Bonded Logistics, Author at Bonded Logistics

Glass Warehouse Initiative – Visibility through Data (Analytics)

I am excited to bring you my last of four posts breaking down the blueprint behind our Glass Warehouse Initiative. If you haven’t already read the background or my previous posts (click here), I would encourage you to start there to better understand what I am discussing. If you are skipping ahead, this initiative was developed to give our clients visibility into the logistics services we provide. We broke it down into three key areas of focus – systems, technology, and data. Each has played an integral part in creating transparency throughout our facilities, from receiving and shipping to managing inventory and data analytics.

My focus for this last post will be how the Glass Warehouse Initiative is enabling our clients to have visibility into the data that flows throughout our warehouses. We’ve invested heavily in resources to be able to make this a reality, including advanced systems, connected technology, and innovative data analytics.

Our warehouse management system (WMS) Cadence, designed by Cadre Technologies, is a robust system that aggregates data from different sources such as ERP systems, warehouse technology, and shipping software. It captures all the detail transactions revolving around the inventory movement of our customers’ product. Every receipt that happens against a product, every shipment that happens against the product, where products get shipped to, where products got sent from, lot numbers, expiration dates, tracking and tracing information, all this detail is maintained at some point in our system. That means there is a wealth of data inside the WMS that we are able to provide and analyze for our customers.

In order for our clients to be able to see this data, we designed a secure, propriety customer web portal called BLI Web. This system makes this data available in real-time for our clients to view, with access 24/7 to see what’s going on inside our facilities. And to make sure this data is constantly available and protected, we house our core servers at a world class data center that allows us to enhance the scalability and security of our infrastructure.

Technology in the 3PL world is nothing new, but connected technology has enabled us to gain a tremendous advantage in visibility on the warehouse floor. This technology takes on many forms, such as RF guns for scanning inventory in and out, unique barcode printers for specific labeling, tablets for conducting physical inventories, and wireless warehouses to make sure information is flowing in real time. Connected technology allows for data transactions to be captured by Cadence and immediately be visible in BLI Web, allowing customers access to what’s going on with their inventory and orders.

Both systems and technology enable the visibility to the data, but what we are finding most important is our client’s ability to analyze this data. This starts with utilizing our web portal to generate reports that detail receipts, shipments, and inventory. A historical data perspective is important to see what we shipped last week, last month, last year, but the challenge now is that things are happening so fast that we have to provide that same analytical work for today’s activities. For instance, we have 500 orders going to the West Coast, we can figure out what’s the optimal way to load those trucks, and to do that in the speed of today’s business.

Data analytics gets interesting when talking to customers with helping them understand the movement and velocity of product, while also helping us to slot product in the warehouse. Customers can look at it from an inventory replenishment standpoint, understanding how often they need to replace product. And this takes us into the next phase of this, which is to be able to not only show the fast-moving items, but also show if there was an out-of-stock item. This has been eye-opening to some customers that they were actually out-of-stock of fast-moving items for multiple days during a month. This decreases their sales and increases their backorders with their customers, and their customer service levels go down.

Something I am really looking forward to is working with new business intelligence tools that allow us to bring data together from our WMS as well as labor management, payroll and financial systems. We will be able to analyze this aggregated data, looking at it from different standpoints like transportation, inventory, worker productivity, and warehouse slotting. Pulling data from multiple areas like this will help us make better decisions about making improvements to our customers’ supply chain. And that’s really what we’re all about.

Does your logistics’ partner offer up this kind of visibility with your data? If not, reach out to us so we can start a conversation about how we can help.

3PL Bonded Logistics Unveils New, Redesigned Website

Intuitive design, user-friendly navigation, and updated content highlight upgrades to www.bondedlogistics.com

CHARLOTTE, NC (December 13, 2016) – Bonded Logistics, a privately-owned global third-party logistics (3PL) provider, has unveiled a new, redesigned company website at www.bondedlogistics.com. Upgrades include an intuitive design and user-friendly navigation, fresh content and graphics, as well as several new features designed to showcase the company as a leading supplier of supply chain management solutions.

“We really like the way the new website has turned out,” stated Scott Carr, President of Bonded Logistics. “It was due for a new look and feel, and what we’ve put together definitely provides that. The updated content and images really help to tell our company’s story and the outstanding logistics services we provide. The new resources section is a great place for us to showcase the benefits of the 3PL industry. I really appreciate the hard work from everyone to get it done.”

“The updated content and images really help to tell our company’s story and the outstanding logistics services we provide.”
– Scott Carr, President, Bonded Logistics

Major enhancements to the website include an adaptive design for easy viewing on smartphones and tablets as well as a simplified layout to improve the user experience. There has also been upgrades to the content and images to better describe and illustrate the company’s background, its divisions and services, along with the benefits of working with 3PL providers.

The new user experience starts with a sleek home page designed to give visitors a complete overview of the company. Each of the three divisions – warehousing, its packaging division Bonded Pac, and transportation – are clearly outlined with a background on core services, benefits, latest news, and testimonials. Core services pages have also been enhanced with a detailed overview, capabilities, and recent solutions showing why companies have chosen Bonded for their outsourced logistics.

