Don’t be Afraid of Automation

August 30, 2022|Distribution Centers/Warehouse, Material Handling, Packaging

Contributed by: MHI’s SLAM Industry Group

You’ve just shipped out a load of fishing poles from your distribution center. They’re super light, but also very long. Not long after sending them off, you were surprised when your carrier issued you a chargeback. What happened? You shipped based on weight but didn’t consider that long length—but your carrier did.

While unfortunate, this scenario is not at all uncommon. A small parcel carrier like UPS, for instance, can charge an additional $1 fee per package if the inaccuracies on the total of your packages in a given shipment pickup amounts to over $5 per average package. Over time, these chargebacks can add up, so you want to find a solution that can keep you out of that scenario.

The answer is to add an accurate weighing and dimension system to your scanning, labeling, applying and manifesting (SLAM) operations. There are plenty of good options on the market, but it does help to understand the benefits and drawbacks of the different types. Broadly speaking, you’ll be choosing between fully in-motion weighing and dimensioning systems, stopped motion (or accumulation), and those that weigh manually, with many flavors of each on the market.

Image courtesy of StreamTech Engineering

How do you decide which is right for your operations? You’ll need to weigh several factors, but speed and throughput requirements are often at the top of the list. “In-motion systems can operate at throughputs up to 50 cartons per minute (CPM) while stopped motion systems are limited to roughly 15 CPM,” says Alex Kinkade, Marketing Manager at StreamTech Engineering, LLC. “This is mostly due to the difference in the scale design, but also the ability for in-motion systems to have multiple printer-applicators arranged in series (throughput roughly doubles for each printer added). If 15 CPM is a satisfactory rate, stopped motion (accumulation conveyed) systems have their own sets of advantages and are recommended as a first step for most applications. “

Some of the choices can come down to the amount of labor you have available—many companies are today facing a labor shortage, making manual systems less appealing. “If you’re looking at a static system, you need to consider how long it takes to manually place and start the weighing process,” says Brad Thomas, Manager of Market Product Management for SICK, Inc. “Also consider the weight of the products you’re managing—does handling them take a toll on the employees?”

In many cases, today, the answer trends toward in-motion weighing and dimensioning systems. They have many advantages, says Jovan Bjelobrk, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Slate River Systems, Inc. “They automate a very repetitive, time-consuming process,” he explains. “At the same time, they remove the opportunity for error and allowing the system to value add.”

There are also few drawbacks to an in-motion system, says Bjelobrk. “In the scope of automation, the cost is pretty low,” he says. “In general, you are simply adding a scanner and scale to a conveyor.”

You should also consider the multi-carrier/ERP software response speed, however. “For an in-motion SLAM system, host response time of the shipping label and order data is critical,” says Kinkade. “Because the equipment is designed to run at a high throughput and because the equipment requires continuous motion, there will only be ‘X’ amount of seconds between the scale where the data is gathered and sent to the host and the print-apply unit where the label needs to be when the package arrives.

“Systems are designed with a comfortable amount of travel time between these locations, but it requires the host system to at least be repeatable/consistent with response times for a successful implementation. Stopped motion accumulation conveyed systems have an advantage here. If the host is late or unpredictable, the package can stop and wait at the printer for a few seconds. Note that this causes a slowdown of throughput but greatly reduces errors at the end of the shift.”

Kinkade’s general rule of thumb? “If your operation processes 10,000 packages a day or less, a traditional ‘accumulating’ or stopped-motion system is appropriate,” he says. “Above that, consider in-motion.”

Dimensioning Considerations

Image courtesy of StreamTech Engineering

Capturing dimensions can be just as important as weight, as demonstrated in the fishing pole/chargeback example. “There’s a lot of need for reporting accurate dimensions to your carrier,” says Bjelobrk. “They are often going to charge you for dimension instead of weight, and that charge will be higher.”

Thomas says that the most accurate technology for accurate dimensioning is laser. “It’s the most proven and reliable for high-speed sortation,” he says. “It can work with a variety of conveyor types, manage a ‘touching side-by-side’ algorithm (in SICK’s system), no belt gaps are needed, and can measure a minimum package size of 15 millimeters.”

After a laser system, says Thomas, the next most reliable approach is light-grid technology, which can dimension any object type, including flat parcels. Finally, a 3D-camera-based system is a good fit for lower speed—or static—systems. It’s less accurate and most suited to small product sizes.

You can find many off-the-shelf, compact 3D/2D vision-capable camera-based dimensioner units that can be easily integrated into an overall SLAM system, says Kinkade. “These work for the vast majority of applications, unless the packages are large,” he explains. “In the event that packages are long or completely flat, we can employ other technologies, too, such as light curtains that incorporate multiple scanners and can capture packages as they pass through.”

The bottom line: With straightforward, low-cost solutions widely available, you can reduce errors, make your operations more efficient and avoid those all-too-common chargeback scenarios. WMHS

MHI’s SLAM Industry Group provides education and thought leadership for “the last 100 feet” of warehouse and distribution operations. The group is made up of the companies that make the solutions and technologies that go into e-commerce fulfillment processes. You can learn more at www.mhi.org/slam. Click for more information about: