With this option, you only pay for the space that the goods actually take up on the shelf, and scaling up or down is usually no problem at all. Moreover, purchasing or renting a warehouse can be very expensive. There are the mortgage or rental costs of the property, but also other costs such as shelving, warehouse equipment, and warehouse staff, which can quickly make owning a warehouse an (unacceptably) high expense for many organizations.
Transparency
Nevertheless, many entrepreneurs feel a little uncomfortable or 'scared' about handing over their stock. This feeling is understandable: after all, the stock is the source of their income. When considering outsourcing the storage of goods, entrepreneurs may feel that they will lose control of their stock and stock management. More and more organizations understand this and are responding by giving customers (back) control over their inventory. Online, they offer customers the possibility to view their inventory in real time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This means that customers are not only fully aware of the current inventory in the warehouse, but also know when it is on its way to or from the warehouse. This gives customers insight into the flow of goods from start to finish and, with that, control over their inventory.
Method
Behind the enabling of total chain registration, there is increasingly an advanced process taking place within an online portal. An example of a company that works with a similar portal is Amazon, but HST Group also works with the same type of online portal. The big advantage for the owner of such an online portal is that it provides exact knowledge of what is coming in and how much space and personnel need to be deployed for this.
1. Advance notification of storage
First, the customer decides that they want to store something with the logistics service provider. By means of an online advance notification, the customer indicates what is coming in, how many goods are involved, and when the goods will arrive. Thanks to the pre-registration, the logistics service provider knows how much space and how many people they need to reserve for storing the goods, and no unnecessary (waiting) costs are incurred. In addition, they can check whether the (new) current stock is correct because they know what goods are coming in. This also gives the logistics service provider time to plan certain actions, such as having products cleared through customs or reserving space in a bunker for storing hazardous goods. From the moment the goods are entered into the portal by means of the pre-notification, they can be tracked online.
2. Stock insight
The goods are received and stored upon unloading. They are then stored in the warehouse in the reserved locations. The customer can see online exactly where in the warehouse and on which rack(s) their goods are located, how many items of all goods are still in stock, and how many goods have been written off and are on their way from the warehouse. The online portal can be used to generate overviews, which can then be used to create reports that make it possible, for example, to determine the "minimum stock."
3. Delivery of goods
When it is time for a number of goods to be delivered somewhere, this can also be arranged online. The portal indicates how much of a particular product needs to be "delivered" and where the products need to go. At HST Group, it is possible to choose between using your own transport, whereby the customer selects a carrier to collect the goods from the warehouse, or having the transport carried out by HST Group. If transport by HST Group is chosen, the customer can track the status of the goods online until they are handed over to the recipient. If the customer chooses their own transport, they can track the status of their goods until the products are handed over to the driver.