Changing your fulfilment provider

When a change is genuinely needed – and when it is not

Not every annoyance justifies a transfer. Changing costs money, time and nerves, and in the first weeks things at the new provider are usually not better but noisier. There are signals, though, where waiting is the more expensive decision.

• The error rate rises and does not fall again despite conversations
• You hear about problems from your customers, not from your provider
• There is no fixed contact any more, only tickets
• The provider does not grow with you: your peaks become a problem
• Promised interfaces have failed to materialise for months
• Invoices regularly contain items nobody can explain

What to check before giving notice

The most common mistake is to give notice first and search afterwards. The sensible order is the other way round – starting with a look at the existing contract.

Notice period and date

Many contracts run annually with three months’ notice. Miss the date and you lose a year. Check it before you start looking.

Cost of moving out

What does it cost to get the goods back out? This item is rarely in the original quotation but often in the contract.

Ownership of data and packaging

Who owns the master data, the stock history, the customer-supplied cartons in the warehouse? Settle that in writing before the relationship becomes tense.

Remaining stock and load carriers

Pallets, mesh boxes and containers often belong to the provider. Whoever takes them pays for them.

How a transfer works in practice

The change itself is a project with four phases. How long it takes depends almost entirely on the number of items and the complexity of the system integration – not on the volume of goods.

1. Assessment

Item structure, quantities, packaging, interfaces and special cases are recorded. This is where it is decided whether the rest runs smoothly.

2. System integration

Shop or ERP is connected, master data transferred, test orders run through. This step needs the most lead time and is underestimated most often.

3. Transfer

The goods are moved – ideally in waves, not in one go. Fast movers last, so that availability is kept up as long as possible.

4. Parallel operation

For a limited period both warehouses run. That costs money but prevents a delivery stop. Saving this step is saving in the wrong place.

The point where most transfers go wrong

The problem is not the goods, it is the data. In many businesses item master data has grown over years: dimensions missing, weights estimated, variants inconsistently named. As long as only one warehouse works with it, nobody notices.

During a change it shows immediately – and it shows as an error in the new warehouse. Investing a few days in cleaning up master data before the transfer saves weeks afterwards. It is the one piece of preparation that pays off in almost every project.