Warehouse managers have long known that pack-and-ship operations represent one of the most labor-intensive and costly areas of the warehouse. However, automating this area has been challenging due to the lack of a cost-effective turnkey solution that can be rapidly deployed, without costly customization and implementation.
Until now.
Schedule a Pakt Demo at one of our customer sites.
Introducing Pakt™ – Pack and Ship Automation Simplified
Meet Pakt, Numina’s all-in-one modular, scalable, post-pick, end-of-line pack-and-ship solution. Pakt automates the final 100′ of a DC’s order fulfillment operation. Pakt includes predeveloped modules that streamline labor and eliminate fulfillment bottlenecks in the pack-and-ship operation.
In our last blog, we reproached traditional integrators for making the design, implementation, and support process for automated pack-and-ship solutions needlessly complex and cost prohibitive.
We have formed this opinion because of the lessons learned from deploying 200+ pack-and-ship solutions over the years. Our frustration stemmed from the lack of innovation and productization in a category that so desperately needs it.
Pakt is designed for warehouses that depend on people performing manual packing and manifesting tasks such as tote-based picking, order packing, keystrokes, hand weighing, & hand applying shipping labels and packing slip documentation.
By automating these tasks, Pakt saves an operation $350k of labor per shift for every ten manual workers in packing + shipping.
These savings translate into a 12–18-month ROI for single-shift operations and a 6–9-month ROI for two-shift operations.
The Pakt automation line can accommodate operations of all sizes. Operating in a small footprint, it provides ~500% throughput improvements and has the capacity to scale up to 1,800 cartons per hour.
The Pakt system is ideal for warehouses shipping 2,000+ pre-packed cartons and full case parcels daily.
Pakt is designed with scale in mind – it is modularly built with:
1. Induct with advanced Cartonization – Pakt’s cartonization logic goes far beyond just liquid fill logic, enabling customers to achieve over 90% cube utilization.
6. QC Exception Lane – For cartons that are outside of the expected weight threshold to be diverted to an exception lane for further quality control
2. Scan, Weigh, Vision Audit – To ensure the right products have been picked into the correct shipping container based on weight and to provide image-based traceability via cameras.
7. Print and Apply – To automatically manifest, print, and apply shipping labels without any manual touches.
3. Automatic Document Insertion – Print, Fold, Insertion (PFI)/Document insertion: To automatically insert any packing slips, marketing materials, or compliance documentation
8. Sortation Scanner – To scan the box after label application to accurately sort to the destination location.
4. Void Fill & Auto-taping – To have rules-based, system-directed void insertion as well as automatic taping of the shipping container
9. Shipping Sortation – To automatically divert shipping containers based on parcel carriers, LTL, and FTL designations.
5. Dimension and Weight Capture – To calculate an accurate dimensional weight of a carton to properly rate shop and to avoid carrier chargebacks.
10. Pakt Complete – Rest easy knowing your orders have been shipped in time for carrier cut-off.
1. Induct with advanced Cartonization – Pakt’s cartonization logic goes far beyond just liquid fill logic, enabling customers to achieve over 90% cube utilization.
2. Scan, Weigh, Vision Audit – To ensure the right products have been picked into the correct shipping container based on weight and to provide image-based traceability via cameras.
3. Automatic Document Insertion – Print, Fold, Insertion (PFI)/Document insertion: To automatically insert any packing slips, marketing materials, or compliance documentation
4. Void Fill & Auto-taping – To have rules-based, system-directed void insertion as well as automatic taping of the shipping container
5. Dimension and Weight Capture – To calculate an accurate dimensional weight of a carton to properly rate shop and to avoid carrier chargebacks.
6. QC Exception Lane – For cartons that are outside of the expected weight threshold to be diverted to an exception lane for further quality control
7. Print and Apply – To automatically manifest, print, and apply shipping labels without any manual touches.
8. Sortation Scanner – To scan the box after label application to accurately sort to the destination location.
9. Shipping Sortation – To automatically divert shipping containers based on parcel carriers, LTL, and FTL designations.
10. Pakt Complete – Rest easy knowing your orders have been shipped in time for carrier cut-off.
The Numina Group has implemented pack and ship solutions in hundreds of operations throughout North America. As a result of our experience, our customers are assured of gaining a reliable, scalable turnkey software solution supported by our comprehensive services.
Pakt is differentiated from other solutions due to its complete turnkey configuration. Pakt comes pre-configured with everything you’ll need to automate operations. It is built around a powerful combination of real-time warehouse execution and control software that includes cartonization logic, high-performance hardware sourced by Numina, and comprehensive data analytics to monitor performance.
Pakt™ automates 70% of the manual touches out of the pack-and-ship process. This includes: scan of the license plate, audit of items picked, build and taping of the shipping carton, repacking from a tote, printing of pack slips, adding of void fill, the sealing of the shipping container, the weighing of the shipping container, entering carton dimensional weight, manifesting, printing the shipping label(s), peeling and applying the shipping label(s), and sorting to carrier.
