BOLD VAN's DISTRIBUTION ENABLEMENT SYSTEM IS A GAME-CHANGER

By
Molly Goad
February 29, 2024
5 min read
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I recently discovered an attachment for my vacuum that can Swiffer the dog hair and sweep it up all in one. Game-changer. It's a great feeling to cut the time it takes to complete a chore in half.

Let me tell you how you can achieve this sentiment in your business. Your order fulfillment processing time can be significantly reduced with BOLD VAN's distribution enablement system (DES) — a low-cost, versatile application that will change the way your product is shipped.

Streamlining Logistics in a Single Platform

BOLD VAN identified the need for streamlining warehouse management in a single platform. These days, companies are using multiple shipping carriers, and navigating through each shipper's portal is cumbersome. No two carriers are exactly alike, with different EDI requirements and shipping processes. Thus, BOLD VAN created DES to tackle this problem.

DES allows you to manage the entire pick-and-ship process from one place for many types of shipments. DES's compatibility with all major retailers and carriers means gone are the days of logging into multiple carrier and customer sites. You will happily manage the entire operation from one single portal.

DES takes charge of: EDI requirements, creating UCC labels, automating the entire shipping process (including ship notices), dock planning for both deliveries and shipments and finding inefficiencies in your warehouse.

In this article, we expand on a variety of ways DES handles EDI compliance and how it will revolutionize your UCC labeling.

EDI Requirements

EDI compliance is a critical part of product movement, and BOLD VAN DES ensures that it's taken care of for you. You'll be able to send EDI-compliant shipping documents such as advance ship notices and integrate them with all of the major carriers.

Most companies require EDI compliance on the following:

  • UCC-128/GS1 labels. DES creates these based on customer specifications; you can tailor the application to fit your exact needs. (More on UCC labels in the next section.)
  • Advance ship notices (ASN), also known as EDI 856. These documents offer detailed information about a pending delivery. Our DES application pulls the corresponding 20-digit UCC-128/GS1 serial number and inserts it on the 856. This type of coordination is usually manual. Then, when a shipment is received, the customer can scan in all pallets or cartons and know what's inside. Cross-dock shipments — i.e., shipments that go to a distribution center but the cartons inside are marked for different stores — are also included.
  • Packing lists. DES can be customized for these documents as well, making them customer-specific.
  • Drop shipments. DES is able to capture the carrier's (UPS,  FedEx, etc.) tracking number and plug it into ASNs for drop shipments to end-customers.

Whether your company ships to a warehouse, a store or a customer, DES handles all the EDI requirements.

Creating UCC labels

Let's talk about how DES can help streamline the creation of UCC labels. First, the UCC or Uniform Code Council institutes product identification standards across multiple industries and rules for using a barcode to communicate different pieces of information. The rules for labeling packages, products and shipping are very specific, and the UCC label complies with the requirements.UCC labels are needed on shipments to distribution centers or other stores (we aren't talking about drop shipments directly to customers here). Without DES, the UCC number and “ship to” information are manually typed into the label and/or bar code printer application every time a label is created.

Our intuitive DES application makes this process a distant memory. The technology can handle printing either one label per carton, one label per pallet or labels for pick-and-pack shipments. (Pick and pack is a type of order fulfillment that includes boxes of different products inside a larger shipment box; it can include a host of items all going to the same customer.) In each scenario, the supplier simply needs to click the order and select print. DES knows if it should print UPS, FedEx or UCC/GS1 labels based on the carrier information. DES also manages multiple carrier printer locations for integral integrations such as UPS, USPS and FedEx and allows visibility into order size.

For example, Razor USA uses BOLD VAN's DES application to print UPS and FedEx labels. During the busy holiday season, Razor USA prints 5,000 to 10,000 labels a day — a simplified process that is a manual task for most companies. To learn more about how we helped Razor USA, read Case Study: Razor USA.

It's time to see how DES can be your game-changer — contact BOLD VAN: call 844-265-3777, email info@boldvan.com, or start your three-month trial.

Molly Goad
Content Manager

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