Planning and dispatch are vital for wholesale and construction supply businesses. And they’re not as straightforward as they seem. You’re working with a limited number of available trucks, items of widely varying sizes, and customers who need their orders NOW. It’s often a logistical nightmare. ESCs ERP-specific software helps you out of a tight spot.
The Old-Fashioned Scheduling & Dispatch Board
For wholesalers and building supply stores, planning and dispatch are a key part of their business. Customers often expect their orders to be delivered directly to the job site, and a late delivery can sometimes result in additional costs or disrupt their schedule.
And yet, many companies still use a physical ‘board.’ On it, you can see the days of the week with the sales orders taped under the corresponding day. Drivers take a sales order from the board and hit the road. A tradition for many, but it hasn’t been the right tool for handling last-minute orders and changes for quite some time now.
With you ERP for Construction and Technical Wholesale Your planning and dispatch are in your ERP system, where they belong.
Planning & Dispatch in Your ERP System
Planning & Dispatch is a digital dashboard that displays all sales orders that need to be shipped. Using this overview, you can assign individual orders to drivers and select a shipping time.
The software Gathers all orders that need to be shipped into one convenient overview. This overview serves as the planner’s digital workspace. From here, you have access to all the tools you need to efficiently manage shipments:
- Notes regarding delivery are available.
- Routes can be assigned
You can also assign pallet locations to orders based on the items you're shipping. After all, you'd rather send your trucks out fully loaded. That way, you save on shipping costs.
By assigning orders to pallet locations based on their size—which, of course, varies from product to product—you can easily load your trucks in the most cost-effective way possible. Since the dimensions of your items are stored in your ERP system, this allows you to minimize your transportation costs.