Several new features have also been added including an in-depth technology section highlighting the company’s best-in-class systems, innovative equipment, and web visibility tools. This is also where the company’s Glass Warehouse Initiative, a push for complete visibility across its operations, is highlighted in detail. The locations page has been overhauled with details and maps showing facility locations. A resources section has also been added for company and industry news, a company blog, case studies, white papers, and videos to help highlight why companies choose 3PL providers like Bonded to build their business.

“A strong web presence is critical for businesses,” stated Jan McCormick, Jr., Marketing Director at Bonded Logistics. “It’s typically the first place people go when researching a company. This new site really helps to illustrate our company, divisions, and core logistics services. It also opens up so much for us in terms of versatility and content creation. There’s a lot we’ve got to say about 3PL’s and the benefits our customers get from working with us.”

The redesigned website was developed in partnership with Sublmnl Design, a full-service design studio based in Concord, NC, that focuses on delivering creative solutions for brands. To learn more, visit www.sublmnldesign.com.

Beacon Partners signs anchor tenant at Metrolina Park

Charlotte-based Beacon Partners has signed its anchor tenant at Metrolina Park, a master-planned industrial park on a former fairgrounds site in north Charlotte.

Bonded Logistics, a third-party logistics company headquartered in Charlotte, will lease 371,895 square feet in Building 2, at 5224 Gibbon Road, in the park. The 95-acre site along Statesville Road was formerly home to Metrolina Expo before Beacon Partners purchased the property in June. When built out, Metrolina Park will have 1.2 million square feet of manufacturing and logistics space.

Privately-owned Bonded Logistics integrates warehousing, packaging and transportation logistics to offer customized supply chain solutions. Established in 1972, Bonded Logistics has grown from one 30,000-square-foot facility to more than 2 million square feet of public, contract and leased space in 13 locations, with more than 300 employees across its footprint.

Bonded Logistics and Beacon Partners have a 20-year relationship, with Bonded having leased space in several buildings owned and managed by Beacon Partners.

“We are very excited to expand our warehousing footprint here in Charlotte,” said Scott Carr, president of Bonded Logistics, in a statement. “The city has become a major hub in the Southeast for companies in need of logistics services. This building is a perfect location as it sits next to several of our other facilities, creating a campus atmosphere that encompasses over 750,000 square feet.”

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Glass Warehouse Initiative – Visibility in Shipping Orders

By Dave Jesse, COO

I’m excited to continue to break down the blueprint behind our Glass Warehouse Initiative with my third of four posts on the topic. If you haven’t already read the initial press release (click here) or my first or second post (click here), I would encourage you to read these first to better understand what I am discussing. If you are skipping ahead, our Glass Warehouse Initiative was developed to give our clients valuable insight into the logistics we provide for their supply chain. It breaks down into three key areas of focus – systems, technology, and data. Each plays an integral part in creating visibility throughout our facilities, from receiving and shipping to managing inventory and data analytics.

What I will focus on for this third post will be how the Glass Warehouse Initiative enables our clients to have visibility into fulfillment and shipping orders. Shipping orders out of our facilities starts with the robust systems we’ve put in place. Utilizing Cadence, our WMS (warehouse management system) from Cadre Technologies, dedicated CSR’s (customer service reps) process and release orders as they come from various ERP systems such as Oracle and SAP or via email or even phone calls. Our WMS confirms the products being picked are available, creates a physical picklist for the order, prepares any shipping labels for printing, and waves the order to a wireless RF-gun. It also provides visibility through our customer web portal, BLI Web, that the order has been received and is in the fulfillment process.

Order pickers on a forklift head out to our Wi-Fi-enabled warehouse floor with an RF-gun in hand. The WMS determines the most efficient pick path to pick everything needed to fulfill the order as quickly as possible. When the picker arrives at each location, he scans the location Mu (see first blog post) and confirms the quantity he is picking for the order. This instantly updates in Cadence WMS and BLI Web, providing visibility of available inventory to the customer. Once that has been done for each item, the order is dropped in the proper shipping lane and the shipping lane bar code is scanned confirming the order is now ready for loading. When the entire order is picked, our WMS automatically generates a packlist with all the products on the order and changes the order status to COMPLETE in BLI Web. Based upon customer requirements, customized shipping labels are created to meet client’s standards or vendor compliance and placed with the order.

It’s the responsibility of the quality control checker on the loading dock to systematically double-check everything on the order dropped off by the picker. They do a full account of everything by verifying the packlist against what’s on the dock as well as ensuring all labeling is correct. Currently, this is done with a mix of manual procedures and tablet technology, with a full transition to tablets by early 2017 to further streamline the process.

The final part of shipping orders is the movement of the orders onto the trailers. Trucks typically arrive through scheduling by Bonded Transportation or our client’s carrier. With the trailer at the dock door, our loaders scan the label on the pallet and then scan the dock door to confirm the correct trailer. Once complete, a VICS bill of lading (BOL) is printed to confirm what is on the trailer, who it’s from, and where it is going. This is signed by the driver and returned to us so we can update Cadence and BLI Web that the order has shipped. Each BOL is then scanned using state-of-the-art copiers that identify and match the BOL with the order using OCR (optical character recognition) technology. This allows our clients immediate visibility to shipment and tracking information through BLI Web.

