Parcel sorting Archives - PERUZA

Warehouse Automation: Revolutionizing Supply Chain Management

Hugo Grube — Wed, 24 May 2023 20:42:33 +0000

Supply chain management has been affected by technological advancements in recent years just like many other industries. Through the use of automation technologies, warehouse operations have undergone a remarkable transformation. Supply chain management has gone through a revolution due to warehouse automation, which has increased productivity, accuracy, and efficiency. Let’s look at how warehouse automation is changing the supply chain landscape.

Increased Efficiency

The increased efficiency it brings to supply chain operations is one of the most important benefits of warehouse automation. Numerous tasks in the warehouse have been simplified by automation technologies like robotic systems, automated conveyors, and sorting equipment. These technologies can complete repetitive tasks much more quickly than people can, which reduces cycle times and boosts efficiency. Warehouse automation enables businesses to handle higher order volumes and better satisfy customer demands by reducing manual labor and streamlining workflows.

Enhanced Accuracy

In order to avoid expensive repercussions like stockouts, order delays, or incorrect shipments, accuracy is essential in supply chain management. Automation in the warehouse significantly lowers the possibility of human error. Automated systems with cutting-edge sensors and machine vision technology can accurately track inventory levels, find items, and carry out picking and packing tasks with high levels of accuracy. Because errors are less likely to occur as a result of this accuracy, customer satisfaction increases and the number of returns and replacements declines.

Inventory Optimization

For supply chain operations to be optimized, effective inventory management is essential. Automation in the warehouse is critical to achieving this optimization. Automated systems are able to track item locations, continuously track stock levels, and provide real-time data on inventory status. Organizations can use this information to make informed choices about demand forecasting, storage allocation, and inventory replenishment. Businesses can minimize carrying costs, cut down on stockouts, and ensure timely order fulfillment by optimizing inventory levels, which will ultimately increase customer satisfaction.

Source: PERUZA

PERUZA’s Wide range parcel sorting line

PERUZA’s Wide range parcel sorting line products offers a seamless solution for fulfillment centers by providing integration with pick-and-collect systems. The process begins with operators placing parcels from trucks onto the infeed line. From there, the parcels move onto the main conveyor where they are scanned, photographed, and weighed. The destination information is then synchronized with the warehouse management system. Finally, the parcels are sorted to the designated outfeed section and delivered to the correct outfeed using the activated roller belt (ARB) system. This streamlined process ensures efficient parcel handling and accurate delivery.

Main benefits:

Fully automatic parcel sorting
Wide parcel range, from 0.1 to 30 kg
Compatible with warehouse management systems
Control your warehouse by gathering data of all parcels – size, weight, and location in your warehouse

To sum up

Warehouse automation is revolutionizing supply chain management by significantly improving efficiency, accuracy, and overall productivity. The implementation of automation technologies enables organizations to streamline operations, optimize inventory levels, enhance workplace safety, and leverage data-driven insights. As supply chains continue to evolve, embracing warehouse automation becomes increasingly crucial for businesses seeking to stay competitive in today’s fast-paced marketplace. By harnessing the power of automation, organizations can position themselves for success and meet the growing expectations of customers in an increasingly digitized world.

As robotics, automation, and machinery develop, you must look into the best possible solutions now. If you’re interested in learning more about how PERUZA can help you get the best results with your food processing, feel free to get in touch at info@peruza.com, and we’ll be happy to discuss the possibilities of us creating something great for your fish processing business!

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4 Major Challenges Warehouses Face In Parcel Sortation

Hugo Grube — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 07:15:28 +0000

During the past few years, we have all noticed an explosion in e-commerce sales and businesses. More and more people are consistently choosing to buy clothes, home accessories, and whatever else they can get their hands on through the web. This is down to the pure convenience of purchasing through the Internet, you don’t have to go through the hassle of getting ready, going out, or walking around the shops for hours looking at items you wouldn’t even buy. Nowadays, all you have to do is put your foot up on the couch, and with a few clicks you’ve ordered the exact item you want.

But because of the surge in demand from consumers, it poses challenges for warehouses and sellers all around the world. This is down to the sheer volume, price gauging, space and much, much more. In this article, we will discuss the top 4 challenges warehouses face when it comes to parcel sorting, as well as some solutions to make the parcel sortation process much more efficient.

