Getting Started with Automation: A Guide for Your Warehouse Management Solutions | Part 1, Business Assessment of Current Operation

tensionapdev on February 8, 2024

Assessing your current warehouse operations is the first step toward effective automation; by understanding demand, capacity, and growth goals, businesses can identify where automation solutions, like those offered by Tension Packaging & Automation, can alleviate bottlenecks, reduce overtime costs, and position fulfillment processes for scalable growth.

 

For all the buzz around automation in fulfillment and distribution operations, the casual observer who hasn’t automated their warehouse yet could be forgiven for thinking they’re the last ones to take the plunge. In reality, as recently as 2021 more than 80 percent of warehouses had no automation whatsoever. In some cases, that may be because those businesses took a close look at what they required to meet demand and concluded that they didn’t need automation. But it’s far more likely that they are part of the much larger group that isn’t sure what automation can achieve for them and, more importantly, isn’t sure how to get started implementing a warehouse management solution that would be right for them.

Growth is often the catalyst that pushes a business to move from curiosity regarding automation to an urgent need to do something to alleviate bottlenecks in their fulfillment processes. However, the wrong solution could potentially cost your business money without producing any significant benefit in accurate throughput. In this series, we’ll go through the steps to getting started on your automation journey to help ensure that your chosen solution meets your needs today and into the future. It begins with understanding what’s happening in your business now.

Taking a General Overview

Before you even begin looking at possible equipment and software, the first question is: How is your operation running today? Do you have enough people to keep things moving? Are you getting your orders out on time consistently? And if the answer to that last question is yes, are you using overtime to do so?

If you’re finding your existing workforce can’t keep up with demand on a regular basis, that’s an obvious problem that flags the need to consider automation. However, if you’re relying on overtime regularly to keep up, or surges in order volume routinely overwhelm your company’s ability to maintain timely shipments, these are also signs that your capacity is stretched to a point that limits your potential for growth. Leaning too hard on overtime also erodes your bottom line and runs the risk of burning out your workforce. In these cases, by expanding your capacity, automation helps to keep overtime expenses down and to reduce turnover.

Drilling Down on Specifics

Automation is a general term for different types of equipment, plus warehouse management software, that increase the volume of packages a fulfillment operation can process while optimizing accuracy. What configuration of packaging equipment, conveyor systems, and sortation systems will produce the greatest benefit for a company, however, depends on the specifics of how much and what they are shipping.

Volume is the first consideration. How many orders do you have going out per day? In our experience, around 500 to 1,000 orders a day is a point at which a warehouse should really be looking at options for integrating automation—but that’s a minimum, not a maximum. For a SLAM (Scan-Label-Apply-Manifest) system, it depends on the operation, but 500 orders per day is a general minimum where it starts to make sense.

Beyond that, it also matters what you are shipping and how. Are your products going out in boxes? Bags? What is the average mix per day? For example, if you’re shipping 500 packages per day, is it 200 boxes and 300 bags? This will help determine what type of conveyor and sortation systems would be best, as well as what type of automated packaging equipment might benefit your operation.

How Fast Do You Want to Grow?

The final factor you should be considering at this stage are the growth goals you have for your business in the near future. What are your growth plans in the next two to five years? What percentage of growth are you anticipating or aiming for per year? Twenty percent? Thirty percent?

You don’t have to invest in equipment that can instantly handle the volume your loftiest goals would demand, but you need to be sure your initial configuration is set up to give your operation room for immediate growth targets. You also want to be sure that your system can be readily adapted and augmented to keep pace with increased shipping volume and changing needs. The right solutions will make it easier to expand with a minimum of growing pains.

Your Automation Partner

If it’s time (or past time) for your warehouse to take a serious look at automation, Tension Packaging & Automation is your ideal partner. Our experience in taking eCommerce and pharmacy operations from little to no automation to customized systems that optimize productivity allows us to guide those just starting their automation journey. We’ll assess your needs, make recommendations that support your business goals, integrate your chosen solutions into your existing processes, and provide the training and support essential to ensure you get the most out of your automation investment.

Ready to get started? Contact Tension Packaging & Automation today to discuss your distribution needs.

SLAM: A Brief History (And How It Can Help Your Fulfillment Center in 2024)

tensionapdev on January 18, 2024

SLAM (Scan-Label-Apply-Manifest) automation streamlines the final steps of order fulfillment by improving throughput, reducing labor costs, and ensuring consistent accuracy in package labeling and manifesting, helping fulfillment centers meet growing customer demands with speed and efficiency.

