonal rates are gonna change from your carrier,
Speaker:but if you have your, your line item defined on your rate sheet to your
Speaker:customer, we're always gonna charge you, whatever, X, that's our standard.
Speaker:If that seasonal change is bumping up, but bad, right?
Speaker:You're not getting that revenue, you're losing on that margin.
Speaker:More often than not, it's not gonna go underneath what that
Speaker:rate that you're charging on.
Speaker:So having, having those things defined in the WMS can help call
Speaker:out where those surcharges are being put in and making sure that you're
Speaker:capturing the correct margin for that.
Speaker:Yeah, that totally makes sense.
Speaker:So a lot of 3PLs are looking to scale, and I see 3PLs struggle a
Speaker:little bit as they again expand.
Speaker:And you know, they're going they maybe were a standardized process, and
Speaker:they're trying to scale profitably.
Speaker:What's the difference, I guess, that you see between the ones that kind of
Speaker:scale profitably, do that well, and those who end up absorbing all those
Speaker:exceptions, like, as you mentioned?
Speaker:I guess sort of what's a line between being flexible and unprofitable?
Speaker:It's, it is a fine line, right?
Speaker:With, with 3PL, you have to be flexible in order to get the customer in the door,
Speaker:but what you could set yourself up up for failure for is if you're taking on
Speaker:a project that you don't know if you can actually deliver profitable, right?
Speaker:I'm, right now I'm, I'm in charge of doing a lot of migrations from our legacy
Speaker:product onto our cloud-based solution, and we're getting to go back under the
Speaker:radar, under the hood of these customers to figure out how you're using the WMS.
Speaker:And come to find out, that's where we're drawing a lot of gaps is,
Speaker:"Hey, you built this process for your customer, but that was three years ago.
Speaker:That was a year ago.
Speaker:That was three months ago," and they're doing things completely different now.
Speaker:So unless those processes are, are defined, I know I feel like I'm
Speaker:repeating myself, but if unless that process is defined, you don't
Speaker:know how successful you're gonna be.
Speaker:So for the 3PLs that you have to be flexible, but if those processes are
Speaker:defined, you have a standard, you have a baseline, then you can help to identify
Speaker:what those margins will be if you take on this highly complex customer, if you
Speaker:take on this highly seasonal customer.
Speaker:It, it makes me think, do you have any kind of good KPIs or, or
Speaker:industry standards on how often you should be kind of reviewing
Speaker:your process for each customer?
Speaker:Is that an annual thing?
Speaker:Is it a quarterly thing?
Speaker:W- what do you feel like would be kind of a, a good rule of thumb?
Speaker:With 3PLs, just because the, the nature of the business, it changes so
Speaker:frequently, the more, the more frequent you can review those things, the better.
Speaker:The, the more successful 3PLs that I've seen, it's not just one person in charge
Speaker:of reviewing rates or reviewing processes.
Speaker:They have almost like an internal project manager that
Speaker:takes on some of those accounts.
Speaker:Think of a, a customer success manager or account manager in the sales world.
Speaker:Even on the, on the warehouse side, that becomes beneficial because if
Speaker:they kind of know the heartbeat of that customer or that process, or
Speaker:if it's seasonal, they can make sure that that process is staying defined.
Speaker:Then communicate that down to their ops team, then things
Speaker:are staying standardized.
Speaker:We're making sure we're capturing that revenue accordingly.
Speaker:You're not having that billing leakage that tends to rear
Speaker:its ugly head sometimes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, I like that idea of kind of a role there that sort of helps track, and
Speaker:that project manager kind of person who keeps everybody a little bit sane.
Speaker:So you were talking about flexibility, but I also feel like, you know,
Speaker:processes are great- But a lot of customers, often I guess customers
Speaker:pick a 3PL specifically because they might have some weird exceptions or
Speaker:some special needs, or it's too complex for them to do it themselves, right?
Speaker:How do you balance having a process but also being flexible or, you know,
Speaker:as somebody was, having good customer support, creating a great experience?
Speaker:How do you balance that?
Speaker:At, at Datex, our WMS is extremely flexible.