Challenge #1: Package variety

As mentioned previously, the world has gone e-commerce mad. Everyone wants to order any item possible from the comfort of their own homes — from smaller and larger devices to furniture and even houseplants. So it is only obvious that different types of items are packed in different types of packaging.

Usually, items come in paperboard boxes, corrugated boxes, plastic or rigid boxes, as well as chipboard packaging, poly bags, and foil-sealed bags. As you can see, the variety of packaging types that need to be sorted is quite considerable.

A mixture of many different packaging sizes and structures causes significant problems for the conveyor and other parcel sorting technologies in terms of the precision, speed, and quality of packaging sortation.

Challenge #2: Package volume

Additionally to a range of package kinds, warehouses with parcel sortation systems have to process major order volumes. These parcel sortation systems, when used efficiently will streamline sorting in the warehouse to keep up with the current demand.

Even more so, a large number of retailers and parcel sorters globally have confirmed that over the past two years, there has been a growing tendency of consumers to place smaller orders, buying one or only a few items at a time, instead of making one bigger purchase. And these smaller orders are made more frequently.

So now warehouses, distribution centers, and merchants need to figure out ways to make the sortation processes and handling different forms of parcels more efficient time and money-wise. It is important because any parcel sortation ineffectiveness can result in wasted time and effort, both of which can then cut into the business profits.

This means that to precisely sort larger volumes of parcels, warehouses, distribution centers, and retailers need to upgrade their existing sortation systems.

Challenge #3: Customer expectation

As briefly mentioned above, next-day or even same-day delivery options are becoming more and more popular. Because of the large order amounts, it gets harder to keep up with all the order delivery timelines.

In the best-case scenario, distribution centers or warehouses should be working together with the retailers to provide delivery options such as click-and-collect, package lockers, and delivery time visibility into logistical systems.

So, in order to keep up with the growing demand in the market for speed and transparency, warehouses that do the parcel sortation must adapt their logistical and IT systems to the latest standards.

Challenge #4: Laborer downtime

It is no secret that nowadays it gets harder and harder to find trustworthy and professional employees that are ready to work long hours for relatively low wages. This is one of the main problems in the industry.

Companies that provide parcel sortation also have to keep in mind such human labor factors as:

coffee breaks;
sick leaves;
work-caused injuries (which are highly possible when working with outdated systems and machines);
human errors (inaccurate labelings, lost packages, misdirected parcels, etc.).

Due to the constant rotation of employees, companies get significant cuts in business profits.

Source: Freepik

Could automated parcel sortation be the solution?

Taking into account all the parcel sortation problems and challenges mentioned above, you might have already guessed that automated systems can easily get rid of most of them (or at least ease them).

And if you think to yourself: “Nah, it’s probably just some kind of e-commerce peak right now. Soon it will be back to normal parcel amounts, so my company doesn’t need any special sortation lines”, just take a look at some recent data reports:

In the next few years, it is expected that the global parcel shipping indexes are going to significantly grow. For example, Pitney Bowes forecasts that US parcel volume alone will nearly double from 2021 to 2026, reaching 32 to 39 billion, with a 10% CAGR from 2021 to 2025.

So, to be able to stay competitive along with other carriers and warehouses, as well as to be able to fulfill the market demands, it’s only clear that companies will have to think about integrating newer systems and sortation lines in their facilities.

There are many benefits that automated parcel sorting lines can give to the company, such as:

saved money — by automating many operations (such as scanning, weighing, dimensioning, and sorting goods), the company can lower its labor costs, allowing it to save a lot of money;
increased work efficiency — the company is going to be able to ship customer items in the expected time, increasing customer satisfaction rate, meaning that more and more customers are going to choose the company’s services;
getting more accurate results — automated machines can guarantee more precise results, increasing the overall ROI of the parcel sorting and shipping company at the same time;
data tracking — this allows customers to keep track of their packages, as well as ensures that there will be fewer complaints about missing packages.

What can PERUZA offer you?

We here, at PERUZA, want your company to be able to meet the growing demand for faster and more precise parcel sortation and shipment. That’s why we are concentrating on finding new ways to make parcel-sorting businesses’ day-to-day operations more efficient and cost-effective.

Over the past few years, we’ve noticed the rapid growth in the parcel industry. We’ve worked with major parcel carrier companies, one of them being the internationally known DPD. Working on projects like these, we have succeeded in creating a super-flexible and customer-friendly parcel and shipment sorting model with modularity.

