With e-commerce markets continuing to grow and demand for packaging expected to be as high as ever this quarter, ensuring your operation is adequately prepared for the challenges of a seasonal upsurge in business is essential.
So to help ensure you’re set for the inevitable challenges that arise during the peak season, here are some simple tips:
Create means for additional storage
If you’re expecting an increase in demand in the coming months, it stands to reason that you should plan ahead and accommodate that demand by housing more products at fulfilment centres. Of course, space is likely at a premium though, so consider integrating simple, easy-to-add solutions for storage and labelling, such as archive boxes, pick bins, and modular pack benches, letting you set up in areas of additional space and scale for increased throughput.
Re-organise to account for growth
Seemingly simple yet vitally important for increasing operational efficiency, conducting a floor walk with senior warehouse operatives can be invaluable in assessing just how effective your current layout is. Questions such as ‘Are our most popular products the most easily accessible?’ and ‘Is there a logical flow in the order fulfilment process?’ can be essential and, when raised early enough, can be pivotal in avoiding bottlenecks during busy periods.
Key areas to address are often the order of zoning points, pack station and waste disposal layouts and the means by which inventory is received, stored and picked for order fulfilment.
Remain mindful of your customer’s sustainability efforts
There’s a growing (and very much justified) movement of consumers outing businesses for a seeming overabundance of packaging in their parcels. More and more, retailers are being named and shamed across the web’s largest social platforms for oversized, ill-suiting packaging, in an ever-increasing effort to force companies to re-evaluate their environmental impact.
A key question businesses must ask is ‘How can I safely and securely ship my items without an over-reliance on packaging materials?’. And if your operation is in the business of shipping non-bulky, non-delicate items,solutions paper-fluted envelopes could be the ideal choice.
Introduce a just-in-time system for your packaging
Giving up valuable storage space to hold packaging materials can serve to greatly inhibit the storage capacity of your business. By keeping all your packaging on site, stock storage capacities are limited and additional work is required to account for larger-than-usual amounts of packaging.
Consider offsetting the organisational and labour costs of housing all your packaging onsite by working with your supplier to set up a stock holding agreement that allows for ‘just-in-time’ delivery of the materials you’ll require, which is a dynamic delivery process that ensures the materials you require are received just before they’re used. Arranging this system with an account manager will streamline your operation and avoid the inherent stresses of making room for bulk orders of packaging.
Make the switch to automated systems
Integrating automated packing systems into your fulfilment operation can serve to reduce transport costs, cut void fill use and significantly decrease your delivery spend.
By incorporating box erectors and filling units in your pack lines, your operation can redirect staffing to other manual processes, drastically reducing fulfilment times and allowing for more consistent, reliable service levels.
Consistency in your packing lines also lets you accurately measure your packaging use and reduce avoidable waste, informing your buying and better readying your operation for peak periods.
If you’d like to discuss changing your packaging requirements to allow for flexible stockholding and delivery services, high-performance automation and more, email Allpack at sales@allpack.uk.com, send us a message, or phone: 01543 396700 to discover how can we integrate process-efficient solutions into your business today.
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