Speaker:That's part of our, our upsell, is that we can be as complex or as configurable or
Speaker:as standardized as your operations may be.
Speaker:So the way that I usually use an analogy is I can go and I can buy a car.
Speaker:Your car is gonna get you from point A to point B.
Speaker:But do you want leather?
Speaker:Do you want cloth seats?
Speaker:Do you want cruise control?
Speaker:Do you want, you know, the V8 or the V6?
Speaker:All of those things, that's up to the consumer, right?
Speaker:And it's just like 3PL.
Speaker:The consumer is driving the 3PL business, so the 3PL has to be willing
Speaker:to take on that flexibility, but again, they still need to know how
Speaker:different is this customer compared to the way that we're able to operate,
Speaker:and do we need to make changes?
Speaker:Is it technology?
Speaker:Is it hardware?
Speaker:Is it process?
Speaker:Is it, hey, my building is too small for this customer.
Speaker:Is there space available where I can go and get additional space and
Speaker:bring on that customer as well and open up a new side of that business?
Speaker:It's, it is a very fine line for trying to define that sweet spot of
Speaker:flexibility versus standardization.
Speaker:Okay, I'm glad you brought up Datex specifically, and we're gonna talk.
Speaker:This isn't about Datex, but about technology in general, okay?
Speaker:I, we, we talked about the fact there are those who have, or
Speaker:fully working spreadsheets.
Speaker:They're probably the minority, right?
Speaker:Most people have some sort of technology in their 3PL these days.
Speaker:But it is hard to switch technology.
Speaker:It is hard to get a new technology, maybe add to your tech stack.
Speaker:It is anything… Sometimes I feel like 3PLs are a little bit like
Speaker:the house of cards and, and people don't want to do something that's
Speaker:gonna make it all fall apart, right?
Speaker:So I wanna talk about technology implementations.
Speaker:You've been through a lot of these since you work with technology and 3PLs.
Speaker:Are there any issues that are typical that will make a technology implementation
Speaker:just, you know, like, this is gonna go badly, maybe before it's even begun?
Speaker:I haven't mentioned this yet, but it's, it's process, for sure.
Speaker:Process.
Speaker:'Cause even, I know, I know.
Speaker:So whether it's we're implementing a, a net new customer- I'm taking on a
Speaker:migration, or it's a customer that's been with us for a while and they just have a
Speaker:new project that's coming on, now we're gonna handle that with a change request.
Speaker:If the process isn't defined, the requirement's only as good as what
Speaker:we, we can get from the customer.
Speaker:So do you mean the process of implementing the technology or the process they
Speaker:have with working with their customers?
Speaker:Process with working with the customer.
Speaker:We need to define the requirement.
Speaker:What, what solution do you need as a, as a customer in order for now the
Speaker:technology to serve that solution?
Speaker:So before you even go to look for technology, you need to sit down
Speaker:and make sure you have a really well-defined process for your customers.
Speaker:100%. That is, that is typically where we've seen implementation.
Speaker:That, that's the biggest, divider or differentiator with implementations
Speaker:is if you have your processes defined, then when it comes time to buying
Speaker:technology, you can clearly define those requirements with that vendor, and then
Speaker:that vendor can say, "Yes, we can do this.
Speaker:It's out of the box.
Speaker:Oh, yep, we can do this with some changes on it." But the, the vendor can only
Speaker:pull in so much information, right?
Speaker:So if, if you're telling me, "Hey customer, you want a car
Speaker:with leather seats," great, we're gonna go and build it.
Speaker:But if you tell me, "Well, the leather seats need a massage, it needs to be
Speaker:cooling, it needs to be heated," well, that's a different way of implementing.
Speaker:So having those clearly defined requirements or processes upfront are
Speaker:gonna make that go live date become that much more smoother and successful.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So let's say that you approach somebody, so, or somebody came to you and
Speaker:they said, "Ryan, we are struggling.
Speaker:We gotta get some technology.
Speaker:We've got, we know that stuff's leaking.
Speaker:We're, we're losing margin.
Speaker:We're doing all kinds of excep- exceptions have become the norm," and you see that
Speaker:they don't have processes documented.