What does the modularity mean?

To sum it up simply, this amazing advantage allows companies to avoid huge money investments at once. But let us tell you about that in more in-depth.

We can first create a smaller, yet still fully automated, sorting line with fewer infeeds and outfeeds, allowing the company to begin recouping its investment. Then, over time, this line can then be expanded with any additional infeeds and outfeeds to, even more, improve capacity.

So, unlike other companies that offer similar solutions, working this way, we let companies slowly build a complete parcel sorting system, periodically investing smaller amounts of money.

Are you interested?

We can guarantee you that you’ll get a fully customized solution exactly for your company’s needs because we study each case separately and offer an individually designed plan for automating the parcel and shipment sorting. We can offer versatile sorting systems with up to 15,000 parcels per hour capacity and more than 500 individual outfeeds.

If this sounds like something you would consider for your company, feel free to contact us at info@peruza.com, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!

The post 4 Major Challenges Warehouses Face In Parcel Sortation appeared first on PERUZA.

Is It Time To Upgrade Your Old Conveyor? [4 signs]

Hugo Grube — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 08:39:27 +0000

We know what it’s like when you have your old beloved conveyor sorting system in the warehouse that has served you for countless years. But as technology moves forward, you start to notice that the system isn’t keeping up with the demand of the industry and isn’t saving any more time and/or money.

It might be the perfect time for some much-needed change in your parcel sorting and shipping systems. In this article, we’ll discuss the main signs that are signaling to you that it is time for an upgrade to your old parcel conveyor.

Why is it important to keep your parcel systems up to date?

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, the world has moved faster than ever before towards a digital shopping paradise. While the lockdowns have become a thing of the past, online shopping has remained a hobby superstar in most households. From clothes to interior items, medicine, and even food – you can now order online items that you never even dreamed of.

With the largely growing numbers of e-commerce orders, the standards of buyers, manufacturers, and distributors for the delivery of goods are also growing. Everybody wants a faster delivery, a more accurate shipping process, an eloquent tracking process, and much more.

So it is only clear that this is the final call for every parcel sorting and shipping facility to invest in modern and up-to-date systems that will help them stay on track in this highly competitive market.

Source: Freepik

4 signs that it's time to upgrade your old conveyor

Just like with every other system or machine, there are obvious signs that can lead you to the understanding that the time for change has come. You’ll find that it hasn’t benefited your business in a while – you haven’t made more money, nor you have saved any time working with it.

Now let’s look at some of the more significant signs that signal you that your old parcel conveyor has to have an upgrade.

1. Your conveyor system can't keep up with the growing e-commerce demands

As discussed in the previous article, buying tendencies have changed a lot during the past few years. People are now expecting same-day or next-day deliveries, placing smaller orders more often, and hoping to get free order shipping.

To be able to satisfy the needs of customers and manufacturers, parcel sorting and shipping facilities need to have the appropriate equipment. Does your parcel conveyor have the necessary processing speed? Is it working with accuracy? Is it equipped with advanced tools, like an automated scanner?

These are some of the questions you need to estimate to be able to tell if your conveyor is helping your company or holding it back.

2. Finding replacement supplies is getting increasingly difficult and expensive

With time your old parcel conveyor system will inevitably start to show signs that some of its parts need to be changed. You’ll likely come across instances where spare part cardboard conveyor suppliers have updated or cut out specific components. Since this is a niche industry, it’s easy to see why a strain on the manufacturing supply can be common at certain points in time.

This, obviously, can make it extremely difficult to find replacement parts for your conveyor sorting system. Even if you manage to scour through different suppliers to finally find the part you require, you will often find that the price can be ridiculously high. This can be an upsetting time for many businesses especially when margins are already running thin. A tip would be to understand that this can happen to your business, as it has to many before you.

3. Your conveyor is breaking more often, becoming unreliable

One thing nobody wants to deal with is a conveyor that is breaking consistently causing you an extreme amount of stress and leaving you with a hefty bill. Dealing with a system that continually breaks will cause your production to come to a swift halt, leaving many customers unsatisfied.

We get that sometimes it might seem like an unnecessary step to look at new conveyor sorting systems when you already have one of your own – why would you want to spend extra money when you don’t need to, right?

Well, here’s some food for thought – if you begin to see an increase in unfortunate and unexpected failures or line malfunctions because your conveyor is having some strains, you’re the one who will have to front the bill.

