Pocket Guide: Implementing Barcode Scanning in 3PL Warehouses

For third-party logistics service providers associated with businesses, barcodes have become essential to selling and shipping goods to customers. Human errors in the supply chain management process can result in the ineffectiveness of both 3PLs and businesses.

If you want to give your business new heights, integration with advanced technology helps you stay ahead of the competition. Barcoding is one such advancement in the retail industry. These days, barcodes optimize each aspect of the e-commerce business, including inbound/outbound logistic warehouse and shipping processes.

Barcodes are pivotal for businesses to sell physical goods in retail stores, being a crucial part of the buying and returning process. This practice is essential in warehouses to maintain inventory and packages by locating and tracking shipments and invoices and maintaining accounting.

Modern shipping and inbound & outbound logistics operations become ineffectual without barcode implementation. For 3PLs, barcode scanning helps modernize businesses to ensure a smooth and efficient process to fulfill their services.

Before enacting barcode scanning in your products, you must know about various factors associated with barcodes, their types, and their advantages.

Types of Barcode Scanning for 3PLs

There are mainly two types of barcodes that third-party logistic service providers can utilize for their management process. Let’s understand both:

Shipping Barcodes

A shipping barcode is a distinctive pattern with parallel lines of different widths that machines read. It is printed on the shipping label of products and enables the identification of a particular shipment. At each delivery step, a shipping barcode is scanned until a product reaches a customer. Even before the delivery of products, third-party logistics service providers scan the outgoing packages. In fulfillment centers, barcode scanning eases the tracking of products in stock and refills the inventory to meet customer expectations.

Product Barcodes

As 3PLs employ location barcode scanning at each step of supply chain management, using barcodes at individual shipment units can make the process much more secure and favorable to stock inventory.

If barcodes are used on any newly built stock-keeping units (SKUs) that are processed to send to the fulfillment center, it projects the accuracy of operations.

3PL warehouse management service providers don’t always serve only one brand; this is why barcodes ensure the accurate shipment of the products to the right customer from the right brand. With mobile barcode scanning, the process fastens and updates the systems automatically, like a warehouse service system, by simply scanning the barcode. Businesses hugely rely on the efficient services of third-party logistics service providers.

Why Should 3PLs Implement Barcode Scanning?

Third-party logistics service providers support brands or businesses to establish a reputable position among customers through fast and systematic operations. Barcode scanning is one such initiative that speeds up the process during supply chain management. Here are the perks of operating a business through barcode scanning:

Efficient Inventory Management

Barcode scanning expedites the processes of manufacturers and distributors. With only one barcode, the staff gets access to a huge amount of data in a jiffy that includes the details about the method of packaging and even the exact location of a particular product to ship safely.

Linking the associated staff in the process eases the hassles of inventory management effectively.

Mitigate Manual Errors

Keeping an exact count of the number of goods and tracking the warehouse inventory levels, there are high chances of manual errors. With the increase in the possibility of error, businesses can suffer significant monetary losses.

However, barcode scanning maintains the stock record effortlessly by eliminating manual errors. It influences the crucial aspects of 3PLs and improves organizational reputation among customers.

Brings Transparency to the Process

With highly detailed processing in the supply chain operations, barcode scanning effectuates more transparency to cater to regulatory requirements. In addition, it ensures more efficiency. Better detailing of the information available allows third-party logistics providers to maintain transparency with businesses.

Real-time outlook is one of the crucial factors of the modern supply chain process for the associated parties. Using barcode scanning is the most reliable way to manage the logistics in a supply chain process.

Cost-Friendliness

To strengthen their bottom line, businesses need to put in additional efforts using advanced technology. Today, barcode scanning has become much more cost-effective while offering advanced features.

Barcoding automates processes and reduces the chances of errors due to low human involvement. Simultaneously, the labor cost is reduced due to supply chain processes’ automation.

Accelerated Transactions

With the advancement in technology, barcodes are used by 3PL warehouse management service providers to execute a range of remote transactions. Along with the 3PLs, customers can use barcode scanning for the following purposes:

Inventory receiving
Material handling
Inventory movement
Merge & transfer inventory
Order picking and shipping confirmation

As barcode scanning brings many benefits, you must know about some factors before integrating your warehouse management system with barcode scanning.

Factors to Consider Before Implementing Barcode Scanning Technology

Time-Taking

As 3PLs engage with multiple brands, labeling all products with barcodes can take up more of your time in the process.

Potential of Barcode Scanning

The barcode technology is fast and efficient and impacts business operations. Always look if the system accomplishes your requirements and is potent enough to identify varying barcodes. For instance, there are different types of barcode; linear and matrix and the barcode scanner must read all types of encoding. This can accelerate the supply chain process.

Business Objectives

Businesses integrate their processes with barcoding technology to benefit from it if it fulfills their requirements. You must consider the barcode scanning system to achieve your business growth targets. Determine short- and long-term business goals that affect the daily operations of businesses.

Summing Up

Implementing barcode technology for the third-party logistics that serve businesses to manage warehouses can be beneficial to make your investment worthwhile.

Along with bringing efficiency and accuracy into supply chain operations, barcode scanning technology reduces operating costs. If you want to collaborate with an efficient logistics service provider, AAJ Supply Chain Management is the one to put your trust in. We are a competent logistic warehouse service provider that streamlines and accelerates your business processes.