Inventory demand data is analyzed monthly to assign velocity codes to all items in the warehouse. We utilize this data to help determine the best layout of the warehouse by looking at velocity and placing inventory in the optimal locations for picking. What our clients like to see is not only the order velocity but also geographic location of shipments, transportation analytics, and gauging inventory levels based on slow and fast moving sku’s. This allows them to better manage their transportation spend and make sure product is available so orders can be processed quickly.

Does your logistics’ partner offer up this kind of visibility when shipping out orders? If not, reach out to us so we can start a conversation about how we can help.

Bonded Logistics Packs 6,000 Shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child

CHARLOTTE, NC (October 13, 2016) – Bonded Logistics, a privately-owned global third-party logistics (3PL) provider, packed a company-record 6,000 shoeboxes during its annual Operation Christmas Child outreach event held last Saturday. This was due in large part to the over 100 employees and family members that volunteered for the Samaritan’s Purse project, which delivers the shoeboxes to needy children affected by war, poverty, natural disaster, famine, and disease.

“What a great turnout for our fourth annual Operation Christmas Child packing party,” stated Scott Carr, President of Bonded Logistics. “It’s amazing to see the growth from the effort we’ve put into this project each year. This is an extremely worthy cause that we are helping with, and we couldn’t be more proud of our results. This project is incredibly important to us as an organization, and we are humbled and honored for the opportunity to be able to provide these shoeboxes for children in need. Special thanks to my sister Barbara (Carr Woodall) for working so hard to put this together, the Bonded Outreach Team, and everyone who came out and volunteered their time to help.”

This marks the fourth year in a row that Bonded Logistics has participated in Operation Christmas Child, with a total of 13,000 shoeboxes packed to-date. Bonded’s Community Outreach Team, led by Executive Vice President Barbara Carr Woodall, started ordering supplies in March to ensure everything arrived in time for the pack-out. Shoeboxes this year packed for boys and girls included 18 items such as socks, a shirt, a toothbrush, crayons, a notepad, coloring pages, a stuffed animal, and several toys. Employees and family members spent the morning at Bonded Pac, the contract packaging division of Bonded Logistics, working assembly stations and packaging lines, just as the facility functions every day when working on projects for its clients.

Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization headed by Franklin Graham. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected and delivered more than 135 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in more than 150 countries and territories. More than 500,000 volunteers worldwide—with more than 150,000 of those in the United States—are involved in collecting, shipping and distributing shoeboxes.

“This event at Bonded just keeps growing and growing,” said Keith Burney, Regional Director – Carolinas for Operation Christmas Child and Samaritan’s Purse. “These boxes are going to the darkest corners of the world. We’ve got partners in these countries that are able to share the good news through these boxes to the children in those areas. These boxes are changing lives, changing families, and changing communities. We want to thank everyone at Bonded for participating in Operation Christmas Child.”

National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child is scheduled for November 14-21. If you are interested in donating time or items to be used in the boxes, visit www.samaritanspurse.org/occ.

Bonded Logistics Announces New Hires at Warehousing Facilities

CHARLOTTE, NC (September 27, 2016) – Bonded Logistics, a privately-owned global third-party logistics (3PL) provider, announced today new hires Scott Grendahl to General Manager and Holly Allred to Department Manager at its 7320 Statesville Road location, and Holly White to Department Manager at its 5130 Hovis Road location.

Scott Grendahl

Grendahl brings over 30 years of experience in distribution management and transportation to Bonded Logistics. Most recently, he worked as Building and Transportation Manager for Rite Aid, and prior to that held operations and distribution positions with Brooks and Eckerd. Grendahl assumes the role of General Manager at 7320 and will oversee customer relationships, productivity, quality, safety, and continuous improvement. He will report to Jeff Jaeger, Vice President of Operations at Bonded Logistics.

“We are very excited to have Scott join our team,” stated Jaeger. “Our 7320 location is one of our busiest and serves as a distribution center for several clients. Scott brings over 30 years of increasing responsibility in warehousing and operations in managing large-scale facilities. He has a great demeanor and relates well to customers and employees.”

Holly Allred

Allred also joins Bonded Logistics from Rite Aid, where she spent the last 20 years as Department Manager in several areas including inbound and replenishment, pharmacy, transportation, and returns. Allred assumes the role of Department Manager at 7320 and will be responsible for a variety of facility departments including shipping and receiving. She will report to Jonathan Childers, Facility Manager.

Holly White

White joins Bonded Logistics from Rite Aid as well, where she spent the last two years as Department Manager working in shipping and returns. White assumes the role of Department Manager at 5130 and will oversee areas such as order picking, shipping, and receiving. She will report to Jose Davila, Facility Manager at 5130.