Speaker:What, what do you recommend they do?
Speaker:Like, how do they go about that?
Speaker:What, what would you recommend?
Speaker:What, what advice do you have for those people?
Speaker:Sit in a room, lock the doors, and don't throw the key in that room
Speaker:until everything is, is defined.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Any suggestions on who should be in the room?
Speaker:Yeah, so as soon as the implementation starts, that's where I typically
Speaker:get involved with now capturing the requirements from the customer.
Speaker:Having the, the right people in the room is critical for how those requirements
Speaker:get delivered, how those requirements become to fruition, and, and ultimately
Speaker:a, a go live with the customer.
Speaker:So if you have, let's say, a finance person in the room that doesn't work
Speaker:in the warehouse, your finance person isn't gonna tell you how you should be
Speaker:receiving, what are those exceptions, how do we handle those pallets.
Speaker:If I have a ops person that works on the floor, they're driving the
Speaker:forklift, they're likely not gonna be able to tell me how they should
Speaker:be billing for those things, right?
Speaker:So having the right people in the room to drive those conversha- conversations
Speaker:is very critical for making sure those defined requirements get delivered
Speaker:the right way the first time.
Speaker:'Cause rework is a killer.
Speaker:We know it's, it's, it's a natural thing, but the less rework the better, the higher
Speaker:your margins, happy everyone's gonna be.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, I love that.
Speaker:So I have a question.
Speaker:Let's say you have a 3PL who has multiple locations.
Speaker:Do you need to have a process, different process based on each location?
Speaker:Not necessarily.
Speaker:I mean, it, it ultimately depends on the operation.
Speaker:You might have one customer that might operate out of those different warehouses,
Speaker:so now when that order comes in, what is, what is determining how to go to that
Speaker:other warehouse to go pick from, right?
Speaker:Is it based on proximity?
Speaker:Is it based on pricing?
Speaker:Is it based on inventory levels?
Speaker:So it's, I don't think there's a right or wrong answer on process
Speaker:depending upon the facility.
Speaker:Sometimes facilities are set up a certain way to run.
Speaker:Maybe one is focused on manufacturing or kit building.
Speaker:Another one's focused on just, just distribution.
Speaker:Another one might be 3PL focused, so-
Speaker:Or if the layout's really different, right?
Speaker:Like, that's what I wanna, like if you have a really different layout situation.
Speaker:I'll throw an example of of a customer I saw earlier this year.
Speaker:They had two facilities.
Speaker:One was brand new.
Speaker:In the brand new facility, their, their racking was eight pallets deep.
Speaker:So if you have a ful pallet in, pallet out operation, having those roller racks with
Speaker:eight pallets deep, that's okay, right?
Speaker:You're likely not gonna miss inventory, have expiring product.
Speaker:But if you're in the, the case picking business where your operations are
Speaker:a little more complex the labor is a little higher, if you have pallets
Speaker:eight deep and you're having to go grab something in the middle of that, think
Speaker:of the labor that it's taking to pull stuff out and then put stuff back in.
Speaker:So yeah, definitely the, the layout of the warehouse should help drive,
Speaker:or the potential of the layout, 'cause the layout is al- also flexible should
Speaker:help drive where those customers should be in those processes that follow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, great advice.
Speaker:Let's talk about 3PLs maybe who should not be looking at technology yet.
Speaker:Is it just those who don't have defined processes?
Speaker:Are there any other, like, caveats if somebody's listening and they're like,
Speaker:"You know what? Warehouse technology maybe is not what I need right now.
Speaker:There, there are problems elsewhere."
Speaker:The, the growth becomes a, a, at a certain point, think of a, a bell curve, right?
Speaker:There's a certain point where you have to invest in technology to continue your
Speaker:growth, right, to continue that vision.
Speaker:So I can't say whether it's a good or bad thing to buy technology, but
Speaker:buy-- when you do buy the technology, again, have your processes defined.
Speaker:The vendor may be able to help uncover some of those things, but they may not be
Speaker:the experts in uncovering those things.
Speaker:So that's sometimes where being on the implementation side, I have-- I do have
Speaker:a lot of experience, but my experience is based on what I've seen in the past.