Regular visits from engineering experts, including spare parts and tools will not only leave you out of pocket as mentioned previously, it will also waste your valuable time.

So when you’ll start to add these costs together, you’ll come to a realization that it would be much more cost-friendly to your wallet to invest in a brand new conveyor system than maintaining the old one.

4. You aren't benefiting from advanced technologies

As we all know, times are changing. When times change, technology and equipment change even quicker than we can imagine. Now, imagine being in competition with other businesses that have equipment that can increase production 20-30% quicker than your current production speed.

That’s why you should always think three steps ahead on ways you can increase your parcel handling efficiency, meanwhile increasing the company’s overall return on investment as well. To improve productivity, you can look at the many solutions that can help you save money on system maintenance.

For example, PERUZA offers a modular parcel conveyor sorting system and shipping system that allows supplier companies to save money, building the complete parcel sorting system slowly, and allowing them to periodically invest smaller amounts of money.

If you’re interested in working with us to increase your parcel conveyor efficiency, feel free to contact us at info@peruza.com, and together we’ll figure out the best solution for your company!

Conclusion

Clinging to your old parcel conveyor system might be a sentimental thing but, looking from a business perspective, this sentiment won’t get you to the top positions in the market. Sometimes you just have to estimate all the pros and cons, finally making the decision – is all the old conveyor’s maintenance worth your time and money?

By investing in upgraded conveyor sorting systems, you’ll ultimately notice a significantly better ROI or return on your investment, also seeing a much better efficiency in your parcel sorting and shipping operations.

The post Is It Time To Upgrade Your Old Conveyor? [4 signs] appeared first on PERUZA.

Parcel Sorting Tendencies In 2022

Hugo Grube — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 08:24:18 +0000

Since the beginning of the worldly pandemic, the e-commerce industry has “exploded”, showing a significant increase in online shopping. Due to restrictions that temporarily prevented on-site shopping in many countries around the globe, postal service providers, as well as parcel and shipment delivery companies, experienced an enormous increase in workload. So what does this mean for the parcel industry?

Substantial growth in market size

It was observed that even after the restrictions, the habit of online shopping continued to rapidly grow. During the last two years, most parcel and shipment delivery companies experienced around 400% of parcel shipment growth per day.

A report data predict that the parcel volume by the year 2026 is likely to more than double, reaching from 220 billion to 262 billion parcels, with a 14.8% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) for the forecast of 2020 to 2024.

How to stay on top of demands?

Parcel sortation for the past few years has become an important (and time-consuming) part of the order fulfillment puzzle.

The buying patterns of Internet shoppers have massively shifted, putting a huge gap in consumer-oriented retailers and e-commerce businesses. Let’s have a look at some of the buying patterns:

The demand for superfast package delivery

Year by year it has been largely obtained that consumers want their orders shipped faster than ever. As same-day or at least next-day shipping is becoming increasingly popular, it forces all retailers to process orders more quickly.

The demand for free shipping

More and more e-commerce customers are hoping to get a free shipping offer, which is forcing manufacturers to process all orders with as little expense as possible just to increase or at least maintain revenue margins.

People are placing smaller orders

Many retailers and parcel sorters have said that in the past year there has been a growing tendency where consumers are placing smaller orders, buying one or few pieces at a time, instead of making one larger purchase. And these smaller orders are made more frequently.

The possibility of product mishandling by outdated equipment, which was historically developed with “old metric” orders in mind, has increased as order sizes and shapes have become more variable.

Distribution centers, warehouses, and merchants all need to figure out how to make the processes for sorting and handling bigger and smaller packages – such as polybags, envelopes, and others – more efficiently.

This is important because any ineffectiveness in the process will result in wasted time and effort, both of which will cut into your company profits. So now comes the big decision for every warehouse manager – do you hire more human laborers or invest in high-quality automated sorting systems?

Source: Freepik

The decision between more human laborers or automated systems

Taking into account the growing amounts of shipments all around the world, many parcel sorting and shipping facilities have made some kind of changes in order to make their sorting and shipping process more efficient.

The obstacles that larger number of employees caused

One of the solutions has been hiring more human laborers in the warehouses. Although at first, it might seem like the best solution efficiency and cost-wise, in the long run, it may cause more problems than other solutions.

