Picking/Packing

Picking and packing operations today operate across every industry. Often these operations rely upon batch picking where product is picked out of storage location in large quantities and staged into areas adjacent to the packers. Then a multitude of packers pick the items required for their orders and place them into shipping boxes.

Due to the shear amount of volume that runs through these areas and the time constraints scanning a barcode for each item before placing it into a box is usually too costly. That is why a majority of businesses rely on the packer to get the proper items and quantities into the box as defined by the order. Since packers are human, mistakes are made, and many operations then implement the use of scales to help determine (based upon arbitrary weights and prorating) whether the box contents are correct.

Introducing bar code technology after this process can help increase the accuracy while at the same time not affecting the speed in which a box may be packed and readied for shipping.

Per compliance requirements a bar coded label would be affixed to the box. Prior to the box being closed the bar code is scanned at the packing station and weighed. Discrepancies can be checked by comparing the expected weight of the packed carton against what was being read by the scale.

Recent RFID compliance mandates additionally require an RFID tag to be encoded and affixed to the carton before shipping and this value included in ASN transmission. Using printer/encoder technology both mandates may be accommodated with a single RFID label.