BY DAVID MALONEY, SENIOR EDITOR
CUBING & WEIGHING
materialhandlingupdate
Cubing and weighing systems
may be best known for their
use in shipping operations. But
they can boost performance in
a variety of other areas as well.
a measure of success
AS ANYONE WHO’S EVER HAD TO GATHER WEIGHT AND DIMENSIONAL
data on a pile of packages can attest, dimensioning systems (also known as cubing and
weighing systems) can take a lot of the pain out of the process. Instead of wrestling
with rulers or tape measures, all the user has to do is place the item or carton onto a
cubing device (or in the case of a pallet, within range of a laser-based measuring system), and the rest happens automatically. In many cases, the process takes less than a
minute.
Not only are these systems speedy; they’re also precise. The data they provide is
accurate to within one inch on pallet dimensions; within two-tenths to one-quarter of
an inch when measuring a carton in motion on a conveyor; and to within a thousandth of an inch when measuring a static carton.
“You can never come close to that with a tape measure,” says Randy Neilson, director of sales and marketing for Quantronix, which markets the CubiScan line of dimensioning devices. “Cubing systems can improve your overall accuracy and consistency.”
As for how this equipment can be used in DC operations, there are a lot of possibilities—more than you might imagine. Although they’re perhaps best known for
their role in package rating and shipping operations, that’s just part of the story. When
integrated with other systems—warehouse management systems, transportation
management systems, and the like—today’s high-speed cubing and weighing systems
can boost DC performance in a variety of other ways. What follows is a brief look at
10 areas of an operation where good dimensional data can come into play.
