3PL warehouses come in every size, from a single leased unit with one client to a campus with hundreds, but the small ones share a shape: one building, a few clients, a picking team of five to fifty, a dock, racking laid out around a pick path, and a warehouse management system that keeps each client's stock separate and each scan honest. This page is about that shape for the operator setting one up or tightening one that has grown by accident: the layout, the roster and the system, and what the system costs over its first year, which the free warehouse management system cost worksheet on this site works from the quote in front of you.
Layout: the pick path decides the labour
Racking is laid out so that the most-picked items sit closest to the pack bench and the pick path visits each aisle once. The path is the largest single lever on lines an hour, because a picker's day is mostly walking; a layout that adds a hundred metres to every order adds hours to every week. Equipment on that path, from pallet jacks to forklifts, is operated and inspected under OSHA's powered industrial truck standard, and the layout has to leave room for it.
Staffing: pickers from lines and a standard
A small 3PL staffs the floor from a standard: lines a picker can pick in an hour in this building, applied to the lines a day brings, corrected for the productive share of a shift. 1,200 lines a day at 60 an hour on an eight-hour shift at 85% utilisation is three pickers, and the labour worksheet on this site works that count and the week's cost. Receivers and packers are staffed the same way from their own standards.
The system, and what it costs in year one
A WMS for a small 3PL holds clients, items, locations, receipts, picks, shipments and counts, confirmed by scans. What it costs is the fee, the users the tier does not include, the scanners and the implementation: $79 a month with two extra users at $20, four scanners at $350 and $1,500 of set-up is $4,328 in the first year and 18 cents an order at 2,000 orders a month on the worked example. Enter your own quote; the worksheet publishes no vendor's price.
Questions people ask about 3pl warehouses
How big is a small 3PL warehouse?
There is no threshold; the operational shape is what matters: one building, a handful of clients, a team of five to fifty, one dock and one WMS. The worksheets on this site are built for that shape.
What software does a 3PL warehouse need?
A warehouse management system that keeps each client's inventory separate, confirms receipts, putaways, picks, packs, ships and counts by scan, and produces the weekly figures the client reads. What it costs over the first year is what the cost worksheet works from your quote.
What safety rules apply to a 3PL warehouse?
In the United States, OSHA's general industry standards, including the powered industrial truck standard for forklifts and pallet jacks, and the warehousing guidance on its site. This site publishes no safety rule; your own programme and your state's authority govern.