With more and more transactions being conducted online, customers’ expectations for rapid and accurate fulfillment of their orders are at an all-time high, thanks in part to the increasingly sophisticated technology that allows distribution and fulfillment centers to keep up with demand. Of course, those anxiously waiting for a package to land on their doorstep might not be that interested in the process behind getting them the items they purchased successfully. However, if you’re wondering how your fulfillment center is going to take the next leap to keep growing numbers of customers satisfied, understanding how SLAM automation can benefit you is essential.

What Does SLAM Mean?

The acronym SLAM stands for Scan-Label-Apply-Manifest—the activities that take place after items have been packaged but before they’re put into the hands of the carrier entrusted to get it to its destination. This last 100 feet of the order fulfillment process includes numerous steps that introduce opportunities for delay and error when you must rely solely on manual labor. Wrong label on the package. Miscalculated dimensions that route the package to a more expensive shipping option. Repetitive tasks that increase the risk of workplace injuries for your employees as well as taking up valuable time that could be spent on higher-level tasks.

Where did the acronym SLAM come from? The term comes from Amazon, which developed the process. Given how heavily the company’s business model relies on fast and accurate fulfillment of orders to meet customer expectations (think about the last time you grumbled because your Prime order didn’t arrive until late in the evening!), and this fact isn’t that surprising.

What Does SLAM Do?

A full SLAM line starts by scanning the package, identifying it through the label attached during packaging, commonly called an LPN (license plate number). The actual weight can be verified against the expected weight, and the package can also be measured for its dimensions (DIMs) to help rate shop for the least expensive carrier. Then a carrier-compliant shipping label is created and applied. That label and the LPN are scanned to ensure a match, and then the package is sent to manifesting. If any discrepancies or errors are detected in weight or labeling, the package is diverted for special handling.

Depending on the needs of your fulfillment operation, you can have different versions of a SLAM line that handle only the steps you need automated. For example:

  • Print and Apply line only
  • DIM Scale only
  • Print and Apply, Scale only
  • Print and Apply, Scale, and Manifest (full SLAM line)

This flexibility allows you to configure your setup in the way that provides the most advantage to your business.

What Are the Benefits of SLAM?

When you use a SLAM line to help automate order fulfillment tasks, you can expect:

  • Improved throughput: Automation with built-in accuracy checks keeps packages moving for speedier throughput, boosting your ability to deal with surges of high demand.
  • Reduced labor: Strategically deploy your valuable workforce to where their expertise is really needed and ensure that your order fulfillment won’t be held back by a lack of personnel.
  • Consistent accuracy: Save money by reducing errors that can cost you on shipping fees and returns.

If your fulfillment center has been straining to keep up with orders in 2023—or if you’ve missed the mark more than once and have the customer complaints to show for it—now is the time to discover how a SLAM line can make your operation more efficient, expand your capacity, and reduce costs in 2024.

Custom Automation Solutions

At Tension Packaging & Automation, we’re experts at creating the right automation solutions to meet your unique requirements and business goals. We don’t just design, build, and install automation solutions—we provide the training, service, and support you need to get the most out of your investment. To learn more about how a customized SLAM line can help your fulfillment operations level up in 2024, contact us here today.

 

Sustainability Considerations of SLAM

tensionapdev on December 11, 2023

When planning your order fulfillment operations, efficiency and reliability in getting orders to customers are often top of mind. However, sustainability is becoming an increasingly vital consideration, as companies look for ways to reduce their environmental impact while improving their bottom line.

When you’re thinking about order fulfillment operations, your obvious first consideration is how effective your processes are in getting orders out the door and safely on the way to your customers. This is one of the reasons companies adopt automated solutions, as outdated systems that rely heavily on manual labor can turn into business-killing bottlenecks during surges in demand. Increasingly, however, sustainability—or how you can reduce the environmental impact of your operations—is taking on growing importance in order fulfillment. Why should sustainability matter for your shipping, and how can automation help?

With eCommerce making up a significant portion of US retail sales (15.6% of total sales for the 3rd quarter of 2023, according to the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce), consumers are taking notice of wasteful packaging practices and judging companies accordingly. Sustainability isn’t just about public perception, however. More importantly, companies are realizing many sustainable practices save money, benefiting their bottom line while burnishing their image.

A SLAM (Scan, Label, Apply, Manifest) line offers opportunities to improve the sustainability of order fulfillment in multiple ways, all while optimizing labor and increasing package throughput. What are some key areas to look at? Here are a few:

Low Energy-Consumption Conveyors

An automated system that isn’t energy efficient can become increasingly expensive to operate as energy costs continue to inexorably rise. Our conveyor system isn’t merely easy to customize, expand, reconfigure, or repurpose as your company’s needs change. This precision modular conveyor is also engineered for lower energy consumption, keeping your utility bills down.