“Our experienced employees are what make the difference for us in this business,” said Scott Carr, President of Bonded Logistics. “We do everything we can to offer best-in-class services for our clients, and employees like Scott and both Holly’s will continue to help us do that. We’re proud to have them onboard at Bonded.”

Bonded Pac Boosts Packaging Credentials with Key New Hires

CHARLOTTE, NC (August 11, 2016) – Bonded Pac, the contract packaging division of third-party logistics (3PL) provider Bonded Logistics, announced today new hires of manufacturing and production industry veterans Bob Skibbe to Senior Production Manager and Kelly York to Key Account Manager.

Bob Skibbe

B. Skibbe
Bob Skibbe joins Bonded Pac from AkzoNobel Specialty Plastics, where he spent the last 10 years as Production Manager. Prior to that, he held various positions with Intelicoat Technologies. Skibbe assumes the role of Senior Production Manager and will be responsible for all aspects of production (production control, quality, process engineering) as well as equipment sourcing and developing new capabilities. He will report to Jon Hayward, Vice President of Bonded Pac.

Kelly York

Kelly York comes to Bonded Pac with over 25 years of production experience in the apparel manufacturing industry. Prior to joining Bonded, York spent 17 years in multiple positions with Hanesbrands, Inc., most recently as Distribution Project Manager. He fills a recently added second Key Account Manager position at Bonded Pac, and will be responsible for project management as well as organic customer growth. He will also report directly to Hayward.

K. York
“Both Bob and Kelly bring a tremendous amount of experience to (Bonded) Pac,” stated Hayward. “I worked closely with Bob earlier in my career. He was a difference maker in a highly technical operation and well known for his work ethic, technical knowledge and strong leadership skills.

“Kelly understands contract packaging from a customer perspective. Having previously sourced services from firms like ours, he knows what is important and has a unique perspective on how to create a great experience. This, coupled with his impressive experience in distribution, project planning and logistics, makes him an excellent addition to our team.”

Glass Warehouse Initiative – Visibility in Managing Inventory

By Dave Jesse, COO

We continue to break down the blueprint behind our Glass Warehouse Initiative with my second of four posts on the subject. If you haven’t already read the initial press release (here) or my first post (here), I would encourage you to check out both to get a better understanding of what I am discussing. If you are skipping ahead, our Glass Warehouse Initiative was developed to make sure its clients get valuable insight into their supply chain. It breaks down into three key areas of focus for us – systems, technology, and data. Each plays an integral part in creating visibility throughout our facilities, from receiving and shipping to managing inventory and data analytics.

My focus for this second post will be to discuss how the Glass Warehouse Initiative enables our clients visibility in managing inventory. In plain terms, inventory management allows companies to oversee the constant flow of units into and out of an existing inventory. That can be a very difficult task, especia lly when you have clients like ours with thousands of SKU’s.

Luckily, Bonded has put in place a robust set of systems to make it easy for clients to manage inventory in our warehouses. This ability centers around our warehouse management system (WMS) from Cadre Technologies. Our WMS helps us accurately manage inventory by tracking orders, shipments, and workflows by aggregating data from multiple sources such as client ERP systems and shipping software. Additionally, we store this information on our cloud-based server systems to improve performance and reliability as well as reduce costs.

These systems are able to operate efficiently because of the investment we’ve made in technology. This technology takes on many forms throughout our facilities, such as RF guns for scanning inventory in and out, barcode printers for labeling, tablets for conducing physical inventories (more on this in a minute), and RF-enabled wireless warehouses to ensure data transactions are updated in real-time.

As you can imagine, these systems and technologies generate a lot of data. Through our propriety internet web portal called BLI Web, we make this data available to our clients for easy access to view inventories. Here, customized reports are available to check inventory on hand, see what’s been picked and shipped, view out-of-stock inventory, and set min/max inventory levels to make sure you never run out of product for orders.

Another aspect of managing inventory that has been realized through the Glass Warehouse Initiative is our ability to improve our physical inventory process. Physical inventory counts are typically a long, drawn out process done once a year that involves a lot of paperwork and manual labor. But now, utilizing our WMS, BLI Web, and tablets, we have totally overhauled this process to make it quicker, less labor intensive, and much more accurate.

To help illustrate this, we had one of our largest clients come in to do a physical inventory audit earlier this month. Last year, we did a trial run using the tablets and they were excited to not just be able to see the counts updated in real-time, but the speed and accuracy of the entire process. This year, we opted to do the entire inventory using the tablets and cut the time it took almost in half with half the labor. This provided a tremendous cost savings and reduced warehouse downtime, which allowed us to begin shipping orders sooner.

What this has shown our clients is that because we have been so successful with accuracy for these physical counts, we can now incorporate more cycle counting throughout the year and eliminate the need for physical inventories all together. Imagine how much time, personnel, and money that would save!

Does your logistics partner offer up this kind of visibility? If not, reach out to us so we can discuss how we can help!