The first concern, that should be taken into account, is the difficulty to find workers with appropriate qualifications. Of course, different people have different knowledge in various fields, and often that other knowledge can come in handy. But you have to keep in mind that working with different types of systems and machines and doing a job that requires a lot of attention to detail and employee training is needed. This training takes a lot of time and expense as you have to train many new people, often even individually.

The second disadvantage, that might come with employing more human workers, is the work speed and the package volumes a certain number of employees can process and sort. You always have to keep in mind that humans are not robots, meaning they might get tired after a while, lowering the work efficiency. With tiredness also come increased possibilities of making errors that can cause a lot of damage to the company, especially money-wise.

Other things to keep in mind when looking for more human laborers are coffee breaks and sick leaves. On average automated sorting systems can work up to 22h every day without the need to stop. However, when a human laborer gets sick, for example, either you’re having one less employee for an indefinite period of time. Or you have to desperately look for another worker who can replace the sick one. And again – it causes damage to the company both in terms of time and money.

Source: Freepik

Are automated sorting systems the solution?

The short answer to the question is – yes. Well, it might depend on the size of your warehouse and other indicators, though the rapidly-growing demand for fast and accurate shipping with the huge amounts of orders every week is probably going to affect your company as well.

Many data reports for the parcel sorting system market have been showing a significant increase of market reach. For example, one report states that it is expected that the global parcel sorting system market size is going to reach about 2674.4 million USD by the year 2026 compared to the 1257.6 million USD that it reached in 2020.

According to Pitney Bowes, there have been approximately 131 billion parcels shipped worldwide in 2020. This number has tripled during the past six years and, presumably, is going to double in the following five years.

So it would be only a logical and far-reaching solution to invest in high-quality automated parcel sorting machines. Let’s have a look at four benefits of automated systems:

1) Improved operations that increase work efficiency

With automated systems, the ever-growing number of items and parcels can be sorted and processed in a shorter period of time. This means that the company is going to be able to ship customer items in the expected time, increasing customer satisfaction rate. And by that, there is a possibility that more and more customers are going to choose your services, whether you work in the B2B or B2C area.

2) Lots of saved money

As discussed above, human laborers aren’t able to process large amounts of packages as they get tired, etc. So the oh-so-popular saying “time is money” fits this situation perfectly. By automating many operations, such as scanning, weighing, dimensioning, and sorting goods, the company can save a lot of money. This means that by automating your sorting machines you can lower your labor costs as well as your cost-per-parcel.

3) The ability to track data

This is a huge benefit! Automating your parcel sorting and shipping systems allows customers to keep track of where their packages are. And this ensures that there will be fewer complaints about missing packages. Also, the company is going to be able to collect data on the amount of time an item was handled can be collected, which can help you understand the operational efficiency and provide insight into how to improve the delivery process.

4) The ability to get accurate results

It is inevitable that human employees can cause errors in the hand-sorting process: slips like missorted packages and inaccurate labeling can delay package delivery, leading to customer disappointment. In contrary, automated machines can guarantee consistent and more accurate results, increasing the ROI of the parcel sorting and shipping company.

Source: Freepik

PERUZA’s solutions for more efficient parcel sorting

We, PERUZA team, are focusing on ways to make parcel sorting companies’ everyday work more efficient and cost-friendly, helping to meet the growing demand for faster parcel shipping.

Working with many local and international shipping companies like DPD, Omniva, Latvijas Pasts, and others, we have developed a super-flexible and customer-friendly parcel and shipment sorting model. One of the main advantages this model has is its modularity, which allows customers to avoid huge money investments at once.

What does this modularity mean? Initially, we can install a smaller but still fully automated sorting line with fewer infeeds and outfeeds, thus letting the customer start earning his money back. Then, following the investment plan, this line can be expanded with additional infeeds and outfeeds for increased capacity.

In other words, we let our customers slowly build a complete parcel sorting system, periodically investing smaller amounts of money, which many similar-solution companies don’t offer.

The way we work is by studying each case separately and offering a customized plan for automating the parcel and shipment sorting. We can offer versatile sorting systems with up to 15 000 parcels-per-hour capacity and more than 500 individual outfeeds.

If you’re interested to work with us to increase your parcel sorting and shipment efficiency, feel free to contact us at info@peruza.com, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!

The post Parcel Sorting Tendencies In 2022 appeared first on PERUZA.