The Box

Receiving "The Box" is the much-anticipated event that parents and children alike anxiously await so they can begin planning their lessons for the following season of learning.

There are multiple steps and procedures that take place before your packages arrive, along with strategies and planning here at My Father's World. Following are just a few of those steps.

1. We determine quantities of nearly 900 different items to be ordered or printed throughout the upcoming year while watching for products that change or get discontinued.
2. We order products for 15 curriculums and supplements from many different vendors.
3. Our vendors fulfill our orders and assign transportation to My Father's World warehouses and the printshop.
4. Receiving takes place for each of these items, cases are labeled with inventory labels and the items are sent to warehousing for redistribution through different locations within the company. Some of these orders are quite large and take more time to verify and process.
5. The warehouse sometimes needs to update product placement in order to keep efficiency as high as possible to help speed up the picking process. This involves moving large quantities of various products to new locations.
6. Each item must be stocked at the final picking location in the appropriate quantity and we must decide how much of each item to put in each location for ease of movement to the picking areas.
7. The number of curriculum packages and supplements are projected, along with the quantities that need to be allocated for prebuilds to reduce the picking time during peak season.
8. Manufacturing requirements for the printshop are projected annually and strategies are developed to allow for item changes within the curriculum. Manufacturing requirements for assembling partial packages and barcoding items and components at the warehouse are also calculated.
9. Then, there are the behind-the-scenes efforts of our IT team to make the My Father's World website and the Interfaces of the WMS (Warehouse Management System) work together smoothly to make your online ordering experience more understandable and enjoyable.
10. When your order is placed, items are allocated to your order and that information populates in the Order Manager. This is where all orders are viewed and managed for printing by order date, expedites, school, customer pickups and other variables.
11. The Order Manager produces pick tickets that are given to the Pickers. These pick tickets are arranged in groups to avoid as much overlap as possible so Pickers are not all in one aisle tripping over one another. Then the orders are picked, packed, sealed and placed on a movable cart. Once the cart is full, it is pushed to the shipping station for finalizing of the order and processing the shipping label.
12. The packages are then loaded for the various shipping services. During peak season, some of our shipping partners leave trucks on site and the packages are loaded directly on a truck. For others, the packages are placed on tables or pallets to be picked up by the appropriate shipping service. Most shipments will take 2-3 days to reach your doorstep or PO Box, but depending on weather events, where you live, and how far you are from different distribution points, it can take a few days longer. International shipments take at least 7-10 days and for some countries it could be two weeks or longer.
13. Invoicing takes place in the evening and that is when customers are notified that their order has been shipped.
14. And then there it is, The BOX! In your hands and ready for reaching new goals and achievements!