Better Sized Packaging

Packages that are needlessly oversized relative to the items being shipped don’t just waste packaging material. Shippers have begun to assign rates based on package sizes, not just weight, so distribution centers have a clear incentive to create a better sized package to keep shipping costs as low as possible. Our SLAM line automates scanning and weighing packages so you can rate shop to find the least expensive shipping option for each package, saving on your freight costs. However, a SLAM line can also be combined with variable sized packaging equipment to increase those savings.

For example, our HPS Variable Length Polybagging Machine determines the optimum length of package for each item, making it possible to reduce the use of excess packaging material. On its own, this produces cost savings and creates a more sustainable approach by lowering the amount of packaging needed. In combination with a SLAM line, it also helps to further reduce shipping costs, as variable packaging ensures that you’re never paying to ship empty space.

In addition, we’re working an exciting, innovative new packaging equipment option for 2024 that will feature right-sized packaging, amplifying the potential for lower shipping costs and even better sustainable packaging solutions when incorporated into a SLAM system. Stay tuned!

Actual Packaging

The types of packaging you employ in your SLAM line are another factor to consider in your sustainability efforts. Both corrugate packaging and paper packages can be recyclable and may be made with a percentage of recycled content. If you’re using polybags for order fulfillment, however, you can still make choices that result in increased sustainability by selecting options that include post-consumer recycled content (PCR) and/or post-industrial content (PIC). These polybags can also be recycled in turn (as a low-density polyethylene or number 4 plastic), appealing to conservation-minded customers and demonstrating your commitment to environmentally friendly practices.

Your Partner in Automation Solutions

Sustainability initiatives can be a win-win in terms in order fulfillment if they’re done right. If you’re not sure how to integrate potential options so they produce the most savings and impact, Tension Packaging & Automation can help. We design, build, and install automation solutions that are not only customized to achieve your goals for improving fulfillment now, but that can also grow with your business for years to come. We’re also here to provide the service, support, and training you need to get the most out of your automation investment. To learn more, contact us today.

How Hospital Pharmacy Automation Improves Patient Safety

tensionapdev on October 30, 2023

Hospital pharmacies face immense pressure to dispense medications quickly and accurately, as delays or errors can have life-threatening consequences. Automation offers a solution by streamlining processes, reducing medication errors, and improving patient safety through technologies like bar code verification and automated quality control. Tension’s pharmacy automation solutions are designed to enhance efficiency and reliability, giving your team confidence in providing the best care for critically ill patients.

In a hospital setting, pharmacy operations face the continual pressure of dispensing a wide variety of medications to patients who may be in a critical state, needing immediate medical intervention. Accuracy is naturally of the highest importance, but so is speed—slowing down to fill a prescription could cost time patients can’t afford to lose, but supplying the wrong drug or the wrong dose could be worse. In fact, as reported by the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP), medication errors are among the most common medical errors, with the costs of treating drug-related injuries in hospitals amounting to $3.5 billion annually. It can be devastating to reflect such a mistake might have been avoidable.

When an error occurs, it can be natural to blame the individuals involved in the incident first, but often the systems and procedures in place set the stage for avoidable problems. When people are performing repetitive manual tasks under pressure, having to switch gears between multiple steps, and pause at each stage to read over and verify information, the points at which mistakes can creep in multiply. Automation can help improve patient safety by streamlining your processes and improving accuracy, reserving critical human attention for higher-level tasks. Here’s how Tension’s pharmacy automation equipment and software can improve patient safety in hospitals:

  1. Reducing Medication Errors: How many medications have confusingly similar names? How many medications can be beneficial at one dose and harmful at another? Automated medication dispensing in hospital pharmacies eliminates errors that might occur because a medication name or dosage was misread, or because an incorrect count was dispensed. Pharmacies can rely on consistent efficiency and accuracy around the clock.
  2. Improving Patient Safety with Automated Medication Verification: Key to guaranteeing patient safety is ensuring that a prescription is verified at every step of the way. The scanning technology in our WorkFlow Software System (WFS) uses bar codes for fast, easy verification that what’s being dispensed is what was ordered, so it can ultimately be delivered to the right patient.
  3. Automated Quality Control and Testing: In addition to bar code scanning that builds accuracy into your processes, WFS is designed with single-task workstations that allow your pharmacists and technicians to focus on the task at hand. The system is designed to be efficient by eliminating scrolling and switching back and forth between functions, which not only slows fulfillment but also increases the likelihood of mistakes. Quality control is built into the entire process, instead of requiring additional steps.

