Packaging Corner: Maximizing interoperability in e-commerce

Dealing with packaging an increasingly diverse and rapidly expanding number of outbound e-commerce shipments is becoming an acute pain point for online retailers and omni-channel fulfillment operations, says Brandon Brooks, vice president of strategy and marketing at Packsize.

“Whether distribution centers are having trouble finding enough people to keep up with their parcel packaging load, or their parcel packaging needs have exceeded their current capacity, human beings simply aren’t physically capable of keeping up—and adding more of them to a packing process only causes congestion,” Brooks explains.

While the ability to produce the right-sized box at the right time can achieve a faster cycle time with fewer employees, more e-commerce facilities are taking a closer look at how to integrate and automate their entire system.

Brooks notes that even distribution centers just five years old might already be maxed out on space and cannot fit a fully automated packaging line into their existing footprint. They’re also finding that recent capital investments into equipment to improve their packaging operations have already become somewhat out of date. Further, the advanced systems they’ve already installed aren’t necessarily interconnected.

The answer, according to Brooks, could lie with software. Specifically, software that maximizes the interoperability of current systems—such as conveyors, sorters and automated storage and retrieval systems—to allow better management of the packaging process well before the order is even picked. For example, he posits, it could flexibly route packages to different zones to better accommodate an influx of orders or a shortage of available personnel.

“Ideally, packaging-centric software could be engineered to control different components of a warehouse,” Brooks explains. “By interacting with an operation’s warehouse management system, warehouse control system and transportation management system, managers would get better visibility into both current and developing packaging and shipping needs.”

The ultimate benefits of a package-centric, e-commerce operation running software-integrated equipment would be three-fold, concludes Brooks. “Managers would be more proactive about their facility’s operations, the e-commerce packaging process would become more efficient, and the life of existing equipment and assets would be extended,” he says.