Q&A: CPG Customer on the Benefits of Outsourcing Packaging

By Jan McCormick, Jr., Marketing Director

One of the best parts about my job as Marketing Director at Bonded is that I get the opportunity to talk to a lot of interesting people that work in our industry. I had the chance to speak with one of our Bonded Pac CPG customers, a Product Manager with a Fortune 500 company, to learn more about their decision to work with us. The answers provide some great perspective on not only that decision, but more significantly how outsourcing packaging has helped grow their business. Hope you get out of it as much as I did!

Tell us a little bit about your role and the type of packaging projects you work on?

My role here is as a Distribution Product Manager. I have responsibility for all of our promotional shipper display projects. That would include floor stand displays, table-top or end-cap type displays, as well as pallet displays for clubs.

What made you decide to look into outsourcing packaging for your company?

The driving factor behind this was that we acquired another brand and moved all of their distribution to another one of our facilities. In doing that, there was more of a premium put on pick-pack space than shipper-build space because our shipper-builds typically tend to be very seasonal, except for some of our replenishment programs, which are for the most part one-off programs. We could not justify dedicating the space within the facility to have for building these internally. That’s what drove us to try and source a contract packager that could pack these out for us.

What were your requirements when looking for a co-packer? What was most important for you?

We needed someone who was regionally acceptable. We didn’t want to ship all of our product all over the nation trying to get it packed. We were looking for someone who’s cost would be in-line with what our expectation was as far as comparing it to what it would cost us to do it, understanding that there was the possibility of a premium for having to source someone to do it. We also needed someone who was flexible enough to be able to do these one-off projects because they were pretty seasonal.

How did Bonded Pac get involved?

What drove us to Bonded Pac is that we were packing out all of our shippers at a competitor in the area. About a month before pack-out on one of our very large projects, they let us know they could not complete the pack out in time to meet our upcoming ship date. We were in a bind to find another co-packer and Bill (Gilmore, PAC Sales Manager) had been to our facility the previous week. We asked him and Jon (Hayward, PAC Vice President) to come for a meeting, told them what we needed, and they said they could do it. Bonded was able to perform and deliver what we needed in a very short time frame and turn-around, with little to no warning. That was pretty impressive to us as a CPG customer. That’s basically how we got our relationship started.

How has the experience been working with us since that first project?

Anything we have asked you guys to do, we’ve been extremely pleased with the outcome. Every step of the process, Bonded has pretty much buttoned up. Anytime we have a project come up, I have absolutely no concerns about sending them to Bonded because I know the project is in good hands with your group. Your follow-up and attention to detail on everything has been superb.

What’s been one of the best parts of utilizing a co-packer like Bonded PAC?

The convenience of having Pac close by for quick, turn-around times, but also the ability to go to the contractor and be able to have conversations at a moment’s notice, or take a look at a problem and figure out how we correct it without having to do it through email or overnight or travel. Those are very big benefits. Resolution time for any project would be the big kicker. We can turn something around in a day depending on the size and the need.

If you are a CPG manufacturer and tend to not have a lot of issues with product availability, I think it becomes an exercise in thinking, how much would it cost me if I have to do any kind of packaging, whether that’s blister, or having to put on hangers, or into a poly-bag, how much is it going to cost me to purchase the equipment, find the floor space, and get the labor, versus going to a contract packager. That’s the value proposition.

Has outsourcing packaging changed the way you do business?

At this point, we don’t even think about doing any (display) projects in-house because of our space constraints. However, working with Bonded has also allowed us to look at other kinds of projects for what we term standard packaging. Our product already comes to us packaged ready for the consumer. Occasionally, we have product that is not packaged properly, or we have a packaging change and have to pull product to completely change the packaging on it. We have run some of these bulk packaging projects through you guys and had very good success with it.

What we have learned is that even though we have our own in-house resources, we know that we don’t have to solely rely on us. We now have other options out there based on your performance. What it’s allowed us to do is say, hey, we might be able to take on more, different types of projects because we know have a resource that we can use to ramp up our capacity if needed.

Are you ready to take on more and grow your business? If so, Bonded Pac can help by taking care of your packaging efforts and streamlining your supply chain. Reach out to us today to get started!

Bonded Logistics Completes ISO 9001 Recertification, Adds Two Facilities to Certificate

CHARLOTTE, NC (June 21, 2016) – Bonded Logistics, a customer-focused third-party logistics (3PL) provider headquartered in Charlotte, NC announced today that the company has been recertified by the Management Certification of North America (MCNA) to the ISO 9001 Standard. This is after an extensive five-day audit, which included a recommendation by the global registrar to add two facilities to Bonded’s certificate.

“Recertification to the ISO 9001 Standard is a great accomplishment,” stated Scott Carr, president of the privately owned supply chain management company. “This is only possible due to the efforts of each and every one of our team members involved with the process.”

The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 9001 Standard provides guidance and tools across various aspects of quality management to help companies be more efficient and effective. This ISO 9001 recertification audit, which took place in the first quarter of 2016, covered five days and six locations. The MCNA auditor reviewed documentation and processes for 20 different elements such as contracts, inventory control, labeling, corrective actions, and training.