When medication errors occur in the hospital, they erode patients’ trust in the healthcare system even when harm is minor and are demoralizing to hospital workers. Worse, they can result in irreversible damage in the most severe cases. Automation can dramatically improve patient safety and maximize the productivity of your hospital pharmacy, giving your team and your patients confidence in the care you provide.

Customized Solutions for Your Hospital Pharmacy

Tension Packaging & Automation is a leader in dispensing equipment and software for pharmacy operations of all sizes. We understand that every pharmacy has a unique workflow, so our solutions are designed to be customizable, scalable, and adaptable. As your needs change, we can add additional processes and capabilities to keep your system up to date with your requirements. Just as critically, we’re here to ensure that you get the full value of your investment in automation with top-notch customer service. In addition to tailoring your system to your pharmacy’s needs, we fully train your workforce so they can realize the full benefit of automated support, and we continue to provide support and service as needed, with 24/7 availability for advice, technical support, and maintenance.

When you’re dealing with seriously ill patients in a hospital setting, you want every assurance that the systems you have put in place maximize their safety. To learn more about how Tension can successfully automate your hospital pharmacy, contact us here today.

The Impact of eCommerce Packaging on Brand Image and Recognition

tensionapdev on October 24, 2023

Your eCommerce packaging is more than just a way to get products safely to customers—it’s a powerful tool for building your brand. Strategic choices like sustainable materials and personalized designs can enhance your brand image, increase customer loyalty, and create a memorable unboxing experience. Don’t let packaging be an afterthought—let it be a statement that sets your business apart.

When your eCommerce business chooses packaging for shipping products to your customers, your considerations probably start with the fundamentals—picking the right kind of packaging to get your product where it needs to go safe and undamaged, without excess cost or wasted material. But if that’s where the conversation ends, you are missing out on significant opportunities to influence your brand image and recognition through your packaging.

After all, when a consumer receives their order, what does its packaging say about your company? If their items arrive on time and intact, that’s great, but there’s so much more you could be conveying with intentional choices that align with your overall branding and marketing strategy. Compared to a retail store, eCommerce businesses have fewer touchpoints in which to create a great experience, so you shouldn’t squander the chances you do get to create a good impression and build your brand. Consider some of the choices that can send a strong message.

Sustainability

Environmental awareness is extremely popular among consumers, with a solid majority indicating that they would pay more for products with sustainable packaging. You can enhance your brand image by tapping into this customer sentiment with your choice of eCommerce packaging. Options include recyclable paper packaging or polybags that include post-consumer resin (PCR) or post-industrial content (PIC), which keep nonbiodegradable plastic waste out of landfills and protect the environment. Customers will positively associate the extra effort you take to align with their values with your brand reputation.

Personalization

Why send a generic package when your materials offer a blank slate for delivering additional messaging directly into the hands of your customers? Putting your logo or slogan on the outside of your package can boost your brand recognition and encourage customer loyalty. Custom packaging can also increase the perceived value of your product and help differentiate you from competitors. In addition, this space can be used for marketing campaigns or special promotions to increase future sales. Both poly bags and paper packaging can be custom printed, giving you options for personalization no matter what your ideal packaging is. Picture your customers’ faces lighting up when they see your logo on the package they’ve just received and realize the order they were anticipating has arrived, and you’ll see the value.

Packaging and Brand Perception

Quality packaging matters for more than just getting your products from point A to point B. Your customers will make judgments about your company based on what they see in your packaging choices. For example, good strong materials and good seals demonstrate that your company takes care in its packaging, which suggests your customers can expect equal concern in the quality of your products and the investment you put into customer service. Similarly, right-sized packaging sends a positive message—after all, we’ve all had the experience of receiving one small item in an outsized box mostly full of empty space. A package that is appropriately sized for its contents is a signal that your company spends its money and efforts wisely and efficiently.

Your Source for Custom Packaging Solutions

Tension Packaging & Automation understands that the demands of eCommerce sales are different from those of traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. Our packaging expertise can help you elevate receiving a package into a satisfying brand experience that complements your overall marketing strategy. We can help you select the right packaging materials for your application (including sustainable packaging) to optimize your fulfillment operation’s workflow while protecting and promoting your brand. We can also help you choose the right customization for your packaging to produce the best return on investment for your marketing efforts.

Realizing that there’s more you could do to get the full benefit of strategic packaging choices for your brand? Don’t wait to get started. To learn more about how Tension can make your eCommerce packaging work to strengthen your brand, contact us here today.

Top 4 Benefits of Tension’s PharmaPATH™ Back-End Pharmacy Workflow Software

tensionapdev on September 28, 2023

In pharmacy operations, there’s no room for error or delays—patients depend on receiving the right medications quickly and accurately. Tension Automation’s PharmaPATH™ workflow software streamlines order fulfillment with features like dedicated task workstations, barcode verification for accuracy, and an intuitive touchscreen interface. Designed for adaptability, PharmaPATH ensures your pharmacy operates at peak efficiency while staying customizable to grow with your business.

