Media and book industry: full control in the warehouse (Part 1/2).

Reduce costs and ensure delivery capability, despite returns and order peaks.

Stories originate in the mind and books in the publishing house, but only when intralogistics processes are effective can titles be on the shelves or available online on time.

Whether large print runs or individual orders, every delivery requires precision. Anyone who thinks books are logistically uncomplicated is unfamiliar with everyday life in publishing warehouses.

The logistical challenges are as diverse as the genres themselves: large inventories, changing print runs, returns, rush orders, sustainable shipping, and order-related special procurements.

We help publishers, media companies, bookstores, and service providers to manage their warehousing and shipping processes in a targeted manner. Our warehouse management system intelligently coordinates the flow of goods, automates processes, and creates comprehensive transparency. This ensures that books and media reach readers reliably, undamaged, and on time.

The media and book industry produces printed and digital content. This includes novels, textbooks, specialist literature, magazines, and online media.

• Publishers develop content, edit manuscripts, design publications, and are responsible for marketing and distribution.
• Authors write content. They publish through publishers or self-publish.
• Bookstores sell books and media in brick-and-mortar stores or online.
• Libraries make knowledge accessible and preserve media for the long term.
• Printing companies produce physical books and magazines.
• Media companies create content for print, online, television, and radio.

Our customers from the media and book industry

We work with companies such as Optimal Media, Mairdumont, ekz.bibliotheksservice, SCM Shop Hänssler Buchhandlung (SCM Verlag), and Nördlinger Verlagsauslieferung GmbH & Co. KG, a subsidiary of C. H. Beck Verlag .

The key challenges:

• efficient handling of returns
• Fast and sustainable shipping for small and large orders
• Coordination of order-related external procurement
• Ensuring the availability of goods
• parallel provision of large and small quantities

The crucial question is: How can these challenges be solved?

The right solutions

Individual tools are not enough here. What is needed is software that brings all processes together and actively controls them.

• Structured returns management with quality control
• Intelligent packaging, shipping, and route planning
• strategic picking planning
• more sustainable and cost-effective shipping
• Separation and cross-docking of order-related procurements
• automatic replenishment with optimal use of space
• control of separate material flow paths

With these solutions, you get: fewer manual interventions, lower costs, greater transparency, and processes that work even during peak periods.

Challenge 1: Efficient processing of returns

In the book, press, and magazine trade, unsold books, magazines, and newspapers are considered returns. These may be sent back to the publisher or manufacturer as part of the return process. Returns arise for the following reasons:

• Overstock: Bookstores order more copies than they sell.
• New editions: New editions replace older versions.
• Lack of space: Retail space is limited, and new titles need room.

Returns are part of everyday business. Employees check the goods, assess their condition, and decide how they will be used. Without clear processes, this takes time and ties up resources.

The solution: structured returns management with quality control

Our WMS integrates returns processing directly into warehouse processes. Returns no longer disrupt operations. They are handled in a structured and traceable manner.

What this means:

• The software guides employees step by step through the process.
• Each item is systematically checked and evaluated.
• The goal is to quickly return items to inventory or put them up for sale.
• Seamless integration with the ERP system and industry-specific configuration options.

This is how returns are processed in the warehouse.

1. Employees record the returns in the system.
2. They then decide whether the goods can be put back into storage immediately or whether they should go to the inspection warehouse.
3. There, they check the items and assign them to a category: waste or rejects, second-choice goods, direct storage, or re-sorting¹.

¹Resorting: Law books with loose-leaf collections require special care. When laws change, employees replace or supplement pages. These supplementary deliveries are often handled by external service providers. The WMS seamlessly integrates these processes.

Challenge 2: Fast and sustainable shipping for small and large orders

Private customers want their books yesterday. Bookstores, on the other hand, want predictable, bundled, and cost-efficient deliveries. Whether it's a single paperback or pallets of new releases, intralogistics must manage both in parallel.

Specifically, this means:

• Short delivery times despite varying order sizes.
• Resource-saving packaging that protects without wasting.
• Cost control, even with rising shipping and energy costs.
• Efficient workflows so that speed does not come at the expense of employees.

Without precise planning, shipping quickly becomes expensive, slow, and anything but sustainable. The solution lies not only in the packing area, but well before that.

Solution 1: Intelligent packaging, shipping, and route planning

Even before picking, the WMS plans each order in full. It takes into account volume, weight, and the appropriate package type. The delivery address and delivery date are also included. Based on this information, the system selects the shipping method and route. This saves time, reduces packaging material, and avoids unnecessary trips in the warehouse and on the road.

Solution 2: Strategic picking planning

Orders, stocks, and capacities are planned in such a way that warehouse capacity is utilized optimally. Our WMS calculates target picking times, plans capacities, schedules backwards, and forecasts demand in the individual picking areas. The WMS creates a demand forecast for each picking area. This forecast shows when replenishment is needed throughout the day. This allows the areas to be filled according to demand. In addition, minimum and replenishment quantities can be defined for each item based on actual consumption data from the last few days.

Solution 3: More sustainable and cost-effective shipping

Sustainability begins with accurate data. Employees record the weight and dimensions of books upon receipt. Volume measurement systems store this data directly in the WMS. At the packing station, the system suggests the appropriate shipping packaging. The packing process runs faster, filling material is reduced or eliminated altogether, and shipping costs are lowered. After all, a maxi letter is cheaper than a parcel and more sustainable to boot.

Efficiently processing returns and intelligently managing shipping processes for small and large orders are among the key challenges facing the media and book industry. Those who plan these processes carefully and manage them with the help of systems can reduce costs, shorten throughput times, and remain operational even during peak order periods.

At this point, we will deliberately pause. The second part of this article will focus on other challenges that are crucial in everyday camp life but are often underestimated.