“ISO certification provides a systematic control of activities that ensure the needs and expectations of our clients are met,” stated Wallace Everett, who was hired in 2014 as Quality Administrator/Project Manager for Bonded Logistics. “This recertification shows our commitment to meet those needs at a very high level for both accuracy and efficiency.”

In addition to the recertification, the MCNA auditor toured two additional facilities that Bonded had been preparing for ISO certification. The first facility, located in Salisbury, NC, opened in July of last year with processes and documentation that met ISO standards with certification in mind. The second facility, located in south Charlotte, has been part of the Bonded footprint since 2006 and already had work instructions and documentation in place based on customer needs. Bonded took this opportunity to start writing additional work instructions utilizing tools from the ISO quality toolbox to implement all of the programs necessary to meet the ISO standard.

This ISO 9001 recertification, coupled with the two additional facilities, means that 8 of 14 Bonded locations meet the ISO Standard. “Our long term goal is to get all of our facilities certified under ISO standards,” added Carr. “We see it as vital to not only how we run our business more efficiently, but to provide a better way to help meet or exceed our customers’ needs.”

Bonded Logistics expands operations, surpasses 2 million sq. ft. milestone

CHARLOTTE, NC (May 3, 2016) – Bonded Logistics, a full service third party logistics (3PL) provider, continues to expand its operations with the opening of three facilities in the first quarter of 2016. As a result, the Charlotte-based company increased its footprint in North Carolina to 14 locations and surpassed 2 million sq. ft. of facility space.

“We’ve had a great start to 2016,” stated Scott Carr, President of the privately-owned supply chain management company. “Opening three facilities in such a short period of time was a major undertaking, especially when they were in different locations with their own unique sets of challenges. The success of this accomplishment is due to the great group of people we have working here at Bonded.”

The first of the three locations to open was a 133,000 sq. ft. facility in Belmont, NC, at the beginning of the year. A public warehousing space with 16 loading docks and 28 foot ceilings leased by Bonded Logistics, it’s primary purpose was to help a current customer in the food service and packaging industry consolidate an inventory of finished goods that had spread across a number of facilities.

“The business with this client had grown significantly and it made sense to bring everything under one roof,” said Sean Kelley, VP of Business Development for Bonded Logistics. “The transition was smooth and easy, and we were even able to get them close to the Interstate 85 corridor to reduce transit times.”

The second to open was a brand new 134,000 sq. ft. dedicated facility in Mebane, NC in March. Working in partnership with a new client, an automotive parts manufacturer, Bonded was responsible for oversight of the construction and is now in charge of overall operations. The location, which has 22 loading docks and 26 employees, aggregates materials from nearby manufacturing facilities to provide manufacturing support for a third facility that produces finished goods.

The most recent location is a 200,000 sq. ft. dedicated facility in Newton, NC, for the same new client. With 28 dock doors and a staff of 45, Bonded won an RFQ to handle operations of the facility that provides plant and manufacturing support for a separate unit of business.

“We are honored by our client’s decision to commit to us and are fully focused on their needs,” added Carr, who’s been at the helm of Bonded since 2002. “It says something about our investment in technology as well as our commitment to providing great customer service. Our customers definitely see the value and know they can rely on us for supply chain excellence. We continue to be excited about future growth.”

Four critical components to creating successful POP displays

By Kara Jesse, Key Accounts Manager at Bonded Pac

POP (point-of-purchase) displays are a great way to make your product stand out in a sea of retail clutter. We see a lot of displays come through our facility across a variety of industries and a wide range of customers. Most are temporary, some are permanent, and they range in size from large pallet and floor displays to small counter-top displays. What we’ve discovered through all this work is that there are four critical components to creating successful POP displays – design, assembly, fulfillment, and distribution. I’m excited to share some thoughts on how each plays an integral role in the process.

Design

The design of a POP display must take into account many different aspects. You first have to ensure that what you will be creating meets retailer compliance and specifications. After all, if they don’t let you put the POP display in their store, you’ll never get a chance to sell your product. Another important factor when designing a display is making it visually appealing to the customer. Consumer behavior studies have shown you have about 5 seconds to grab the consumer’s attention and make a connection. The good news, over 75% of retail shoppers going to a store don’t come with a list so there is plenty of opportunity to influence. Whether you are supplying the renderings or outsourcing a co-packer like us for design work, it’s important to make sure you are clearly showcasing how your product is different and unique.

The design phase is also the time to source physical materials that will make the display structure. This can include anything from corrugated box framing for temporary displays to metal framing for permanent displays. When working out these details, it’s also important to think about distribution (how it will be shipped) and incorporate that aspect into the design. Most likely they are going out on pallets fully assembled or as kits, so you want to make sure the final packaging of the display built around it will keep it secure and safe during transportation.

Assembly

Once you have the design approved and sourced, it’s time to move on to assembly. Two of the biggest issues most companies run into when assembling POP displays is space and labor. Space at manufacturing and distribution centers is usually very tight, so companies outsource to contract packers like Bonded Pac because we have flexibility to scale up or down based on the size of the job. For example, we may use our expandable production space for nine different lines going with nine different projects one week; but the next week it could have many of those lines working on the same project.

