A large online retailer needed to increase their daily throughput. Addressing the bottleneck in their conveyor system led to increased throughput, decreased labor costs, and ROI in less than 1 year.
THE SITUATION
This online retail company noticed their totes and cartons were hitting a bottleneck in their fulfillment system when they had to stop and have their respective packing slips sorted and inserted manually. They knew they needed to remove this delay while also increasing their orders to roughly 25,000 per day.
THE PROCESS
The online retailer reached out to PSI to discuss what kind of solutions would help them achieve their goals. PSI took the time to understand their specific needs and learned that the customer wanted each carton to have a packing slip printed on an 8.5 x 11 size paper that was then folded once and inserted into the carton prior to it being sealed. The most important detail of course, was the speed at which each carton could complete this process and be ready for shipping. With the customer’s goal of more than 15 per minute, PSI knew their Print Feeder was the machine for the job.
THE SOLUTION
Using the existing space in the distribution centre, the Printer Feeder was installed. With its ability to scan and print the packing slips in advance, they could be dispensed exactly when needed. This meant there was never a reason to stop a tote on the conveyor line as was necessary in the past when someone had to manually fold and insert the packing slip. The customer was pleased that not only could the machine support both small and large cartons, but it integrated seamlessly with PSI’s software that is available off the shelf. It was a simple solution to their once inefficient packing system.
THE RESULTS
With the Print Feeder now running smoothly in their distribution centre, this large retailer was fulfilling 25,000 to 30,000 cartons per day. The machine was operating at speeds that ensured 18 cartons/minute were receiving the correct, folded packing slip. The customer was pleased that it surpassed their goal of 15/minute and knew they had made the right investment. Within a year, they ensured their return on investment, they had 0 carton stop times, and required 0 human operators on the machine.
