A fast-growing electronics distribution company was having a significant issue with document management at their pack station. This was causing bottlenecks and costing too much time and slowing order throughput—even when more packing station operators were added.
THE SITUATION
This electronics distribution company was struggling with order throughput, and identified that shipping label transactions were having a negative impact on their order velocity. These transactions were costing approximately one-half the total time to pack up multiple item orders, and almost three-quarters of their time to get single item orders processed. When they automated their order picking, their orders shipped each day started to fall, but as more packing stations were added, the cost to process orders increased.
THE PROCESS
Working with the distributor’s existing Integrator, PSI installed two AutoSlip and Shipping Label Applicator at this fulfillment facility. The automated shipping and packing slip transactions— which now no longer needed to be processed at the packing stations—increased this area’s throughput per packing station operator by over two times (2X). In addition, these tasks were easily handled by the new automation downstream which was situated between the packing station and the shipping area.
THE SOLUTION
To resolve this serious cost per order problem, this distributor contacted the experts at PSI Engineering. Upon initial discovery, it was apparent that PSI would easily resolve this issue by installing the AutoSlip, a packing slip pouch system that laser prints, folds the full document of up to six pages, inserts the paperwork into the plastic film wallet, and then automatically applies the pouch to the side or top of the shipping corrugated cartons. A print and apply label applicator was also required as there were sometimes more than one carton in an order, and for these additional cartons, only the shipping label was required.
THE RESULTS
The distribution customer was so excited with the cost and time-saving results, that this method of document automation—including both a PSI Engineering Autoslip and Label Applicator—was ordered and installed at three of their other facilities in the USA, with more sites to be automated. ROI for the customer’s new document automation and labeling system was less than one year due to their increased throughput using significantly fewer operators at this area of the facility. In fact, PSI’s system has reduced their packing station operator labor by half. They now ship 20K orders per day from each location, for a total of 60K cartons shipped per day.