When it comes to labor, this is another tricky area that most companies don’t want to have to deal with because it can come with lots of headaches. Instead, they lean on contract packers like us who can scale up or down utilizing temporary, part-time or full-time employees.

In addition to space and labor, another important part of assembly is actually how the display is pieced together. POP displays are getting more and more intricate as technology advances, but that doesn’t necessarily make the assembly process easier. That’s where co-packers like us come in handy because of our experience and expertise working on so many different projects. We’ve figured out how to create an optimal process that will keep the labor down (less workers = less expense) while increasing productivity.

Before we move on to fulfillment, it’s important to discuss the quality control aspect of a project because it plays a vital role in both of these phases. Typically, we put together a quality control plan prior to a project even starting. To take it a step further, we have line leaders on each line overseeing quality control as well as a floor supervisor overseeing all the lines to double-check the work and make sure everything going out looks great.

Fulfillment

Fulfillment in our industry is a broad term, but for this post I’m going to associate it with the process of packing out the display with product. This is typically done in unison with assembly of the display to keep costs down. This is important to note because pricing is based on the number of hands touching a project. You can imagine how much that would increase if we had to assemble a display, store it, then pack it out later and have to deal with double-handling charges.

Similar to assembly, space and labor are vitally important to getting product packed onto the display. It’s best to continue with fulfillment right after the assembly if you can make it work, utilizing nearby space with just the necessary labor. Again, this is where experience and expertise help with work flow. We’ve done small projects with just a few SKUs to major projects with hundreds of SKUs. Making sure everything is staged correctly when it comes time to pack out the POP display is vital to the fulfillment phase.

Another key component of fulfillment for us is inventory management. There are many times where we get products well in advance of putting the displays together. This can happen because the project could be ongoing, or just because the client doesn’t have space at their manufacturing facility. Either way, we utilize the 215,000 sq. ft. of our warehouse space to store these products until they are needed. We even have the ability when necessary to incorporate lot traceability and expiry date control if the product warrants it.

Distribution

Distribution can vary based on where the POP displays are going and what timing looks like. For the most part, we use our 34 dock doors to ship POP displays back to customer’s distribution centers so they can group these with bigger loads shipped to retail stores. If the customer doesn’t have a distribution center, we work with our distribution division to assist in this effort from any one of our 11 facilities.

There are also times we have major rollouts or timing is tight and it’s easier to drop-ship POP displays directly to the retailer to get them in front of customers quicker. In this case, the retailer typically has a preferred fleet they use depending on whether it’s a truckload or LTL shipment. When there isn’t a preferred vendor, we can utilize our transportation division to help take care of this need.

We have found that Charlotte, NC, is a perfect city for distribution. The mid-Atlantic location is within a half-day’s drive from major ports like Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston, and Savannah. And we can reach most east coast and mid-west metropolitan cities within a day’s drive thanks to major arteries like I-77 and I-85. We even have a world-class international airport minutes away for air-drop shipments.

Hopefully this post has helped you gain a little more insight into the importance of design, assembly, fulfillment, and distribution when creating successful POP displays. If you would like to talk more about how we can help with one or all of these components for your next POP display, reach out to us. Best of luck!

Glass Warehouse Initiative – Creating Visibility in Receiving

By Dave Jesse, COO

I am excited to bring you the first post on our new BLI Blog. This will be a place where we share resources on our core offerings, offer business best practices, and discuss industry trends. Here you’ll find posts from employees across all areas of our business, including leadership, operations, sales, and marketing. The idea is to create a unique engagement format by providing great insight into our company and the logistics industry.

With that said, I’d like to utilize this first post to dive deeper into our Glass Warehouse Initiative. Hopefully by now you’ve had a chance to read the announcement we distributed in November of last year (if not, click here). The Glass Warehouse Initiative breaks down into three key areas of focus for Bonded Logistics – systems, technology, and data. Each plays an integral part in creating visibility throughout our facilities, from receiving and shipping to physical inventories and returns to data analytics. My focus for this post will be to discuss the first of these areas, receiving.
There are a lot of moving parts to ensure visibility in receiving. But before it even starts, we go through a thorough and in depth onboarding process to get our clients set-up in our WMS (warehouse management system) powered by Cadre Technologies. This process enables us to get a complete understanding of our client’s business requirements as well as makes sure any information we are sharing through EDI or any other means of communication is accurate and timely. This is also when our clients gain access to our secure intranet site, Bonded Logistics Web Portal (BLI Web), for 24/7 real-time access to what’s going on with their products inside our facilities.

Visibility into our receiving process is immediate and in real-time when the shipment arrives at our receiving dock. We get notification from our client informing us of what is coming as well as how it’s arriving (typically land or air freight). As products are unloaded onto our receiving dock, they are checked in, counted, and prepared for storage. We assign bar coded license plates called MU’s (movable units) that track the inventory throughout the warehouse. We scan that label using RF guns linked to warehouse wifi, immediately making data available in our BLI Web portal. Clients see in real-time what products we are receiving. This helps them confirm the data is matching what they sent us.

