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Third Party Logistics Provider (3PL) ERP Package

Descartes 3pl.jpg
Two DCs 3PL.jpg
Highjump 3PL.jpg

Where can it be used?

 

The 3PL ERP Package can be used in the following market segments:

  • Food 3PLs

    • Dry foods

    • Refrigerated foods
    • Frozen foods
  • Non-food 3PLs

Unique characteristics of this market segment

 

The 3PL does normally the following:

  • ​Storing the products at his warehouse
    • The 3PL gets the products from the manufacturer or producer or distributor, and stores them at his own 3PL warehouse
    • The manufacturer/producer (the 3PL customer) pays a storage fee to the 3PL
    • The product stays the property of the 3PL customer (manufacturer, distributor,.). The 3PL doesn't own the product, and never buys it.
  • Distributing the products of the manufacturer to the customers of the manufacturer such as distributors or large customers that use  the products of the manufacturer.

    • The 3PL has his own trucks and truck drivers

    • The 3PL may offer Less Then Truckload (LTL), and consolidate products of several of his clients in one truckload.

    • The 3PL may offer Full Truckload (FTL)

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Examples of 3PL companies:

  • XPO logisitcs

  • ..

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Trucking companies

  • Trucking companies such as Old Dominion, ABF, .. are not 3PLs since they do not store the products, They don't have warehouses. They just have trucks. They are carriers of goods. If a manufacturer wants his goods trucked from his plants to his distribution centers and his customers, he may just use trucking companies.

  • Shippers which handle the shipping paperwork for their customers eg. manufacturers contact carriers. A land carrier could be a trucking company or railway company. You also have ocean carriers and air carriers.

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UPS, FEDEX and DHL are not 3 PLs since they handle the packaging but, they are close to be a 3PL.

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ERP Requirements from a 3PL

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In general the ERP requirements of a 3PL are as follows:

  • Finance

    • General Ledger

    • Banking and Cash management

    • Accounts Receivable

    • Accounts Payable

  • Distribution

    • Inventory management (consignment of inventory by the 3PL customer)

    • Sales/Shipping order managemen

      • Transport a load of products from the customer (eg manufacturer) to the 3PL warehouse, and later from the 3PL warehouse to customers of the customer eg manufacturer, distributors, large chain stores, .. on a particular date

    • No purchasing of products.

  • CRM

  • HR: Payroll

  • Fixed Assets

    • Trucks

    • Warehouses

    • Truck garage for maintenance

    • Forklifts

  • Fleet maintenance management

  • Warehouse Management System (WMS)

  • Transport Management System (TMS)

    • Assign end customer loads to a truck

    • Create optimum route for the truck serving his customers

    • Assigning a driver to a truck

    • Tracking the location of a truck using GPS tracking

  • Shipping Management System

    • Bill of laden

    • ​

Components of ERP Package

 

The Wholesale Distributor of Consumer Products ERP Package may consist of the following components:

  • Acumatica Distribution Edition

    • Acumatica ERP Foundation:

      • Finance suite and Distribution suite

      • Monitoring and Automation

      • Advanced fulfillment: pick, pack and ship

  • Optional Acumatica ERP Foundation applications

  • ​Optional integrated Independent Software Vendor (ISV) applications:
    • ISV applications for addtional features of an existing Acumatica ERP module/workspace

      • Finance

        • ​Advanced Financial Reporting: FYIsoft, BI360

        • Sales tax Management: Avalara Tax, Vertex Sales Tax Solution

        • ​

      • Distribution

        • ​Inventory Management :NetStock, EasyStock, ..

        • Sales Order management: 

          • ​Customer payment processing: American Payment Systems, Century Business Solutions (EBizCharge), Kensium AcuCharge

          • EDI gateway: B2BGateway, SPS Commerce Fulfillment, EdiSoft

        • Purchase Order management:​

          • ​Advanced Purchase Order management: Paramount Workplace

          • Vendor payment processing: AvidXchange, Artsyl, uplevl

      • Contract management with customers: MaxQ Technologies​​​, 

      • Fixed asset management: Bimser Beam, 

      • Document Management Systems:

        • Document scanning and repository: SDSI Unform, 

        • Signing documents electronically: Adobe  E-Sign,

      • Quality Management

        • Bimser International: QDMS​

      • ​Click here to to see the webpages of all above ISV applications.

    • ISV applications for providing specific industry applications

      • Warehouse Management:

        • Product scan application (Scanco, Savant, FusionScan,..)

        • Warehouse Management System (WMS): Fusion WMS, Scanco, Savant, HighJump, RIC Group WMS

      • Transportation Management:

      • Shipping Management: Processweaver and video

      • Click here to to see the webpages of all above ISV applications.

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Shipping Management

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The shipping management application of Processweaver is integrated with the Acumatica ERP.

The video (10 mins,      ) below shows you an overview of its features.

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