Order fulfillment is the complete process from when an order is placed until the shipment is delivered. Accurately fulfilling thousands of orders for millions of items is extremely challenging. Many large organizations have multiple systems for order, warehouse, or transportation management that are barely integrated – frequently not at all. However, large organizations are often equipped to handle fulfillment in-house, leveraging their extensive resources and capabilities. An organization with tens of thousands of different products may have to move them across many modes of transportation, IT systems, and third-party logistics partners, all adding to complexity, as well as loss of visibility and control.
Sudden and significant changes in demand, especially in consumer markets, stack up more challenges, requiring order revision and reallocation. If your systems are disjointed and you lack the ability to analyze masses of data in real time, you will struggle to deliver on-time, in-full and your reputation and revenue will be negatively impacted. (....)