If you’re looking to hire the best 3PL to handle lot tracking and expiry products for perishable products, you need careful attention. However, narrowing down the 3PL providers in the pool of talents takes work. But we’ll make it easy for you.
In this guide, we will provide a list of factors to consider when looking for the best 3PL provider who handles lot tracking, expiry products, and more.
How To Choose The Best 3PL For Lot Tracking And Expiry Products
1. Advanced Inventory Management Systems
When handling expiry and products needing lot tracking, the 3PL must have ideal inventory management systems. You can check whether they have these facilities:
- Real-time tracking: It helps get instant real-time updates about the inventory status.
- Integration: The 3PL systems should integrate easily with your ERP or order management system.
- Analytics and reporting: If your 3PL can provide analytics and reporting, it helps to monitor inventory levels effectively
2. Experience In Perishable Logistics
The 3PL you pick needs experience dealing with lot tracking and expiry products. You can ask how they deal with different challenges in this process. You can also question about how they faced the below challenges:
- How does the 3PL provider manage cold storage facilities?
- How do they maintain temperature-controlled transportation?
- How do they ensure that they comply with industry standards?
- What are the essential industry standards they should abide by? (like FDA’s FSMA for food or GDP for pharmaceuticals)
- How do they handle fragile and sensitive goods?
3. Reliable Lot-Tracking Systems
3PL providers who handle lot tracking need to have reliable lot monitoring systems. These systems help to prevent cross-contamination and give timely reports. Here are some key features of these lot-tracking systems:
- Batch and lot segregation helps to avoid cross-contamination.
- Recall readiness helps with the quick identification of affected batches during recalls.
- Audit trails assists in generating records to analyze traceability.
4. Scalability And Flexibility
Is your 3PL scalable to your requirements? Your business may generally have peak seasons and even gloomy seasons. Therefore, your 3PL should be flexible and handle the business activities effectively.
Also, if you want to expand, your 3PL should be flexible about scaling with you. For example, if you need regional support, they should help you with it.
5. Prior Experience
Does your 3PL have previous experience with handling lot tracking and expiry products? To identify whether they have prior experience, you can analyze these key points:
- References and reviews from previous clients.
- Previous client case studies.
- Request data on order accuracy and delivery times.
- Analyze their inventory shrinkage rates.
Why Is 3PL Important For Expiry And Lot-Tracking?
Generally, only perishable goods expire. Perishable food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics require accurate inventory control.
Therefore, tracking these products, particularly expiry tracking, ensures that products are traded or used within their shelf life. Moreover, tracking helps reduce waste and even compliance risks.
Lot tracking ensures traceability. Therefore, you can provide easy and quick responses by addressing recalls or quality issues.
Hence, you can enjoy all these advantages by choosing the right 3PL with prior experience in these activities.
What Are The Products That Need Lot Tracking?
The lot tracking process is essential for businesses that manage products with expiration dates, batch numbers, and quality assurance requirements. Therefore, lot tracking helps maintain a smooth process for these products.
Here are some key examples of products that require lot tracking:
- Food and beverages: These by-products include dairy, meat, seafood, packaged items, and more. You also need to confirm their security and compliance.
- Pharmaceuticals: Specific pharmaceutical products, such as prescription drugs, vaccines, and more, require exceptional care.
- Cosmetics: The major cosmetic products that need lot tracking are skin care, hair care, and makeup, but there can be more products.
- Nutritional supplements: The primary dietary products that need tracking are vitamins, protein powders, and other supplements.
- Chemicals and cleaning products: Under this category, industrial and household chemicals are included.
Questions To Ask Potential 3PL Providers
Based on our experience managing many clients and 3PL providers as a 3PL matchmaker, we have some key queries you can ask your potential provider. These questions will give you an in-depth analysis of their contract process and evaluate the provider. These questions include:
- What technology do you use for expiry and lot tracking?
- How do you handle temperature-sensitive goods?
- Can you provide examples of managing recalls?
- What compliance certifications do you have?
- How do you ensure data accuracy?
- What is your order fulfillment accuracy rate?
- How do you handle peak season volume fluctuations?
- What is your average order processing time?
- How do you manage inventory replenishment and stockouts?
- What is your return management process?
- What types of packaging options you offer?
- How do you ensure the security of stored products?
- Do you provide real-time tracking for shipments?
- What is your approach to handling damaged goods or shipping errors?
- Can you scale operations as my business grows?
- What are your lead times for international shipping and customs clearance?
- Do you provide customized reporting and analytics?
- How do you handle customer service issues related to fulfillment?
- What sustainability practices do you follow in warehousing and shipping?
- What are your insurance and liability policies for lost or damaged goods?
What Are The Benefits Of Choosing The Right 3PL For Lot Tracking And Expiry Product Handling?
You can enjoy many benefits by choosing the right 3PL provider for lot tracking and expiry product handling. They are listed below:
- Your 3PL will help to enhance operational efficiency.
- Ability to minimize errors and ensure timely deliveries.
- Reduce the risk caused by non-compliance penalties.
- Ensure customer satisfaction through timely delivery.
- Obtain accurate tracking of products.
- Ability to reduce the wastages caused and even increase profits.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, choosing a 3PL provider to handle lot tracking and expiry products is a careful decision. But we made this guide accessible for you. All you need to do is ask is essential questions and check whether they have the factors we discussed. This would help you find a reliable partner.
Are you interested in finding your ideal 3PL provider at your fingertip? At 3PeeL, we help you with finding the ideal 3PL through matchmaking. Check it out now.