Whether you’re running a mail order, central fill, specialty, or hospital outpatient pharmacy, there’s no room for error in filling prescription and nonprescription orders. It’s also not acceptable to sacrifice speed for accuracy—when patients are waiting on their medications, they rely on their pharmacy to supply exactly what they need when they need it.

Unfortunately, the process of taking fully confirmed order requests and turning them into prescriptions that have been accurately and quickly dispensed, verified, packaged, and manifested is full of opportunities for mistakes and inefficiencies to creep in, especially when a growing volume of orders threatens to overwhelm your current capacity. Whether you’ve automated dispensing, fulfill orders manually, or have a hybrid setup, Tension Automation’s PharmaPATH back-end pharmacy workflow software is an easy-to-use solution that optimizes efficiency and increases productivity from start to finish.

How does PharmaPATH make your job easier while giving you the peace of mind of knowing that every order is going out accurately filled? Here are the top four benefits of our software:

  1. Dedicated Task Workstations – Everybody knows that systems that require multiple tasks and processes per screen inevitably slow things down, forcing users to continually shift gears as they complete steps. Worse, attempting to speed up such layered tasks to keep up with demand can cause mistakes. Our dedicated workstations allow your pharmacy technician or pharmacist to focus on one thing at a time, resulting in reduced processing time overall. The operator is able to excel at a single task rather than juggling many.
  2. Accuracy Scans – Barcode scan verification means that accuracy is literally built into every step of the process. Reduce time lost to correcting errors.
  3. Rapid Processing Time – Scans don’t just enhance accuracy; they also only take seconds to process. (Compare that to the time it would take an operator to read and verify a label, feeling confident they’d gotten it right.) In addition, WFS is programmed for intelligent order monitoring, determining the fastest processing method for each item dispensed. In combination, these allow for higher throughput.
  4. Touchscreen-Based User Interface – Our UI is simple, intuitive, and designed to reduce training efforts, increase throughput, and eliminate mistakes. Color-coded direction buttons on the human-machine interface (HMI) direct users to the next step in the process, telling them exactly what to do. Our software eliminates the need to use a cumbersome keyboard AND mouse alongside a touchscreen.

Made for You: Adaptable and Customizable

The beauty of our back end pharmacy WorkFlow Software is not just that it speeds up accurate pharmacy order fulfillment, but that it is designed to be modified to fit your unique workflows, rather than trying to shoehorn your operations into a one-size-fits-all box. We also know that a successful operation is one that changes, so WFS can also be adapted to add additional processes as your company grows.

Tension’s PharmaPATH also includes a customizable dashboard that gives you at-a-glance visibility into your operations. Track your inventory, monitor which orders have been fulfilled, and stay on top of your output targets. This too can be customized as your business grows and evolves, depending on what data points you need to track.

Best of all, PharmaPATH is backed by Tension’s outstanding customer service. We’re here to ensure that your system is fully customized to the workflow of your pharmacy operations, to provide the necessary training to get your workforce up to speed, and to help you realize the full value of your investment. We’re also here to provide ongoing support and customization as needed so your system always keeps pace with the needs of your business.

Your Source for Pharmacy Solutions

As a leader in packaging equipment and automation systems specializing in pharmacy and eCommerce, Tension Packaging & Automation is dedicated to helping our customers optimize productivity with results-driven solutions. To find out more about how our back end pharmacy WorkFlow Software can improve the efficiency and profitability of your pharmacy operation, contact us here today.

eCommerce Automation: A Guide to Automating the Last 100 Feet, Part 2: SLAM Optimization

tensionapdev on September 21, 2023

Increased sales are great news for your eCommerce business—until your fulfillment operations struggle to keep up. A SLAM (Scan, Label, Apply, Manifest) line can streamline the shipping process, reducing errors and bottlenecks while increasing throughput. From automated labeling to precise sortation, Tension’s SLAM solutions ensure efficiency and accuracy, allowing your business to scale without sacrificing quality.

Increased sales can be a cause for elation in an eCommerce business, or they can be a rock smashing your fulfillment operations against the unrelenting hard place of insufficient labor to meet demand. In Part 1 of this series, we examined the role of right-sizing your packages in keeping shipping costs down and how automation can help you accurately calculate DIMs, efficiently shop for the best rates, and avoid costly adjustments and fees. Now we’ll take a look at the other features of a scanning, labeling, application, and manifesting (SLAM) line and how they work in concert to improve accuracy and throughput.

