60 Seconds with Kyle Ous, Senior Manager of Packaging at Chainalytics

Title: Senior manager of packaging optimization

Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Experience: Ous has been in consulting for 11 years and is a Certified Packaging Professional (CPP) from the Institute of Packaging Professionals

Modern: We’ve seen a huge uptick in the volume of e-commerce orders because of Covid-19. That, of course, means an uptick in the need for packaging. What are some of the trends you’re seeing at Chainalytics as you talk to your customers?

Ous: If you think about packaging, the rubber meets the road at the end of the line, whether that’s in manufacturing or warehousing. Because of the uptick in e-commerce orders, many companies are focused on improving their warehouse fulfillment operations. They are evaluating different strategies to get their organization to the next level of packaging optimization.

Modern: What’s changed?

Ous: One of the big changes is the number of items per order. In the past, you had one or two items in an order. Getting those in a box was easy. Now, five or six items per order are quite common. Selecting the right box for those is more difficult. In most organizations, it is up to human operators to select a carton based on their experience. However, add in high turnover rates and the challenges that social distancing have introduced to physical labor environments, and that tribal knowledge may not always be available. This is making it difficult for many organizations to improve fulfillment operations. This is where cartonization technology comes into play. We’ve identified some software partners like Paccurate whose solutions integrate into a company’s warehouse management systems to make those decisions for the operators and help organizations get to that next level of maturity.

Modern: Are there other ways the consumer is having an impact besides the change in order patterns?

Ous: Yes. We believe that consumers buying from their living rooms want orders consolidated in the smallest box size possible. That also calls for better carton decisions during fulfillment.

Modern: Is cartonization, or carton selection, the No. 1 concern?

Ous: Absolutely. Companies have to do a better job of designing their packaging systems. Making better decisions in box selection has become a top priority.

Modern: What changes when you make cartonization a best practice?

Ous: Historically, the way it worked is that when an order dropped, the line operator would choose the box that made sense based on experience. We call it the “catch all” box, which is the biggest box in a company’s portfolio for all the items they have to ship. What happens with cartonization technology is that when the order drops, a unique request is sent to the software application and in a split second, it analyzes the items, but also does a rate check based on the zone you’re shipping to and determines the best way to ship that order. For instance, it may be less expensive to split the order into multiple shipments based on the shipping rates.

Modern: Where do on-demand packaging systems fit in that scenario?

Ous: They play together very nicely. The reality is that on-demand packaging systems don’t solve for the best configuration; they create a box size based on the operator inputs. But their algorithms aren’t looking at analytics around split orders or dimensional weight, so they’re not necessarily generating the optimal decision when all those factors are considered. That’s where cartonization technology can help. We’re seeing clients that are already using on-demand packaging add cartonization software to improve their fulfillment operations.

Modern: Are there other best practices shippers can consider?

Ous: If you’re not using on-demand packaging, you should re-evaluate your carton sizes based on the new order profiles you’re getting. You can also see whether you need a box or if a bag or a padded mailer will work. You will need to consider order sizes, the packaging requirements, and the durability you need to get an order safely to your customer’s doorstep