Packing It!
Andrew Clark
I help Ecommerce & 3PL businesses make 25%-50% increases in warehouse productivity with Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and AI Optimisation so they can reduce their costs and scale more profitably.
After you have picked the stock for an order you will need to pack it and ship it. In this newsletter we will look at the packing process, how to do it and make it efficient, and how it fits into the overall order fulfilment process.
You are doing a few things during packing:
Packing is just as critical a process as the picking of the goods for the order and although it is not usually as time consuming a process, it deserves focused attention to make sure it is done as fast and accurately as possible.
The order fulfilment process
Order fulfilment is quite a complex process, but we often tend to focus on a small part of the process and forget about how much is required to ensure a consistent result. It is important to remember that what we do in the warehouse supports a bigger process that ultimately leads to customer satisfaction and business profitability.
These are the essential steps in a high performance order fulfilment process.
1.?????Take the order – what items does the customer need and how many of each item
2.?????Feedback on order fulfilment to the customer
a.?????Is it in stock?
b.?????When will it be shipped?
c.??????How long will it take for delivery?
d.?????How much will delivery cost?
e.?????What is the process to change or cancel an order?
f.???????What notifications are sent to the customer during fulfilment?
g.?????What is the returns process?
3.?????Release the order for picking
4.?????Pick the order
5.?????Pack the order
6.?????Create the shipment/consignment documentation for the carrier
7.?????Load the shipment
8.?????Deliver the shipment
9.?????Collect data on accuracy and quality of the fulfilment process
10.?Collect data on customer satisfaction with the fulfilment experience
Packing eaches vs cartons, vs pallets
There is an almost infinite variety of distribution profiles that make each business unique, but the common themes across most businesses result in four different types of packing:
1.?????Full pallets of one product
2.?????Mixed pallets containing full cartons of multiple products
3.?????Full Cartons containing one product
a.?????Less than a pallet load per destination. Shipped loose but may be palletised for ease of transport to the carrier’s depot where it is broken down to loose cartons for sorting and shipping.
4.?????Mixed Cartons of multiple products
a.?????Usually containing eaches or retail units and sometimes inner packs
b.?????as per 3a above
The mix across each of these generally varies according to where your business fits in the supply chain. The further up the chain you are, the bulkier your handling becomes.
Each of these different distribution profiles will require a different way of organising and running your warehouse. Packing and shipping a full pallet is usually just a matter of applying a freight label and staging it ready for pick up. Packing a mixed pallet will require it to be wrapped, labelled, and staged. Full cartons need to be labelled and stacked onto a mixed destination shipping pallet. All these are reasonably straightforward so the process I will look at in more detail is the mixed carton shipping.
Why you should split picking from packing for eCommerce
Mixed carton shipping means repacking small products into a shipping carton (or maybe a satchel) for shipping. This is normal practice in any online retail or direct to customer or small item B2B business such as business stationery, clothing, or spare parts. Repacking small items is time consuming and may also require special packing of products to protect them during shipping. Packing and shipping of pallets and full cartons is quick and is easily and often done by the picker at the end of each order. But once you get past a certain order volume, then combining picking and packing orders by the same person can get dysfunctional due to congestion both in the warehouse aisles and at the packing benches. To overcome this congestion, you can split the process by having separate teams of pickers and packers. This eliminates any queuing for packing benches and reduces the number of people walking around the warehouse picking.
When you split a process you need to have a work in process staging area between operations. Typically, this will be a rack at the end of a packing bench where you stage the picked orders. You will also need to balance the resources for each operation so that the output from each operation is the same. It might take 4 people to pick 100 orders per hour and 3 people to pack 100 orders per hour. Packing is usually faster than picking, but it entirely depends on the nature of the products you are picking and the size of the order.
What happens on a packing bench
A packer picks up the tub or carton with the picked order and usually in a paper pick slip process they will check the picked products against the packing slip. The packer selects a suitable sized shipping carton for the order. Then the products are protected with additional wrapping if required and placed into the shipping carton. Void fill is added, and the carton is sealed with tape and a freight label is applied to the carton.