The Many Steps of Sending a Package Out the Door

Preparing a package to ship to a customer requires a sequence of steps that introduce many opportunities for bottlenecks or errors, especially if you’re relying on an overworked manual labor force. Once the products are packed into a carton or bag, that package must be weighed and measured (again, see Part 1 for the errors and problems that can arise here). Then it must be labeled for the correct recipient and shipping service, and routed to the right carrier to head out on its way.

It’s easy to see where mistakes can creep into repetitive tasks when workers are pressed for time trying to keep up with surges in demand. Wrong label on a package. Box deposited in the wrong bin for shipping. Worse, injuries can result from repetitive motion or from accidents when there’s a rush to get too much done. Automating this process not only drastically reduces these kinds of issues, but also frees up your employees for higher-skilled tasks. Here’s how.

Labeling and Sortation

A package’s SLAM line journey starts with packaging and dimension and weight capture. But that’s just the beginning of how automating the last 100 feet can optimize your fulfillment operations.

  • Print & Apply Labeling: This station assures that the right package is addressed to the right person per the label. It can label bags or cartons, assuring that the line stays moving even when dealing with a variety of package types and sizes. Custom labels are also available, so your packages can fit in seamlessly with your overall marketing strategy.
  • Sortation Scanner: At this station, the package is identified and diverted to the appropriate carrier and class of service with the assistance of our Tension Director software.
  • Z-Sorter for Shipping Sortation: Here packages are routed to the appropriate carrier, using our proprietary waterfall design that works with gravity to create a smooth sorting operation. The sorting machine is modular, so additional sortation units can be added or removed to meet your operation’s needs, depending on volume, carrier selection, shipping regions, and more.

The result from start to finish is an increase in efficiency that allows you to process hundreds of orders per hour, with an improvement in accuracy that reduces costs as packages flow through the system. Best of all, Tension Automation’s SLAM lines are fully customizable, allowing you to adopt a solution that is configured exactly to the unique requirements of your distribution center.

Your Expert eCommerce Automation Resource

If you’re ready to talk about how automation could help your business but have been paralyzed because you don’t know where to start or what improvements will have the greatest impact, Tension Packaging & Automation can help. We can assist in examining your current processes and capabilities, determining your goals for automation, and figuring out the right equipment to implement an effective strategy.

In addition to designing, building, and installing warehouse automation solutions for eCommerce fulfillment, Tension is also your partner in training, service, and ongoing support. As your needs change, we’re here to ensure that your packaging equipment and automation solutions are optimized to grow with your business and that your investment pays off for years to come. To learn more about the benefits of a SLAM line in your business, contact us today.

#likeaboss: Top Three Ways to Handle Labor Shortages During Your Peak Season

tensionapdev on August 29, 2023

The holiday season is fast approaching, and with it comes a surge in eCommerce orders and inevitable returns. For retailers facing labor shortages, automation offers a lifeline to keep fulfillment operations running smoothly. From full automation to hybrid solutions, Tension Automation provides scalable options to optimize efficiency, meet peak-season demand, and deliver a strong ROI.

With the biggest shopping season of the year nearly upon us, eCommerce retailers bracing for a flood of holiday orders (and the returns that follow) may be facing a sobering realization: they don’t have the workers to get those orders shipped.

Economic news has been mixed over the last year, leading to early predictions that retail sales will only grow modestly from 2022 numbers. However, the recession many economists expected hasn’t materialized—despite rising interest rates, inflation has been declining, wages are going up, families are continuing to spend, and unemployment is low. How low? As of July 2023, it sat at 3.5%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

You know peak season is coming. Holiday purchases start in October, spiking on Black Friday and over the Thanksgiving weekend and staying strong through the holiday season. January is also a busy shipping month, with the inevitable returns that occur after all the presents have been unwrapped.

If your past solution has been to add staff to ensure orders are processed and on their way before holiday shipping deadlines with the major carriers, the numbers aren’t on your side. That’s no reason to panic, though. You can still stay on top of order fulfillment (like a boss) with automation solutions that let you make the most of the workforce you have.

Automation Solutions to Overcome Labor Shortages

Every eCommerce order fulfillment company is different, which is why Tension Automation offers a range of options to allow you to introduce automation to your system to enhance your efficiency and accuracy. What are the possibilities?

