Packing & Checkout Strategies
With the massive growth of eCommerce across the world, people are starting to demand superior turnaround times on any products ordered. Many traditional businesses that shipped the product in some bulk to a distribution channel are finding that they now need to reinvent their supply chains to ship directly to the market.
Changing a strategy from a traditional distribution channel to a direct-to-market channel has enormous ramifications for the business. Distribution centers now need to be placed strategically close to the end market. The warehouse layout has been very different to enable high volumes of small hourly orders as opposed to large weekly shipments, and because we are now shipping units, we need to package first before they are shipped.
Many businesses are now changing their warehouse layouts and flow to accommodate smaller, more frequent orders. Further, many are installing packing stations and checkout lanes. These module focuses on various forms of packaging and checkout of picked orders.
SIMPLE CHECKOUT SOLUTIONS
Several basic scanner-based checkout solutions exist in DATASCOPE WMS. Here the picked items do not need to be packaged at all. The items need to be checked before they get shipped. These modules all operate on mobile computers and involve various forms of an audit of the picked product. For instance, in a food distribution center, the checkout would involve a scan of each carton of product that has been picked, while a checkout at a large chemical factory may be a simple scan of each picked pallet.
PACK STATION CHECKOUT
This checkout and packing station module has been designed for high-volume distribution centers where most product being shipped is in carton form, with some loose items requiring a manual packing function at the end. This solution can be integrated to weigh scales to check products, or each product can be scanned to check its accuracy. All carton labeling is completed here, and orders packing lists and the invoice or dispatch note printing.
MASS CHECK AND LINE MASS CHECK
These two checkout modules are designed to optimize a full packing operation at checkout. Here every picked product is placed into a carton and mass checked. After each carton has been filled, a carton label is printed. A second packing list label can be placed on the carton to show the content of this carton.
For large pallet load orders, the entire pallets are placed on a scale to verify their accuracy before shipment.
CONSOLIDATED CHECKOUT
This pack station checkout module has been designed to allow multiple orders for a customer to be packed into common cartons to save shipping costs. The carton labels and packing slips show the product link back to the original customer purchase order.
TRACK-ID AUDIT
This scanner module allows a user to perform a basic audit of any carton or pallet at any stage of the checkout process.
IN-LINE MASS CHECK
In the case where the DC is running automated conveyor systems orders are released to carton level and picked in the pick face areas. Once all items have been picked, the carton travels over an in-line mass scale, and the software completes a mass check of the product inside the carton to the theoretical mass in SYSPRO. If the carton passes the check, it will continue down the conveyor and into the dispatch area. If the check fails, the carton is off-lined into a QC inspection area.