Insights

There are a LOT of errors in the packaging process driving massive shipping cost. IF you can harness good data, make it understandable and execute to it, those savings can be yours. For the most part, ecom packaging is still being done the same way as it was in the 1990s. Orders are routed to … Continue reading “Packaging Data Is the Final Frontier In Managing Freight Cost”

UPS/FXG are at capacity – For decades, the two major carriers have been scrambling to modernize outdated sortation hubs with ultra-high-speed sorters and automated induction systems. After huge investments in increasing capacity, the results have been disappointing. Sorting packages with less human intervention has saved labor and increased accuracy, but systems are operating at half … Continue reading “Why Zero-Air Packaging is a Megatrend”

PARCEL FREIGHT CARRIERS, LIKE UPS AND FEDEX, may price their product by the pound, but they are charging you based on cubic volume. The “billed weight” on your invoice has little to do with weight and everything to do with cubes. The transportation trade journals refer to this as the “dimensionalization” of freight. It is … Continue reading “Why You May Need a Dimensionalization Strategy”

THREE MEGATRENDS FOR TECHNOLOGY SERVICE PARTS DISTRIBUTION IN 2022: ZERO-AIR IS THE NEW PACKAGING STANDARD. FedEx and UPS will continue to use confiscatory penalty costs to punish their largest shippers for failing to right-size packaging. Parcel carriers measure their capacity in cubic volume so incentivizing smaller packages increases their shipping capacity without deploying capital. PETRO-BASED … Continue reading “Mission Critical Packaging Systems”

A SOLID DIMENSIONALIZATION STRATEGY BEGINS WITH THE ITEM MASTER. Size and weight data in the item master is notoriously unreliable because manufacturers rarely have a process for synthesizing the ever-changing sizes and weights of products. Although setting up an item master initially might be feasible, maintaining the accuracy can be virtually impossible, and it is … Continue reading “Item Master Accuracy is Key to Reducing Shipping Costs”

Knowing the dimensions of primary packaging, and the dimensions of unboxed products, is necessary for making Zero-Air shipping containers with on-demand packaging technologies. There are two models, within the WMS/ERP environment for knowing the dimensions – Early model and Late model. An Early model uses volumetric data stored in the item master for each product. … Continue reading “Early vs. Late Decision Models: Product Dimensioning for On-Demand, Zero-Air Packaging Systems”

Estimated Required Reading Time: 10 minutes In distribution operations defect rates on products that have been shipped to customers are measured as a ratio of defects divided by total products shipped, to normalize for shipping volume. One common method for measuring defect rates is to divide the defects reported in a period by the number … Continue reading “Data Fallacies in Measuring Defect Rates Across Periods”

“Carriers are overcharging because of dimensioning errors. Identifying the errors is simple with the right technology. Correcting overcharges might be another story.” 5 min. read Although parcel freight rate tables use pounds as the unit of measure, carriers measure their system capacity by the cubic foot. Trucks, vans, airplanes, conveyors and even sortation hub buildings … Continue reading “Reconciling Dimensioning Errors in Parcel Transportation Invoicing”