An Opportunity to Expand Revenue

Are you looking for ways to add revenue to your current warehouse or third party logistics company? Then consider adding a cross docking service to your current business plan. Meet customer needs by providing services. According to Steve Avila from Emulex Corporation, 85% of their shipping volume comes from cross docking. The benefits speak for themselves because of no inventory storage and inventory requirements: effectively lowering labor and inventory costs while providing an opportunity to provide a fairly inexpensive method to increase bottom line profits for your organization.

Timothy Egan, the Director of Warehousing for McCain Foods USA, notes that they save twenty to thirty percent in warehouse costs by not holding inventory. The idea is that product is dropped off at one dock and quickly moves out another. You act as an intermediary between drop-off points.

According to Maida Napolitano the editor of Logistics Management, there are several factors to consider if you want to begin providing cross-docking services.

1. 
   Look for suppliers and products that need to move quickly such as perishable products, pre-packed and ready to move. Essential to this idea is to work with product that is easily anticipated and has predictable movement to distribution.
2. Consider your dock –area layout to make sure that product will move quickly and efficiently.
3. Do you have enough docks available and personnel that understand how to expedite the receiving, loading, and exit of the cross-docking process?
4. Other considerations will include sufficient equipment and materials handling capability.
   The opportunity is there, it is up to you to make it come alive.

Source
Warehouse Management: How to be a lean, mean cross-docking machine - 1/1/2007 - Logistics Management