Patrick Sedlak and Jeff Mueller Stress Agility for Omni-channel Fulfillment in MHI Solutions Magazine
January 9, 2017 Topics: Media, NewsFlexibiliy and agility are essential for retailers striving to provide a seamless shopping experience across all channels. Principal Patrick Sedlak and Vice President Jeff Mueller are quoted in MHI Solutions magazine on how the distribution center environment is changing – streamlining processes and adding automation – to keep up with customer demand and address peak season challenges.
“Over the past 10 or 15 years, we've seen traditional retailers add e-commerce to their business, which means they had to reconfigure distribution centers to handle picking and packing one or two pieces shipped directly to the consumer versus cases shipped to a store,” Mueller says. However, in the past five years, a new approach has emerged, he adds. “The demand to reconfigure centers has morphed into a demand to create facilities that can handle retail, wholesale and direct-to-consumer in the same location, pulling from the same inventory.”
“The changes affect the entire organization – facilities, equipment, technology and people,” adds Sedlak. “Agility is paramount to supporting omni-channel requirements because the environment is constantly changing.”
