Packaging and order fulfillment best practices?

[KristineS]

I definitely recommend having one person pack the order and another person check it before the box is closed. It is so easy for one person to see what they want to see, especially if they're pulling a lot of orders at once. Adding a fresh pair of eyes to the mix can really help eliminate mistakes.

[vangogh]

I keep thinking of the checking like proofreading. No matter how many times one person proofs copy they inevitably miss something. After reading the same thing a few times your mind just sees the right spelling to certain words even though they're spelled wrong. Sometimes a second pair of eyes is necessary to catch everything.

I'd look into scanners though. Some of the apps make it look like an inexpensive option. You'd need a bluetooth scanner, but a quick search is showing some under $200. There's probably a solution in there. It might cost a little something to get the right setup, but if it saves you money on incorrect orders it should pay for itself before too long.

[billbenson]

My products are drop shipped from a large manufacturer. They weigh the package and so does UPS or whatever shipper. When I have had customer complaints for items not shipped, they go back to weights. They know the weight of everything that goes into the box as well as the box.

You could add to your process weighing each package. Unless your products are very light, I would think you could catch a lot of errors that way. You could automate it further by having what the total weight should be on the packing slip to confirm you are close in weight.

Just an idea.

[greenoak]

i would probably put in one more check point if it was a repeating problem...and look a little harder at the whole system....

[barracudacals]

Thanks all,

I think we are going to have the shipper take a third look before taping up the box and, when possible have a second person check the order, especially when it's a big one. I'll report back after a good test.

John

[Georgias Gifts]

John,
I have the new Inc. 500 List magazine and there was a section on companies for Logistics & Transportation. Might be worth contacting some of them and if they can't help maybe they can refer someone.

[BeTheBest]

I hear the pain! Just a suggestion that shouldn't make you change your entire database. Can you change the LABELS on the products?? By that, I mean insert some '-' dashes to break up the numbers. All the numbers crunched together make it difficult.

As an example:

BR32003 and a BC32003

Change to:
BR-3-2003 and a BC-3-2003

Don't know if that will work for you... but I think breaking it up like that makes the differences a little easier to spot!

Hope that helps! Good luck!

[RobertL]

Hi John,
I run a fulfillment business and we have virtually zero defects on our side. Sometimes the client or the courier messes up but that's another story. The way we have accomplished this is by using out own in-house software. If you use off-the-shelf software you are guaranteed to have things mess up some times. If you create the code you are in full control, it's the only way.
If you're organized and structured and make your own code everything will work.

[Bobjob]

There must be something in the air. I normally make two mistakes a year, so far this year I've made about ten. Plus my customers have made about ten as well. It could be the layout of your shop, the layout on the packing list, it could be anything. You can always charge your employees the freight for the mistake. That might help them with finding out what the problem is and remedying it. It sounds like being careless.

[RobertL]

Consider paying a quality engineer to come and look at your operations for a couple of hours and make a simple assessment. Shouldn't run you more than a couple of hundred, and it might fix your problem. Best and cheapest might be a close to graduation industrial engineering student at a nearby university, they always have the time and their very eager to do these types of projects. Sounds like there's something fundamentally wrong and they can pinpoint it.