A new report from Aberdeen Group, On-Time and Under Budget: Maximizing Profits with Efficient Warehouse Management, looks at the ways that companies help profitability by improving efficiency and avoiding errors in their order fulfillment operations.

"At a time when credit is tight and capital expenditures are under heavy scrutiny, the costs associated with achieving high quality in order fulfillment cannot be ignored," says Nari Viswanathan, vice president and principal analyst at Aberdeen. In this study, top performers were distinguished from their peers based on three performance measures: order-pick accuracy, inventory accuracy, and performance against established budget. This approach goes beyond standard quality measures, and recognizes that the real leaders are those companies that are able to achieve high quality while keeping costs in check.

For a majority of responding companies, the need to reduce operating expenses is a top driver for their focus on warehouse management. "For most companies, improvement efforts start with a focus on efficiencies in the order fulfillment process," says Scott Pezza, research associate, Aberdeen. "Even those who are currently leading the pack when it comes to overall performance are looking to further streamline their operations, and make better use of the resources they have on hand."

The full report describes specific capabilities and technologies used by leading companies to support their warehouse operations.

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