From complex challenges to proven results.
Logistics & Distribution
Overview
A customer referral is what started the successful relationship between a logistics customer based in Michigan and CMS. It all began in 2010 when this company decided that they needed a better way to track shipments and improve their order management. They were struggling with accurately receiving returned parts from numerous dealerships, as well as with tracking shipments and expediting payments to the dealerships.
To solve these problems, the company was seeking a streamlined and automated system to receive daily orders, imprint accurate labels, ship to thousands of dealerships, reduce lost or mis-shipped labels, and upload barcode information daily for tracking in their internal system.
Specifically, the logistics company sought to:
- Reduce lead time that it took for the dealerships to receive payment by 50%
- Reduced labels errors to less than 1%
- Reduced staff by 50% through automation
The Solution
Aware of the business problems that the company was experiencing, an automotive dealership referred the company to CMS for specialized assistance with their streamlining and automation needs. Since this company was already a satisfied and loyal CMS customer, they decided to research our service bureau labeling solution, specifically for 3″ x 5″ imprinted labels, and MyCMS, our order management solution.
CMS was prepared to offer its assistance and carefully handle key aspects of the company’s labeling requirements, as well as manage its ordering process through MyCMS, an effective single-point solution for managing and deploying their print resources.
The Results
After meeting the implementation deadline, the company’s employees were quickly trained and the software was fully implemented. It didn’t take long for the customer to begin realizing the benefits. The streamlining and automation of their key processes enabled them to reduce costs and dramatically decrease the time it takes to process and track orders. While utilizing MyCMS, the logistics customer was able to easily retrieve item information, process orders, track shipping through customized labels, and produce reports when applicable. This online single-source solution provided support and efficiency within the company.
Not only did CMS meet the specific goals of the customer, we far exceeded their objectives. The results included:
- Decreased the time for dealerships to receive payment—from one week to 24 hours
- Reduced staff by 66%
- Reduced the time to process returns by 75%
- Approximately 5,000 orders processed annually
Improvements in these key statistics helped pave the way to a better relationship between the logistics company and its customers, creating another benefit.
The capabilities of CMS and the needs of the logistics company resulted in a perfect match. The MyCMS and Service Bureau Labeling solutions have been extremely beneficial and efficient since implementation—continually improving the bottom line and assisting in the creation of a stress-free Order Management process.