  • Solution #1 – Full Automation – Did you know that on average, implementing automated packaging equipment can yield 4x package throughput? A fully automated line with packaging equipment and a SLAM (Scan-Label-Apply-Manifest) line that automatically scans, weighs, and identifies package dimensions to handle the DIMs, labeling, and sortation part of your order fulfillment process can help minimize the challenges that come with labor shortages.
  • Solution #2 – Semi Automation – Manual packaging stations with a SLAM line; if, for example, your product doesn’t lend itself to automated packaging, you can still optimize the last 100 feet of your order fulfillment process, devoting your labor pool to getting packages ready while the DIMs, labeling, and sortation are automatically handled.
  • Solution #3 – Hybrid – Integrate an automated packaging system, conveyors, sortation, a DIM scale, a print and apply label system, or a combination of these elements to eliminate costly bottlenecks in your order fulfillment processes. Not sure what you need? Tension Automation is an industry expert at integration. We can consult on a new layout and seamlessly implement a customized solution with our integration software.

Measurable Savings with Automation

Automation is an investment in your business with measurable financial benefits that boost your bottom line. Consider these advantages:

  • Less Labor: Strategic automation increases order fulfillment without increased hiring, meaning your operations won’t be held back by a lack of personnel at critical times (or the training required to bring permanent or temporary workers up to speed). Keep your payroll lean and focus your staff’s valuable expertise on high-skilled tasks.
  • More Throughput: Consumer loyalty is fickle—one study reported that 69 percent of respondents were much less or less likely to shop with a retailer again if their delivery wasn’t made within two days of when they expected it. Automation helps you prevent order backlogs that can affect future sales.
  • Short ROI: In addition to improving overall fulfillment speed and cutting down on labor costs, automation can reduce errors and the amount you pay for shipping. Typical time to realize a full return on your investment is only 12 to 18 months.
  • Bonus Savings: A variable packaging system can accelerate your ROI by reducing your use of consumable shipping materials.

Staying Ahead During Peak Season

When increasing orders and limited staffing are on a collision course in your order fulfillment operation, automation can help keep you effortlessly ahead of the curve. Tension Automation has a variety of flexible, expandable, easily integrated solutions to make you the boss of peak season this year and every year. Contact us today to learn more about your options.

eCommerce Automation: A Guide to Automating the Last 100 Feet, Part 1: Package Size

tensionapdev on August 22, 2023

When rising customer demands and labor shortages strain your operations, automation can be the key to efficiency and cost savings. A SLAM line ensures accurate package dimensions, enabling rate shopping and reducing costly shipping adjustments. Tension Packaging & Automation’s solutions streamline the last 100 feet of fulfillment, helping you save money while boosting throughput.

When rising customer demands and labor shortages put warehousing and fulfillment operations squarely in the middle of an uncomfortable pinch, automation can be the key to meeting expectations and keeping your clients happy. Just as importantly, however, it can save both time and money in ways that go far beyond supplementing your existing labor force.

The last 100 feet of your operations—scanning, labeling, application, and manifesting (SLAM) of outbound customer shipments—is a significant area of opportunity for improvement. We’ll start by looking at the impact package size can have on your shipping costs, and ways in which automation can help keep those costs under control.

The Importance of a Right-Size Package

The first consideration in packaging items for shipment is, of course, is having the right size and material to ensure that items arrive to their recipients intact and undamaged. Beyond that, however, the picture becomes more nuanced. Carriers charge to ship based on either the weight of the package or the dimensional weight (DIM), whichever is higher. In addition, larger packages mean more money spent on packaging materials, especially if you’re shipping small items in boxes that must be stuffed with additional packing materials to protect their contents. Thus, packages should optimally be only as large as they absolutely need to be and no larger. 

Automation can be a good solution for consistently matching products with the correct size packaging. Using a variable sized package in particular is a good defense against paying to, in effect, ship empty space unnecessarily. However, this isn’t the only way automation can lower your shipping costs.

Do You Know Your DIMS? The Shipping Carriers Do

The major shipping carriers know that it isn’t in their best interest to let customers get away with paying artificially low rates on light packages that take up a disproportionate amount of cargo space. Both FedEx and UPS use a DIM factor of 139—dividing a package’s cubic dimensions by that number gives you its DIM weight. If that number is larger than the package’s actual weight, that’s what determines the charge. The divisor used can vary by carrier and class of service, so determining which rate applies to each package can be time-consuming if you’re trying to do it manually.

Unfortunately, this isn’t an area in which you want to just guess and hope you get it right. Both UPS and FedEx have introduced new scanning technology that measures each package received to obtain more accurate weight and dimensions, which has resulted in higher shipping rates. Further, in cases where incorrect shipping details have been provided to the carrier, you may be hit with correction fees in addition to the actual adjustment of shipping costs.

Tension’s SLAM line can not only help eliminate nasty surprises in your shipping invoices, but also allow you reduce those costs from the outset while increasing your throughput. Each package is scanned and weighed as it goes through, correctly identifying the dimensions to enable rate shopping as well as accurate manifesting. Because the system automatically captures this information, you eliminate potential errors that can creep in from manual manifesting and prevent costly adjustments in shipping fees.

