Can cross docking drive faster final delivery?

With the right management and workflows in place, implementing cross-docking can save you hours, and reduce costly storage overheads. So what is cross-docking, and how does it work?

Cross docking (and transloading) is used frequently in American logistics and global supply chains to optimize delivery routes and transport legs and reduce unnecessary warehouse storage periods.

CartonCloud describes the process of cross-docking as where a staging area within a warehouse is used for short-term holding, as stock is sorted, collated, and assigned to outgoing runs based on delivery location.

When implemented correctly, cross-docking can provide the ability to optimize your supply chain to be as fast and productive as possible.

However, navigating incoming stock, handling stock in staging, and collating stock to outgoing runs to optimize truckload and last-mile delivery can be extremely complex.

That is unless you have the right software for the job. Many American logistics businesses are using pen and paper for cross-docking operations, even when they have a WMS in place for other warehouse operations.

A recent industry survey found 97% of companies used paper records for at least one operation in their day-to-day business.

The nature of cross-docking requires fast processing and allocations, and clear, concise reporting in real-time — something a lot of WMS software providers are unable to deliver, and paper processes miss the mark on.

“For cross-docking, you need to have the ability to easily validate and accept incoming stock with accuracy and speed— and also have the ability to consolidate and allocate to outgoing consignments for delivery, based on their last-mile destinations,” explains CartonCloud’s COO/ Head of America Shaun Hagen.

“We work with several customers of ours to help them streamline their cross-docking operations, and ultimately move them off pen and paper, or clunky platforms, to use barcode scanning and automated allocation, which boosts their accuracy and saves a huge amount of time.”

American and global supply chains often have freight passing through several warehouses before it is assigned to the delivery run for its final destination. Cross docking removes unnecessary miles and storage periods, by optimizing delivery runs based on grouped end destinations.

Ohio-based 3PL warehouse ODW uses CartonCloud for cross-dock operations and contract logistics order charge capture.

“It has been valuable both as a stand-alone WMS and a complement to our own WMS,” said ODW’s Ms Gates.

“The price was competitive and the team has been engaged from start to finish.”

Using the cloud-based system to automate data entry and streamline freight validation and order details for optimized cross docking can maximize supply chain efficiency by coordinating outgoing stock within combined transport consignments.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the AJOT editorial board or Fleur de lis Publishing, Inc. and its owners.