4. Lean out the labeling process.
As the volume of parcel shipping rises, so does the interest in systems to automatically insert a returns label, print and insert packing slips, and print and apply shipping labels.

The place to start, says Dan Hanrahan, president of Numina Group, isn’t with the print-and-apply system, but further upstream with the picking process. He urges customers to think of the pick, pack, validation and flow of an order as one continuous process that begins with picking and ends with a product going into a truck. “The first step used to be to buy a print-and-apply system,” says Hanrahan. “Now, we’re defining the whole pick-and-pack process. That allows us to take touches out and build repeatability into the process before it gets to the print-and-apply station.”

According to Hanrahan, there are several areas to be considered in that approach:

Centralize packing and labeling: If processes can be centralized, then the area can be laid out in an ergonomic way that minimizes walking and maximizes the workflows to the packer even without automation.

Rationalize carton sizes: Instead of 13 or 14 different carton sizes, see if you can fill most of your orders with just six different sizes.

Assess your void: Make sure void fill and packing documentation is located within easy reach. “If you’re packing more than 500 cartons a day, you may be a candidate for an automated system for inserting packing slips,” Hanrahan says.

Create an assembly line in packing: Instead of one packer performing all the steps in the process, consider putting cartons on gravity flow conveyor and perform a different step at each station.

By leaning out the processes before the print-and-apply station, product will flow more efficiently.

5. Optimize and automate the packaging process.
The conventional way to package individual and less-than-carton quantities of items is to keep an inventory of different sized boxes and void fill to accommodate the many different sized orders that may be shipped. The result is that customers are often shipping too much packaging for an order and paying for more of the cube of a trailer or shipping container than they really need.

“People squeeze every second of the cycle time from the processes inside their buildings,” says Hanko Kiessner, CEO of Packsize International. “But when the product leaves the building, they lose more in excess shipping costs than they saved inside the building.”
Instead, a new generation of machinery has come to market that makes the right size shipping container for each order—and does it on-demand. These systems combine information about the items being picked from the WMS with the dimensional and weight information collected by weighing and cubing systems to determine the best size box that fits each order. The machines then make the box at the time the order is being picked.

In the most efficient operations, the order is picked directly to the on demand box rather than into a tote to be packaged later. “You’re using about 30% less cardboard on average in each box,” says Tom Coyne CEO of System Logistics.

The new on-demand box making systems are designed for high-volume environments. System Logistics machines are capable of making 3,000 boxes per line in an eight-hour shift; a system from Sealed Air is capable of making 5,500 boxes on a single line per shift. Both System Logistics and Sealed Air provide fully automated solutions that integrate with a materials handling system.

Along with a new approach to packaging, these systems are also sold in a variety of ways.

Packsize, for instance, does not charge upfront for its machinery. Rather, it provides the corrugated that works with its machinery.
Similarly, Sealed Air does not charge upfront for its equipment either, other than an installation fee. Nor does it charge for the materials used in the machine. Instead, it charges a transaction fee for each box made by the machine.

System Logistics, on the other hand, offers a conventional sales model, where the customer buys the machine and works with any corrugated supplier.

“The growth of e-commerce is driving the need for these solutions,” says Don Liebel, business engineer for Sealed Air. “People have automated how they pick and sort their products. The pack station has always been a neglected area.”

6. Don’t overlook the dock.
Walt Swietlik, director of field support for Rite-Hite Products, tells a story about a customer that outfitted all of its lift trucks with attachments that could load two 48-inch pallets side by side into a trailer at one time. The idea was to drastically speed up the loading process. The only problem: No one realized that two side-by-side pallets wouldn’t fit through the dock doors. “The loading dock is the last frontier for efficiency,“ says Swietlik. “A lot of consultants have looked at the efficiencies they can gain inside the box. But the main artery in and out of a facility is the dock doors and they are an afterthought to the design of most facilities.”