Finding the Right eCommerce Automation Partner

If you’re considering automation, you’ll achieve the best results with careful planning, clear goals, and the right automation partner to help implement your vision. It starts with examining your current processes and capabilities and deciding whether you want to replace your existing systems completely or augment them with new equipment.

Tension Packaging & Automation is a leader in packaging equipment and automation solutions, designing, building, installing, and supporting warehouse automation solutions for eCommerce order fulfillment. We can help you identify the right solution for your needs and provide training, service, and responsive ongoing support to ensure that you realize the full value of your investment. To learn more about the benefits of automated packaging or a SLAM line in your business, contact us today.

#likeaboss: Top 5 Ways to Prepare for Peak Season with Conveyor and Sortation Solutions

tensionapdev on July 20, 2023

Peak season, spanning October through January, sees record-breaking eCommerce sales and returns, with $35 billion spent online in 2022 alone—a 4% increase from the previous year. To stay ahead, flexible and modular sortation and conveyor solutions, like Tension’s Z-Sort and SLAM systems, can boost throughput, handle product variability, and simplify returns. Discover how automation can help you dominate peak season operations and maximize ROI.

Peak season, or the time frame when retailers handle a large surge in orders, usually runs from October as consumers start to prepare for the upcoming holiday season through January as warehouses are still dealing with high return . This article explores the top five compelling reasons to get prepare for peak season.

Key Figures to Consider for Peak Season Preparation

The data suggests that neither holiday spending nor online sales show any signs of slowing down, despite reports of decreasing consumer confidence due to inflation.

Top 5 Ways to Prepare for Peak Season

As eCommerce order fulfillment companies prepare for order demand increases with 2023 peak season, consider these top five ways to prepare for peak season (like a boss) with conveyor and sortation systems: 

Flexibility for Wide Product Variability

Sorting machines not only take the manual out of your sortation process and lend productivity to your team, sortation equipment can also handle a wide variety of product sizes/shapes/weights that are packaged in things like paper mailers, padded mailers, polybags or polymailers and poly bubble bags.

Expandability for Increased Capacity

Sorters can be designed as a more compact solution to fit into a smaller space and maximize your warehouse footprint. Tension’s Z-Sort can easily be expanded as your business needs grow and evolve, and its adjustable height allows for taller gaylords if needed.

These design features allow you to add more capacity through better use of the floor and vertical airspace in your warehouse, critical considerations during your peak season.

Not-So-Modest-Modularity

In addition to increased capacity needs, sorters can be designed to grow for a changing product mix. The modular design of Tension’s Z-Sort allows order fulfillment centers to easily add on or change layout to accommodate changing warehouse automation needs.

Integration Made Easy

Integrate sorting machines and conveyor systems with new or existing automatic packaging equipment in your eCommerce warehouse or pharmacy fulfillment center. Or, go all out this peak season and boost throughput with a complete SLAM (Scan, Label, Apply and Manifest) solution, featuring an intelligent conveyor system that takes the manual process of processing your packages from order induction through dimension and weight capture all the way to shipping sortation.

Multi-Talented Equipment

Sortation equipment and conveyor systems are also ideal for returns processing. According to the FedEx 2022 Peak Season Report, 1.4 billion or 13% of orders purchased in the 2022 holiday season were returned (a 63% increase year-over-year), and 40% of those accounted for purchases made online. And consumer expectations are overwhelmingly in favor of simple, easy returns: 98% of respondents in this study indicated fast and convenient returns will make them more likely to order again.

Case Study: Achieving a 300% Increase in Throughput during Peak with Tension’s SLAM Solution

Discover how an effective sortation and conveyor solution can lead to significant cost savings and deliver a favorable ROI for your organization. Explore our compelling case study on how Tension’s Slam Solution helped Kredo, Inc. achieve an impressive 300% increase in throughput during peak.

Case Study: An effective sortation and conveyor solution must contribute to cost savings and result in an acceptable ROI for your organization. Read how our customer enjoyed a 300% increase in throughput during peak with Tension’s SLAM solution in our new case study, “How Tension’s SLAM Solution Helped Kredo, Inc., Increase Throughput by 300% During Peak.”

Ready to revolutionize your peak season operations? Click here to download. 

Contact Us 

As your order fulfillment operations navigates both an increase in order demand and the challenge of increased volume of returns this peak season, consider the benefits of a flexible, expandable, modular and easy integrated sortation and conveyor solution (and show peak season who’s boss this year). 

Contact us now to get the conversation started.