How did a fulfillment center manage customer shipping charges through accurate dimensioning with the vMeasure DWS System?
Industry
Product
Process
Use case
Integration
Case Study Summary
The client is a fulfillment center providing same-day to 2-day delivery. They deployed vMeasure both in the packing and receiving stations to capture the volume occupied by a case and reduce shipping costs by providing accurate dimensions.
vMeasure Static Parcel Dimensioner enabled customized workflows that captured product attributes like fragility and special handling requirements to enable appropriate slotting measures.
The client has now improved slotting mechanisms and warehouse space utilization enabled by the volume data captured in the inbound stage. Their customers are also protected from unnecessary surcharges as our client provides accurate shipping charges.
Problems faced by the Client
- Business Problems
- Logistics Problems
- IT Problems
The company lost revenue since its warehouse space was underutilized because it did not have the actual volume occupied by an inbound case (The client billed clients on the volume occupied in the warehouse)
SKU damage was common, as their WMS couldn’t help slot items at the right place without accurate SKU dimensions and attributes
The company spent more on packaging since the orders went out in oversized boxes because they couldn’t get the right DIMs.
The orders usually went out in slightly oversized boxes, increasing dunnage and further adding to the shipping costs and surcharges.
Picking efficiency was reduced because the slotting mechanism was unoptimized during the inbound stage.
Absence of a simple picking process further led to delays in loading the trucks. Thus, the company could not meet its promised delivery deadline.
The company did not have a suitable solution to handle eCommerce orders
The IT team could not provide the resource to handle complex integration for the logistics team
There was insufficient space for an additional desktop for rate shopping if the dimensioner was installed
The company lost revenue since its warehouse space was underutilized because it did not have the actual volume occupied by an inbound case (The client billed clients on the volume occupied in the warehouse)
SKU damage was common, as their WMS couldn’t help slot items at the right place without accurate SKU dimensions and attributes
The company spent more on packaging since the orders went out in oversized boxes because they couldn’t get the right DIMs.
The orders usually went out in slightly oversized boxes, increasing dunnage and further adding to the shipping costs and surcharges.
Picking efficiency was reduced because the slotting mechanism was unoptimized during the inbound stage.
Absence of a simple picking process further led to delays in loading the trucks. Thus, the company could not meet its promised delivery deadline.
The company did not have a suitable solution to handle eCommerce orders
The IT team could not provide the resource to handle complex integration for the logistics team
There was insufficient space for an additional desktop for rate shopping if the dimensioner was installed
Why did the customer choose vMeasure Dimensioning Weighing Scanning – DWS System to solve the above logistics problems?
- Dimensioning Capability
- Software Integration
- On-Screen Customization
- Physical Characteristics
vMeasure Dimensioner covers all the major SKU sizes which need to be dimensioned
The accuracy and repeatability metrics aligned with the Operations teams' expectation
vMeasure enabled easy integration with their WMS and barcode scanner. The barcode scanner was used as a trigger for measuring the inbound SKUs. This allowed them to improve pack speed as the warehouse associate needn’t interact with the touch screen for each measurement
The captured SKU dimensions were automatically set to clear after 3 seconds to limit the additional step of manually clearing the measurement before proceeding to another
The UI was customized to include a field that could capture the SKU attributes, which was then pushed to the WMS
The volumetric weight was displayed along with the SKU dimensions
vMeasure Dimensioner was small and compact, fitting right into the packing station
The touch screen allowed the system to work standalone without needing a separate computer/laptop, thereby saving packing station space
vMeasure Dimensioner covers all the major SKU sizes which need to be dimensioned
The accuracy and repeatability metrics aligned with the Operations teams' expectation
vMeasure enabled easy integration with their WMS and barcode scanner. The barcode scanner was used as a trigger for measuring the inbound SKUs. This allowed them to improve pack speed as the warehouse associate needn’t interact with the touch screen for each measurement
The captured SKU dimensions were automatically set to clear after 3 seconds to limit the additional step of manually clearing the measurement before proceeding to another
The UI was customized to include a field that could capture the SKU attributes, which was then pushed to the WMS
The volumetric weight was displayed along with the SKU dimensions
vMeasure Dimensioner was small and compact, fitting right into the packing station
The touch screen allowed the system to work standalone without needing a separate computer/laptop, thereby saving packing station space
Benefits accrued by the client by using the vMeasure DWS System
- Business
- Operational
- Administrative