Depending on the inventory systems used, the order may need a pick confirmation and/or a ship confirmation process to confirm that the stock allocated to the order has now been picked and to print a shipping label. This could be done at the packing bench or as a separate admin process. Sometimes the freight is precalculated and the shipping label is printed along with the packing slip before the order is picked.
If the order has been picked using a WMS with a mobile scanner then there may not be a packing slip and no checking would be required as the scanning during picking should be accurate. The WMS will usually have a shipping process done at the time of packing to record the shipping packages and carrier information.
The WMS may also have a scan pack process that is used both as a final order check and as a way to record carton contents if the customer requires SSCC level packing. SSCC = Serial Shipping Container Code. This is part of the GS1 supply chain data system where the contents of each shipping container is recorded and passed on to facilitate receiving processing at the customer’s warehouse. This is often a requirement of big retailers.
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The final step is to stage the carton ready for loading onto a carrier at pick up time later in the day.
How your picking process affects your packing process
If you pick one order at a time then your order tub will be ready to pack. But if you are batch picking or multi-batch picking then you will have a sorting process to do at packing to separated out the pick batch into individual orders. For simple batch picks, this is usually done with a pick slip as you pick out the stock you need for each order from the batch. If the batch is large then this usually involves a time wasting rummage through the batch to find what you need. The search gets faster as you pick through the batch and have fewer and fewer products to search through.
If you have a WMS with a multi-batch pick process then each tub will contain several (up to 10 or 12) orders that will be sorted with a guided process to make sure you quickly and efficiently sort the stock to each order.
Drive physical efficiency with good ergonomics
Just like in picking, the layout and ergonomics of your packing bench sets the physical efficiency of your packing process. It is worth putting some effort into setting up your packing bench so that shipping cartons, void fill, tape are all to easily to hand with minimal movement and bending. You may also have a computer, document printer and label printer and a scanner on the desk and these need to be easily accessed without getting in the way of the packing process. You also don’t want your bench to be too high, preferably the top of your shipping carton should be well below shoulder height so that it is easy to pack products into it.
My design for an ideal and ergonomic packing bench is shown at the top of this article. Here’s what it looks like in practice. Two packing benches are back to back with a rack frame in the middle holding shipping cartons for each bench. More shipping cartons and void fill are under the bench. A roll of bubble wrap also hangs off the middle rack frame. A PC with cabled barcode scanner and label printer (and document printer when required) is left of the PC (not a mobile scanner as in my picture above). The boxes on the bench are for out-sorting the multi-batch pick tub on the left to each order.
On the right you can see the staging rack for picked orders. On the left you can see the conveyor that transports shipping cartons to the outbound despatch area where they are loaded onto pallets or cages according to carrier.
Standardise shipping cartons and bags
Here is a pro-tip. Use standard shipping cartons and bags and set up the dimensions and weight in your freight system. Do this and you will make it much easier to update the consignments with correct weight and dimensions for your carrier. Most repacked orders will end up being charged by cubic weight, so accurate carton dimensions and weight are important to make sure your shipping charges are correct. I’ll talk more about freight in the next newsletter on shipping.
Void Fill
If your products are rattling around inside your shipping carton there is a risk of them being damaged in transit if they are breakable. The void between the carton contents and its top needs to be filled to prevent damage.
There are two ways to eliminate the void:
1.?????Cut it out – the best void fill is to avoid the void
2.?????Fill it – paper if you can, plastic if you must.
There two ways to cut out the void:
1.?????Use a smaller carton or a bag
2.?????Cut down the sides of the carton
It’s not practical to have a carton size for every shipment, so even if you have a good range of sizes you will often end up with a void. By slitting the side corners of the carton and forcing a new fold line, you can eliminate the void and the need for void fill. This is slow and also introduces a personal injury risk from using a knife, so it tends to be used only where the need for it is small and rules it out for most online retailers where most shippers have a void. ?There are machines that will form a shipper exactly the right size for every shipment , but these are huge and expensive and only become economically viable in high volume warehouses as part of an automated fulfilment system.
