Value Added Services
A third-party logistics provider can do great deal more than simply coordinate shipments and load and unload trucks. Full-service 3PL organizations offer a broad range of value-added services that allow their customers to offload more and more aspects of their supply chains, allowing them to focus on their core business while leveraging the 3PL’s efficiencies. Here are some of the value added services that businesses turn to 3PLs like k. chimanlal & co. to provide:
Kitting
Kitting takes multiple products and combines them into a single easy-to pick package and easy-to-track SKU. Whether taking two of the same item and banding them together for a “two-for-one” sale or creating a integrated solution — like a camera body, lens, flash, memory card, tripod can case — kitting makes supply chains more efficient.
Blister Packs
Blister packaging is a broad class of items that both protect items while also keeping them valuable. They include everything from the small push-through packages used for pharmaceutical to the blister-on-cardboard packages used for pens and pencils to the large clamshells that protect high-value items. Having blister packaging done by a 3PL close to the point of sale lowers shipping costs while also limiting the distance over which the relatively fragile blister packages need to be shipped.
Personalization
Adding initials or a laser-etched inscription to the back of an electronic item can increase its perceived value. k. chimanlal & co. has the ability to personalize items in the midst of the supply chain, giving companies greater flexibility.
Labeling
When products need specialized labeling for different retailers or government regulatory schemes, having a 3PL do it can save time and cost.
Light manufacturing
For some applications, the line between logistics and production can get blurred. When these capabilities get combined with a foreign trade zone, it creates the opportunity for companies to creatively manage duties and trade quotas.
Product destruction
3PL value added services don’t only encompass adding value. Sometimes, companies also need to get rid of damaged or obsolete product. 3PLs can add value by breaking down those products, recycling them or diverting them into the waste stream quickly and cost-effectively.