Prepared for the peak season?

Speed line: One of the most successful techniques we see is to break the packing process into a small assembly line along a gravity conveyor. One person forms boxes at the start of the line (using a bottom-sealer to tape the bottom), and feeds boxes to the packer working in the middle of the line. They drop the items into the box and apply the shipping label. (Feed it with all the orders that will fit in that box size — usually manually selected.)

The boxes are then forwarded to an inline taper and manifest station operated by a single worker. Productivity for a speed line is significantly higher than conventional packing — often double — and has the added benefit of reducing volume from the conventional shipping line. Speed lines can be set up in as little as one to three weeks.

Prepack: If you have items that often sell by themselves, invest the time now to pack some portion of them into shipping cartons and store them in the picking location ready to go. If it applies, pack some in pairs.

Similarly, all ship-alone items should be fully packed upstream, so all the shipper has to do is apply the shipping label. Do as much work as you can upstream.

Slotting: This is the time to make sure top-selling items are located in high-capacity locations, and that you have some sort of exception report available to flag those items that are replenished more than once per week.

Make sure you have sufficient staff available to stay on top of replenishment — preferably on a second shift or early morning shift. Replenishment during picking operations rarely works.

Some clients assign double locations for the fastest moving items. In addition to increasing capacity, it helps to prevent traffic jams around the busiest areas.

You can set up a mini-warehouse — often as little as half of one row — with a second, duplicate location of the top-selling items. Many companies can fill over 20% of their orders from these “quick-pick” areas when slotted with the right items. And you can maximize productivity by setting up a small pick-and-pass process in which the orders move through this small zone on a small gravity conveyor, and are picked right into a shipping box.

On the shipping front, have your primary carrier staging a trailer at your dock all day. There is a huge advantage to “fluid loading” your packages directly onto the trailer: It eliminates the handling that goes into building, staging and moving pallets onto the trailer at the end of the day.

And finally, negotiate with your carrier for the latest possible pickup you can get. In some cases couriers will still do an earlier pickup and come back later for the residual. Even if later pickups don't make the sort, it allows you to keep shipping and keep up your package count.

Bill Kuipers (kuipers@spaidekuipers.com) is a partner in Spaide, Kuipers & Co., a provider of multichannel operations management and information technology solutions.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK, SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE

You cannot be prepared for a peak season unless you have some idea of expected weekly volumes and top items. Keep pestering everyone until you get at least reasonable projections that will allow you to plan your staffing needs. You can't possibly staff effectively without them.

It's just as important to get projections for top items to make sure you have appropriate bin capacities set up — nothing cripples a warehouse as quickly as falling behind in replenishment.

Make sure you have a simple and concise status report in place that tracks basic production for each department — specifically, the number of orders or transactions received, the number completed, the number still open and, ideally, the throughput per labor hour. Watch the “still open” column closely to make sure that number stays well under one day's work, based on your recent completion rate.

In addition to reviewing the status with your lead staff, make sure it is prominently posted where every associate can see it. Get everyone focused on the numbers.

If you can break it down to an individual or group level, so much the better. One client now goes as far as posting group and individual numbers at every break. When communicated properly, an informed and motivated group will automatically raise the bar. — BK