Using a shipping bag (often called a satchel) is a great option if your product is fabric, flexible or otherwise unbreakable. Bags compress to fit their contents and have no void. There are also paper options available if you want to avoid using plastic.
Most warehouses use void fill. Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) beads are less common now but still have a few use cases where their strength and water resistance are required. Corn starch void fill has largely replaced EPS, but although it is easy to use and degradable in water, most customers hate it because it is very annoying and spreads everywhere.
Scrunched up paper is becoming popular, it’s good enough for most things if they are light but may not be suitable for heavier contents as it will just squash down too easily. There are machines that turn your unwanted cartons into void fill , which is an economical option. Air filled plastic pillows are a good option for heavier items. They are very light yet strong and easily pierced and disposed of by the customer and use minimal plastic. If you can make the paper options work for you then that would be the best, but sometimes plastic is still the best or only suitable option and soft plastics can be recycled at major supermarkets.
Carton Closing
Once you have packed your carton and filled the void then you need to tape the top flaps closed. You will have already taped the bottom flaps to form the carton to pack into. Most warehouses use conventional clear or brown plastic packaging tape to close the carton. It’s easy and cheap. If you want to get fancy you can used branded tape. You can use Kraft paper packaging tape if you are avoiding plastic. Kraft paper refers to a paper manufacturing process that makes strong paper and is the same process used to make cardboard cartons.
If you’ve ever watched an Amazon warehouse video then you will have seen how they automatically dispense a length of paper tape exactly the right size for each shipping carton. This is a Kraft paper tape with a water activated glue that requires a special dispenser to wet the tape as it is dispensed. The dispensers by Better Packaging from the USA range from a $100 to nearly $3000 for the automated unit. I guess you might save a few seconds per box with one of these so there is a long payback period, which is probably why I’ve only ever seen them in Amazon videos.
When taping a box only one length of tape straddling both flaps along the middle of the box is all that is normally required. If you need to add extra strength to the carton then you can also tape the other edges of the flaps forming an H pattern.
Past editions of the newsletter
Past editions of this newsletter can be found at https://www.dhirubhai.net/newsletters/get-control-of-your-warehouse-6988669308507668480/
Who am I and what do I do?
My name is Andrew J Clark a.k.a. The Logistics Optimiser. I help people solve their warehouse problems so they can run them more efficiently and with greater speed and accuracy. I do this with a mix of over 3 decades of operational and consulting experience and using the latest technology. If your warehouse is broken I can help you fix it. If it works but is slow, I can help you optimise it with better technology and faster more accurate processes. If you’ve got it all under control why are you reading this?
I launched Logistics Cloud Co. in 2022 to help small and medium business get access to sophisticated Warehouse Management System (WMS) Technology that was previously too complex and expensive to implement.
Why would you need a WMS?
A WMS will usually be of value to you if you have one or more of these issues
If these are the issues you are facing in your warehouse then it might be worth booking in for a Warehouse Operations Assessment call to find out how you can get control over your warehouse.
?WMS vs Accounting, Inventory or ERP business systems
A Warehouse Management System manages the physical movements of stock in your warehouse in real time using a mobile scanner and workflow software to control each movement. Most inventory systems do not do this. Most business systems are accounting systems and only track financial movements of stock. If you only have an inventory system, then you have to manage your warehouse with your memory and pieces of paper or maybe a spreadsheet.
Some of the more modern cloud inventory systems have mobile applications that give you a reformatted list of inventory transactions on a mobile device, (PO receipt, SO pick, stock adjustment, bin moves etc) good enough for low volume warehousing but not enough to really get control over your warehouse and quite useless for ecommerce. They just don’t have the key warehouse control features you need like:
Once you get past a certain scale of activity the inability to control complex but common warehouse functions will make your warehouse slow and dysfunctional. The first clue is often that you are losing stock or the order picking process is slow.