Our client, a company that specializes in providing drum and brush sanders for the woodworking and metalworking industries, had been working with our team in many capacities for more than two years. The company was growing, making sale after sale to numerous customers, but they hit a roadblock that called for some quick thinking and maneuverability on the part of King Solutions.

The challenge
Backorders: it’s a bittersweet concept for any company. It means you’re selling a ton of product/s, but it also means you run the serious risk of failing to fulfill orders. Not only do you have to get your hands on the product, you also have to move it quickly to avoid making customers wait.

Our client was faced with 200 backorders of shipments while awaiting incoming product. We were presented with the challenge of receiving the inbound containers, getting them unloaded quickly, arranging the products, then filing the orders and sending them off via LTL shipments.

To make matters worse, the backorders involve multiple SKUs, and four FCL containers needed to be unloaded to complete the orders. Oh, and these four containers wouldn’t arrive all at once, but sometime over a seven-day span. Once they arrived, the largest hurdle was that each container had unique product that had to be matched up with SKUs from each of the other containers, meaning that all containers HAD to be completely unloaded and inventoried before any orders could be filled.

And just like a never-ending infomercial, there was more…

All the orders needed to be shipped out within eight days in order to get the product to market and meet the sales demand, all while reducing LTL transportation costs to meet a tight budget..

Needless to say, our client had neither the dock space or manpower to handle this complex project, nor were they prepared for the unforgiving reality of time constraints on top of a limited budget!

The King solution
The first step was creating visibility by tracking the containers so that we would know exactly when they would arrive. With this information uploaded (via CSV) into the client’s system, we were able to precisely calculate and allocate the appropriate labor and space needed for the fastest turnaround time possible. We accounted for all incoming inventory, and once all containers were received and unloaded, completed the orders systematically. The bills of lading (BOLs) were quickly produced, LTL shipments coordinated with the most reliable and cost-efficient carriers, and the shipments moved as soon as they were ready to go.

Once the shipments were out, we provided shipping notifications and hyperlink tracking to all 200 consignees. Detailed reports were also sent back to our client, keeping them in tune with the status of the shipments at every step.  

The results
The containers were unloaded and placed into inventory, the orders filled, and the LTL shipments shipped out, all on budget and within the eight-day deadline (phew!). The client was immensely grateful for the savings they received by outsourcing their warehousing and getting the orders fulfilled quickly.

The data uploaded to their system also helped automate their BOLs, saving them countless hours of data entry they had normally invested in past projects.

A quote from their owner:

“Working with King Solutions allowed us to get this backordered product to market quickly and efficiently. They provided the planning and resources for a quick turnaround. We were able to save 20% on our transportation costs, as well. Great project follow-through!”

In the end, we considered this a “crowning achievement” for our team, but if we didn’t have a few of those each month, we wouldn’t be King. Need quick turnaround on an important project for your company, contact a representative at King Solutions today.