The "How To's Of Information Fulfilment Warehousing

There could be any number of reasons for you to want to improve your fulfillment operation. A number of issues might immediately come to mind while fellow employees frustrated with incomplete solutions might pose others. This series of “How tos” might help you find the specific chapter reference for a quicker look-up. And then again it might suggest an opportunity for improvement as you see how so many of these issues tie together.

1. How to receive more realistic cost reimbursement, i.e., raise prices by:
   - Convincing clients to make the transition from “free” finished goods storage to paying reasonable fulfillment warehousing costs.
   - Avoiding single “per transaction” charges and instead charging a series of reasonable, value-induced service list costs.
   - Avoiding single hourly rate charges as compensation for all fulfillment labor costs.
   - Convincing prospective clients of the full and realistic value of all the services and expertise being brought to bear.
   - Knowing fair market value in your region of comparable services.

   How to change (raise) prices when fulfillment specifications change and the client threatens to pull their printing, or how get out of costly fulfillment duties without losing valuable print volume.

   How to sell Fulfillment Services so that it is a profit center instead of a cost center.

   How to defend a $20-30 hourly rate for casual/temporary labor being paid $7 an hour.

1. How many fulfillment clients are necessary to make this service economically viable.
2. How many distinct costing elements should be considered.

1. How to arrive at a fair price for a kit packing project when the kit requirements are unique and no time standards exist.
2. How to identify potential disasters before you or the client issues purchase orders for the various, often interrelated elements.
3. How to lay out and plan for optimum assembly of multiple items in any kit.
4. How to handle and get paid for kit returns.
5. How to find material handling aids for employees to assure safety, accuracy, and productivity.

1. Proposal to a Prospect
2. How to quantify a prospect’s real fulfillment needs when the numbers provided are often inadvertently under or overstated (most clients simply don’t know.)
3. How to plan for and price highly volatile and dynamic fulfillment needs.
4. How to get paid for the start-up costs of software programming, database entry, and setting up the warehouse for a new client who promises you all his printing.
5. How to define and quantify performance expectations.
6. How to deal with an important print client who wants more sophisticated fulfillment services than you have experience delivering.

1. How to organize the fulfillment department to provide clients with superior service at an expected and predictable cost.
2. How to avoid disastrous start-ups with new clients.
3. How to compensate, motivate, and train the fulfillment team of employees.
4. How to compensate print salesmen fairly for selling fulfillment services.

1. How to deal with client inventory insurance issues.
2. How to provide security for client’s furnished “premium” items.
3. How to limit liability for mistakes made by fulfillment employees.
4. How to quantify the risks and rewards of “product” rather than “information” fulfillment services.

1. When a primary fulfillment client threatens to leave for a cheaper fulfillment vendor, how to keep him from hiring away your fulfillment manager, who knows more about the client’s fulfillment requirements than even the client.
2. When a primary Fulfillment client threatens to leave for a cheaper fulfillment vendor, how to keep him from taking your software package that contains an invaluable database and historical reports that you invested thousands of dollars to develop.

1. How to get paid for the development of proprietary fulfillment software but not lose it if the client later leaves to go to a competitor.
2. How to choose between an Internet fulfillment Application Service Provider (ASP) versus a stand- alone fulfillment software package running on your own server.

1. How to offer Internet fulfillment order processing.

1. How to determine the amount of warehouse square footage needed for:
   - A new prospect who has never had a well organized fulfillment effort,
   - A prospect who is leaving another fulfillment service, but who will not allow you to see their operation,
   - A client who cannot provide a reliable history of fulfillment seasonality or SKU replenishment.

   How to determine stocking sequences and locations for a new client’s SKUs.

   How to determine the optimum stocking sequences and locations for an existing client when inventory history is known and both labor and time savings are critical objectives.

   How to design secured storage space.

   How to determine the appropriate amount of secured storage space.