A 3PL was relying on manual parcel dimensioning at its outbound pack station. The process worked at lower volumes, but it required several manual actions before a package could move forward for loading.
As order volumes increased, those extra steps started slowing the flow of packages through the station. Orders began accumulating, trucks spent longer at the loading bay, and dimension data still had to be moved into the WMS for downstream operations.
The 3PL did not want to rebuild its outbound process. It needed to make one part of that process faster: how parcels were measured and how that data moved into the existing workflow.
Where Was Truck Loading Time Being Lost?
The delay was showing up at the truck, but it was starting earlier at the pack station.
Manual dimensioning limited how quickly operators could process incoming orders. When volume increased, packages waited longer to move through packing, which meant trucks also waited longer for completed loads.
Parcel dimensions were important for another reason. The 3PL needed that data for load planning, so speeding up the loading dock alone would not have fixed the issue. The measurement step had to improve first.
Why Did the Manual Dimensioning Process Stop Working?
The existing dimensioning workflow required six manual steps, and dimension data had to be manually uploaded to the WMS.
That meant every shipment carried extra work before it could move forward. At higher volumes, repeating those actions across more orders made the pack station harder to keep moving at the required pace.
The 3PL needed fewer manual steps, but it also needed to keep the WMS and the rest of the outbound workflow in place.
What Changed at the Pack Station?
The 3PL deployed a vMeasure package dimensioner to automate parcel measurement within the workflow operators were already using.
A wireless barcode scanner was integrated so operators could scan packages while moving around the packing station. The dimensioning workflow was also integrated with the existing WMS, so the 3PL did not have to make major software changes.
For the 3PL’s required SKU range, dimensions were captured in under one second.
That changed the day-to-day process at the station:
| Before vMeasure | After vMeasure |
|---|---|
|
Manual parcel dimensioning |
Automated dimension capture |
|
6 manual workflow steps |
2 workflow steps |
|
Manual handling of dimension data |
Dimensioning integrated with the WMS |
|
Limited scanner mobility |
Wireless barcode scanning |
|
Slower movement toward loading |
Faster outbound processing |
What Improved After Automated Dimensioning?
The clearest change was the amount of manual work required at the pack station. The dimensioning workflow went from six manual steps to two, so operators could move more orders through the same part of the outbound process.
That improvement carried through to loading. Accurate parcel dimensions were available for load planning, and packages were moving through dimensioning with fewer manual actions holding them back.
The result was a 30% reduction in truck loading time.
Why Did This Change Matter?
The loading delay was not really a truck problem. It was being created earlier, while packages were still being measured and prepared for the next stage of outbound processing.
For 3PLs seeing orders build up at packing stations while trucks wait downstream, it is worth looking at what happens before those packages ever reach the loading bay. If manual dimensioning is adding steps to every shipment, improving that part of the workflow can have an effect much farther downstream.
Talk to the dimensioning experts
Explore how vMeasure Parcel dimensioner fits into your parcel measurement workflow.
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