Warehouse Management Excellence

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - December 9, 2010) - Between October and November 2010, Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), surveyed 158 companies documenting their processes and capabilities regarding warehouse management excellence. The Aberdeen Group report, Warehouse Management Excellence: Maximizing Resources and Efficiency, reveals that optimal use of the resources of space, people and technology are a main topic of interest on the minds of today's supply chain managers, pushing them to improve their warehouse operations by increasing flexibility, realigning assets, and improving labor efficiency. Top companies are increasing utilization of their resources and are leveraging both WMS and Labor Management System (LMS) software as well as automation solutions to improve the efficiency of their operations.

"In today's environment a predominant pressure companies are experiencing is a need to reduce warehouse operating expenses while maximizing utilization of resources. In order to achieve this goal, companies are looking both to increase efficiency of software and automation across the entire distribution network and to improve alliances with outside parties to allow for better planning of physical space/locations and labor," explained Bob Heaney, Senior Research Analyst of Supply Chain Management at Aberdeen.

Additionally, the research reveals that customer demands for high turn time performance and the increased customer demand for accurate delivery status and cost information is driving the need to ensure shipment integrity and enhance internal/external communications across the entire supply chain.

"The key takeaway is that there is an optimal level of visibility, communication, and optimization that is required to balance all these competing pressures. Today's leaders, more than ever, have mandates to reduce distribution costs while improving the frequency of delivery without diminishing the accuracy of shipments and customer service," explained Heaney.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: Psion Teklogix, Reddwerks, UTi Worldwide, West Monroe Partners. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30410182&cid=6685.

Find out where your company's sales and operations planning capabilities rank among the top performing companies. Take our Warehouse Management Excellence Assessment Tool: http://assessment.aberdeen.com/8K6USwg6a0/index.aspx. 

Visit Aberdeen.com for additional access to complimentary Supply Chain Management Research.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen or call (617) 854-5200, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748.

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