Pakt™ uses sophisticated cartonization logic to determine the right box size yielding up to 93% space utilization of the shipping container. Pakt goes well beyond using liquid fill logic (LxWxH) to determine the proper carton size. It uses Tetris-like algorithms to account for extreme dimensions. Just as importantly, Pakt’s cartonization logic knows when to select polybag/mailers for the shipping container, eliminating shipping costs by up to $4 per order. Pakt’s cartonization logic can be applied pre or post picking to accommodate both pick-to-tote and pick-to-carton environments.
The typical manual associate will have the capacity to pack and ship ~1 order per minute. On the other hand, Pakt™ can process 10 cartons (max mechanical rate of 18 cartons/minute) in that same amount of time. Based on that manual rate, that is 1000% performance increase in containers per hour throughput. This capacity provides your organization the room it needs to grow without adding manual labor.
It is critical that an organization competing in today’s marketplace has sufficient capacity to pick, pack and ship orders the same day. Because Pakt™ can process, 600-900 cartons/hour, operations can process last-minute orders that drop right before order cut-off time. This hour leading up to order cut-off time is the “takt time” (we prefer to call it “pakt time”) for your operation. The added capacity gained from automating pack and ship frees up labor to focus on value added picking tasks to meet tight delivery windows.
Pakt removes 70% of the labor out of the post-pick process. From a training perspective, this is immediately 70% less total ramp time required for your operation. Coupling that with a contemporary, system directed touch screen and you can have associates ready to pack/ship with Pakt in a matter of minutes!
Pakt calculates the dimensional weight of your carton, allowing you to rate shop and eliminate chargebacks. Dimensional weight is not only important to reduce carrier accessorials, but it also helps ensure the smallest carton was selected. Pakt integrates with parcel manifesting software to determine the least expensive shipping method and to guarantee the correct shipping label has been applied. This also eliminates chargebacks.
Every order Pakt™ processes gets weighed to make sure the right products were picked. Pakt includes an exception lane that diverts cartons that do not fall into the expected weight threshold to be audited for quality control.
Every carton gets a picture taken of its contents. The image is married to the order detail, so in the event there is a dispute as to what was packed into box, customer service representatives can easily double check the carton content and provide photo evidence aligned to the accuracy of the order.
Pakt validates sort to parcel carrier to avoid the customer service nightmare and costs associated with mis-shipping orders. Losing a customer due to mis-shipments can conservatively cost a company up to $250 when you take into account the customer support charges, lost inventory, chargebacks, and the likely scenario that the customer will repeat purchases.
Numina Group has over 35 years of experience in warehouse layout design, warehouse software development, systems integration services, and implementation of automated warehouse systems. Our professional team of design and software engineers has worked in hundreds of distribution operations and brings years of onsite experience in warehouse management, software, and material handling solutions to every project.
We work collaboratively with you to optimize your Pakt solution before implementation, and we’re on hand throughout the go-live and afterward as a single point of contact for all calls related to your automated warehouse system.
1. Induct with advanced Cartonization – Pakt’s cartonization logic goes far beyond just liquid fill logic, enabling customers to achieve over 90% cube utilization.
6. QC Exception Lane – For cartons that are outside of the expected weight threshold to be diverted to an exception lane for further quality control
2. Scan, Weigh, Vision Audit – To ensure the right products have been picked into the correct shipping container based on weight and to provide image-based traceability via cameras.
7. Print and Apply – To automatically manifest, print, and apply shipping labels without any manual touches.
3. Automatic Document Insertion – Print, Fold, Insertion (PFI)/Document insertion: To automatically insert any packing slips, marketing materials, or compliance documentation
8. Sortation Scanner – To scan the box after label application to accurately sort to the destination location.
4. Void Fill & Auto-taping – To have rules-based, system-directed void insertion as well as automatic taping of the shipping container
9. Shipping Sortation – To automatically divert shipping containers based on parcel carriers, LTL, and FTL designations.
5. Dimension and Weight Capture – To calculate an accurate dimensional weight of a carton to properly rate shop and to avoid carrier chargebacks.
10. Pakt Complete – Rest easy knowing your orders have been shipped in time for carrier cut-off.
1. Induct with advanced Cartonization – Pakt’s cartonization logic goes far beyond just liquid fill logic, enabling customers to achieve over 90% cube utilization.
2. Scan, Weigh, Vision Audit – To ensure the right products have been picked into the correct shipping container based on weight and to provide image-based traceability via cameras.
3. Automatic Document Insertion – Print, Fold, Insertion (PFI)/Document insertion: To automatically insert any packing slips, marketing materials, or compliance documentation
4. Void Fill & Auto-taping – To have rules-based, system-directed void insertion as well as automatic taping of the shipping container
5. Dimension and Weight Capture – To calculate an accurate dimensional weight of a carton to properly rate shop and to avoid carrier chargebacks.
6. QC Exception Lane – For cartons that are outside of the expected weight threshold to be diverted to an exception lane for further quality control
7. Print and Apply – To automatically manifest, print, and apply shipping labels without any manual touches.
8. Sortation Scanner – To scan the box after label application to accurately sort to the destination location.
9. Shipping Sortation – To automatically divert shipping containers based on parcel carriers, LTL, and FTL designations.
10. Pakt Complete – Rest easy knowing your orders have been shipped in time for carrier cut-off.
