they can be placed on the dimensioning system,
which will automatically capture their height, length,
width, and weight.
Another option would be to take a static dimensioning system and place it on a cart with a battery,
says Jerry Stoll, service market manager for Mettler-Toledo Inc., a manufacturer of cubing and weighing
products. Workers can then simply wheel the cart
around to the various storage and picking locations
to capture the relevant data.
2. At receiving. A one-time inventory audit probably won’t be sufficient for DCs whose product
mix—or product packaging—changes frequently.
These operations will likely need to make cubing and
weighing a routine part of their operations.
But where’s the best place to carry out these activities? Clark Skeen, president of Quantronix, the
maker of the Cubiscan line of cubing and weighing
equipment, has some ideas on the subject. He
strongly urges DCs to consider making it part of the
receiving process. “The ideal time and place to collect cubing and weighing data is at the point of
receipt,” he says.
If you only gather cube and weight data at an outbound shipping station, you’ll miss out on at least 50
percent of the benefits that the data can provide,
Skeen says. That’s because a product’s cube and
weight can and should influence decisions about
slotting, storage location for putaway and picking,
and repacking and containerization for shipping. “If
you collect that data at the point of receipt, then it’s
available for each and every one of those decision
points,” he says.
Indeed, some facilities may choose to collect cube
and weight data only at receipt, Stoll says. Those that
do typically are simply storing and distributing product and are not repackaging or altering it in any way,
so they know the dimensional data will not change,
he explains.
To gather this information during receiving, many
companies use automated dimensioning systems. For
instance, high-volume operations that use conveyors
to unload trucks might use an in-motion dimension-
er attached to the conveyor. This approach has the
advantage of allowing companies to check 100 per-
cent of the products moving off the truck and obtain
up-to-the-minute data on them, says Dan Hanrahan,
president of the Numina Group, which supplies
inline-scan weight dimensioning solutions. “That
way, the warehouse management system and trans-
portation system are always working from real-time
data, so the information is being audited [during]
the upfront process, and you can make changes to
your system in real time,” he explains.
3. After putaway or picking. Collecting
dimensional data at receiving might not always be
practical. For example, on a big receiving day, you
may not have the time or floor space to perform cubing and weighing activities. In that case, an alternative
might be to weigh and measure items after putaway
(which can be accomplished by means of a mobile
cart) or as they move from picking to shipping.
There are a number of potential benefits to this
approach, experts say. For one thing, dimensioning
systems can help with quality control after picking,
according to Hanrahan. If a picker selects the wrong
item or quantity, the order’s weight will likely vary
from the expected weight. And a damaged carton’s
dimensions may not conform with those of an
undamaged box. An inline system located on a conveyor belt between picking and shipping will detect
these deviations immediately and divert the order to
an inspection station, says Hanrahan.
An alternative to a conveyor belt system is to use
lift trucks with scales incorporated into their forks,
says Stoll. He notes that this approach is popular with
operations that place a premium on speed. “That
[alternative] is mostly used by companies that have
multiple forklifts that are moving a lot of freight fast,
so they’re worried about time constraints,” he says.
