NetSuite Ship Central is a mobile app designed to help businesses streamline operations, remove manual tasks, and speed up customer deliveries by offering comprehensive tools for picking, packing, and shipping products.
“Now, more than ever, warehouse operations are under pressure to increase output without additional resources to do so.” - Evan Goldberg
Oracle NetSuite introduced its latest product, NetSuite Ship Central, during SuiteWorld2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 28, 2022. This announcement by Evan Goldberg, Founder and EVP of Oracle NetSuite, revealed an exciting addition that many organizations anticipate will significantly enhance warehouse operations across various industries.
What is NetSuite Ship Central?
NetSuite Ship Central is an app that aims to help businesses optimize their operations, eliminate unnecessary manual processes, and enhance customer deliveries with seamless capabilities for picking, packing, and shipping. This solution equips warehouse staff with tools they need for picking, packing, and shipping via mobile devices or kiosks, allowing for improved flexibility and accuracy in warehouse tasks. Additionally, the Ship Central app assists warehouse managers in refining the packing and delivery process.
NetSuite Ship Central and WMS
A common question arises about how NetSuite Ship Central will function with NetSuite WMS (the existing Warehouse Management System Module). Through its integration with NetSuite WMS, Ship Central enhances warehouse operations across different SKUs, processes, and locations. It also offers comprehensive capabilities for picking, packing, and shipping.
“As an item is scanned, the WMS mobile application immediately updates or creates the proper transaction and associated inventory data in NetSuite, providing transaction and inventory transparency across the entire organization.” - Oracle NetSuite
The mobile app is anticipated to broaden the capabilities of NetSuite WMS, allowing organizations to improve their fulfillment processes while reducing shipping expenses and transit times. For instance, it removes redundant steps, enabling quicker package selection, optimal shipping carrier identification based on delivery date and location type, accurate label printing, efficient package tracking, and fulfillment documentation preparation.
How can Ship Central Help Companies?
According to NetSuite, organizations utilizing warehouses can gain several advantages from the app, including:
Easy Shipment Location
Shipment Consolidation
Label Printing and Reprinting Anytime
Real-Time Package Tracking
Customizable Shipping Processes
Let’s delve deeper into each of these capabilities:
Easy Shipment Location
Improving operational efficiency in warehouse management often relies on reducing the time needed to find and prepare items for packing and shipping. NetSuite Ship Central allows warehouse workers to swiftly identify and locate shipments by simply scanning a pallet or selecting from a shipment list. This functionality cuts down on the time spent searching for orders and relevant information.
Shipment Consolidation
With NetSuite Ship Central, businesses can recognize products being delivered to the same destination based on shared criteria, such as addresses, carriers, or shipping routes, and bundle these shipments. This results in greater efficiency and lower costs. Once identified, items heading to a common location can be packed together, enhancing overall efficiency. This feature also aids companies dealing with multiple shipping carriers.
Label Printing and Reprinting Anytime
One way NetSuite Ship Central enhances operational efficiency is during the 'pick' stage of the 'pick, pack, and ship' process. Additionally, for the 'pack' and 'ship' stages regarding package labeling, this app boosts efficiency. Companies gain flexibility through the ability to print labels, reprint damaged ones, modify label information, and replace missing labels at any point in the shipping process. This not only speeds up initial labeling but also lessens the chances of packages encountering delays due to labeling issues.
Real-Time Package Tracking
Customers across various sectors desire more transparency regarding their orders, including details of shipping routes and progress. Ship Central allows businesses to provide that visibility by enabling parcel tracking using carrier tracking numbers in real-time. This capability may significantly increase customer trust in a business and allow them to plan effectively around updated estimated delivery times.
Customizable Shipping Processes
As we analyze how Ship Central expedites the pick, pack, and ship process in warehouse operations, a key advantage becomes clear: the ability to adapt workflows to meet unique business needs. This customization allows companies to improve efficiency and offer tailored shipping processes, making them more attractive to potential customers.
Summarizing Benefits for Warehouse Operations
The advantages of NetSuite Ship Central highlighted at its launch include easy shipment consolidation, optimized shipping routes for cost reduction, and customizable workflows to align with business needs. Moreover, during the introduction of the app, Evan Goldberg pointed out that Ship Central provides insights and intelligence to refine the fulfillment process.
“With NetSuite Ship Central, we are extending our capabilities to help customers further automate time-consuming warehouse operations to increase output and efficiencies. By making it easier to consolidate shipments, adjust shipping routes for cost efficiency, and customize workflows to meet business demands, Ship Central provides intelligence and insights to further optimize the fulfillment process, decreasing cost and increasing customer satisfaction.” - Evan Goldberg
Ship Central offers comprehensive capabilities for picking, packing, and shipping products. It streamlines preparation and shipping tasks, assisting organizations in selecting items quickly and determining the most suitable carrier based on different factors, such as delivery dates and locations. Additionally, the mobile app empowers warehouse management to refine fulfillment processes, ultimately reducing delivery times and overall shipping costs.
5 Related Solutions to Explore
Whether your Manufacturing, Distribution/Warehouse, or Wholesale business is currently using NetSuite or you’re just starting to look into it as an ERP solution, here’s a brief list of additional resources that may interest you:
NetSuite WMS Module
Hourly Employee Timeclock for NetSuite
Manufacturing with NetSuite: A Complete Run Through
NetSuite Advanced Manufacturing
NetSuite Wholesale Bulk Order Form
If, after reviewing these resources, you find yourself curious about NetSuite or think any of these solutions may complement your existing NetSuite implementation, explore them further to address your questions.