Once the truck has been unloaded, the next step is to place all the product into storage in the warehouse. We take into consideration many elements (weight, type, size) when determining a location, but the most important is velocity slotting. This simply means we work together to rank your products by how quickly they turn (in and out); then group them together and put the faster moving one’s closest to our loading docks to increase productivity. Once it is placed, the product is scanned again with the RF gun to confirm it’s placed in inventory. These updates are made in real-time in our WMS and shared through EDI to our customer’s ERP systems. Once our customer’s system sees the inventory, they have the ability to start sending orders our way.

The entire receiving process takes 24 hours or less to complete, and there are certain cases when we have the flexibility to turn it around in hours. This can be especially important when customers have critical items that need to be shipped out as soon as possible, such as medical supplies to an ER unit in a hospital. Our WMS alerts us to these orders on the loading dock and allows us to cross dock them without putting the items into storage.

The great benefits of visibility in receiving is the ability for our clients to have a place where they can see in real time what’s come in, where it’s located, and how much is available. Accurate and timely information is crucial as client’s process orders as well as forecast for the upcoming quarter and year.

Does your logistics partner offer up this kind of visibility? If not, reach out to us so we can discuss how we can help.

Bonded Pac Makes Facility Upgrades, Increases Investment in Steam Technology

CHARLOTTE, NC (February 11, 2016) – Bonded Pac, the contract packaging division of Bonded Logistics, announced today that it has made significant upgrades to its facility located in Charlotte, NC, to meet increasing customer demands. These comprise of improved mixing capabilities, the purchase of a second steam tunnel, and remodeling of the facility to improve workflow.

“Our customers are asking us more and more for ways to differentiate their products on the store shelves,” stated Jon Hayward, Vice President of Bonded Pac. “Upgrades like these to our core competencies allow us to do just that, while reaffirming our commitment to get the job done in a cost effective way.”

The most significant upgrade Bonded Pac has made is the additional steam tunnel for flexible film application and sleeving. Purchased from leading shrink sleeve systems manufacturer Tripack, the tunnel and 30-foot conveyor will focus on multi-packs and compliment their current set-up for bottle and can decorative sleeving.

“We realized when we built our first sleeve applicator and tunnel the unique capabilities of steam,” explained Hayward, who’s been at the helm of Bonded Pac since 2012. “It presents a clean, pristine appearance and works well with odd shapes. We have customers with high-end products that deserve the best packaging solution and only steam provides that.”

Bonded Pac has also purchased a stand-alone Paxton air knife and spyder manifold along with the steam tunnel to remove moisture so products are completely dry before packaging. It anticipates making a permanent move from heat to steam sleeving over the coming months. “Our platform going forward is steam vs. heat for any type of flexible film application or sleeving,” added Hayward.

Other upgrades to the facility included the purchase of additional equipment to blend liquid products for filling clients, allowing Pac to put products together faster using raw materials instead of relying on the customer for premade formulations. In addition, an on-site testing lab has been built to ensure the products on the filling lines are kept to strict client standards.

To make all the upgrades come together, Bonded Pac had to remodel part of its 215,000 sq. ft. facility to make room for equipment and allow for better workflow and safety. Improvements started at the beginning of January and will be complete by the end of February.

Bonded Logistics announces promotions at contract packaging arm, Bonded Pac

CHARLOTTE, NC (January 26, 2016) – Bonded Logistics, a leading provider of third party logistics and supply chain management, announced today that it has promoted Jon Hayward to Vice President and Kara Jesse to Key Account Manager at its contract packaging arm, Bonded Pac.

Hayward has been leading Bonded Pac as General Manager since 2012. He was instrumental in the company’s move to a 215,000 sq. ft. facility (2014) where it provides contract packaging services such as display assembly, kitting, sleeving, and rework. He will continue to report to COO Dave Jesse and focus on sustaining the growth the division has seen from current as well as new business in recent years.

“Jon has played a key part in the growth of our packaging division,” stated Scott Carr, President of Charlotte, NC, based Bonded Logistics. “His broad range of experience has allowed him to excel in all areas of the business, from operations to sales and client support. I am excited to see what the future holds for Bonded Pac with Jon at the helm.”

Jesse has been working with Bonded Pac since 2011, most recently as Project Manager. In her new role, she will help grow new business with existing customers while continuing to lead the group’s estimating and project management efforts. Jesse will continue to report to Vice President of Bonded Pac, Jon Hayward.

“Kara has really made a positive impact on our customers since she started with us,” said Hayward. “She is very knowledgeable about our services and presents herself very well. I believe our customers will get a big benefit from being able to work directly with Kara to manage existing as well as new projects for them.”

Bonded Pac is a dedicated group that provides value-added contract packaging solutions by offering packaging expertise, increased flexibility, cost reductions, and greater speed to market. Strategically located in Charlotte, a major shipping hub, Bonded Pac focuses on helping clients identify and implement cost effective packaging solutions by keeping packaging, warehousing, and transportation with a single-source provider. Learn more about Bonded Pac by visiting www.bondedpac.com.