Speaker:I've been around for, let's say, 15 years in supply chain.
Speaker:I don't have the 30, 40, 50-year knowledge that some of these other
Speaker:people have, and those people are set up for more of the consulting side.
Speaker:So although we on the, the WMS vendor side can help extract those requirements,
Speaker:again, we're only as good as capturing those requirements and delivering those.
Speaker:So if we're, if we're missing some gaps there and the customer's expecting
Speaker:we're, us to be this magical wand- that might not be the best decision
Speaker:to, to buy the technology yet.
Speaker:Ryan, everyone's looking for a silver bullet.
Speaker:I don't think anyone's found one out there yet.
Speaker:I'm still looking too.
Speaker:We, we can come up with it together, and then we'll all be happy.
Speaker:So this has been really great.
Speaker:We're just out of time about, but I do wanna ask you before we go,
Speaker:if there's somebody listening who runs a 3PL, works in a 3PL you
Speaker:know, what advice do you have?
Speaker:What is something you would want them to go and do in their warehouse, in
Speaker:their facility, with their team after listening to our, our episode today?
Speaker:What, what is one thing that can maybe help them stop the leakage, get
Speaker:a little bit more revenue, be more prepared for the upcoming peak season?
Speaker:What advice does patented Ryan advice do you have for them?
Speaker:The, the silver bullet is what you're looking for.
Speaker:The silver bullet, and we're ready for it.
Speaker:I would say interviewing the people that you work with or
Speaker:that maybe you don't work with.
Speaker:I think those, those can definitely help expose the, the gaps, whether that be
Speaker:process or revenue leakage or margins.
Speaker:For example, if I'm, maybe I'm a CSR at a warehouse, and I know how my
Speaker:orders get entered in, and I know how to make sure they get completed
Speaker:and the customer gets billed.
Speaker:But if I go and speak to that warehouse floor operator, and I hear, "Hey, this
Speaker:one customer, stuff's always getting unloaded, and I'm having to restack,"
Speaker:and that's labor that you're not capturing, there's revenue leakage
Speaker:right there that I could've captured.
Speaker:Or on the flip side, if I'm the warehouse worker, maybe I wanna go
Speaker:interview somebody that's in the office or that's upstairs because they
Speaker:may not have the boots-on-the-ground knowledge of what's happening.
Speaker:Maybe they did a year ago or six months ago, but as you know, in this industry,
Speaker:things change so quickly based on many, many factors, so making sure that you're
Speaker:just in tune with those different roles I think would very, would help very much.
Speaker:Unboxing Logistics family, I want you to put a time on your calendar
Speaker:this week or next week, block it off.
Speaker:Think of maybe one area that you're feeling frustration, or you're feeling
Speaker:confusion, or you're feeling, you know, maybe you're just not understanding
Speaker:what's going on there, and set up a one-on-one call, or, or get down
Speaker:there and see somebody in person.
Speaker:I think that is such good advice, and one that we just don't take enough time
Speaker:to just really have a conversation with someone, understanding what's going on.
Speaker:Fantastic advice, Ryan.
Speaker:Okay, if somebody wants to, you know, learn more about Datex or just connect
Speaker:with you, pick your brain about 3PLs or technology implementation
Speaker:or WMS how can they contact or learn more about Datex, and how
Speaker:could they get in contact with you?
Speaker:You can go to our website, you can look up our WMS.
Speaker:We're a technology provider.
Speaker:For myself, I'm, would be happy to speak with, with anybody
Speaker:via email or phone call.
Speaker:Hopefully you can put my contact informationin here.
Speaker:We'll throw it into the,
Speaker:Excellent, so I don't have to read out my very long last name.
Speaker:That'll be easier for you all to, to get a hold of me if you want, if you want to.
Speaker:That sounds great.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Thank you again, Ryan, for being here.
Speaker:This has been a really great discussion, and I am excited for our
Speaker:3PL audience listeners out there to move forward and maybe get a little
Speaker:bit better of a process here and there.
Speaker:Thank you so much, Lori.
Speaker:It's been a great time talking to you.
Speaker:We'll see you all next time.
