Cubing and Weighing System
More accurate, more efficient
Every operation needs to calculate the most time-, space-, and cost-efficient way to get products out the door. Cubing and weighing systems use lasers, cameras, and scales to accurately measure individual items, cases, and pallets. They support a successful and profitable business by optimizing your operation at every step.
From receipt to departure
Do you gather the weight and dimensions of items at the point of receipt? And integrate that information in putaway, picking, and lineside and packing processes? Doing so increases efficiency in every step of an operational process. A cubing and weighing system will check goods upon receipt, know their optimal storage location, pick and produce them in an algorithm-informed order, and prepare them with the right-sized packaging materials to ensure customers get exactly what they’ve ordered.
The challenge of dimensional weight
When FedEx, UPS, and other carriers switched to dimensional (DIM) weight pricing for ground shipping, supply chains had to adapt. DIM weight is calculated by multiplying length by width by height, then dividing by the respective carrier’s DIM weight divisor. This means it is no longer affordable to pack small, light items in big boxes.
Now, all supply chain facilities must accurately weigh and dimension shipments, otherwise incur extra and unnecessary fees. Cubing and weighing systems accurately weigh and dimension shipments, allowing for in-motion automated manifesting and reducing time and labor needed in the shipping process.
System integration
Whether you’re integrating a new goods-to-person system, automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS), dynamic order picking technology, or any other automated solution, a cubing and weighing system lays the foundation for success in your operation. If you already have automation solutions in place for receiving, storing, picking, or shipping products and materials, we’ll ensure your cubing and weighing system is fully integrated with those existing solutions to get the most out of each system. It doesn’t matter if ISD installed the hardware or software you’re using. We work with all providers to adapt to the specifics of your operation.
Save money and maximize space
You know what items need to go in each shipment, but cubing and weighing systems go one step further. Through tracking the exact locations of items, how big they are, and what they weigh, your team will be guided to use the optimal pick order and carton size(s) specific to each order. This enhances the sustainability of your shipping process, while eliminating the need to raise shipping prices for your customers or incur avoidable carrier fees for oversized boxes. Before dispatching packages, advanced scales are a final quality control to ensure accurate weights of every package, eliminating the risk of mispacked items.
Rising to distribution’s dimensional weight challenge
With the explosion of e-commerce, split case orders are becoming a costly operational challenge. An e-commerce order might have just a few items, but a bottle of nail polish, a book, and a birthday card don’t need a large box. Cubing and weighing systems maximize efficiency so you pay less in shipping costs and your customer isn’t opening up a box full of unnecessary void fill.
More efficient fulfillment for all
Customers want their orders quickly and don’t want to pay for shipping. Your distribution or fulfillment center needs to reduce operational costs while minimizing negative impacts on the environment. That’s a lot of goals to juggle at once — but cubing and weighing will help. Utilizing data on individual SKUs’ weight and dimensions gathered from a cubing and weighing system, these systems select optimal picking order and cartonization and packaging needs for each of your orders. Shipping costs and packaging material usage will go down, improving both customer satisfaction and sustainability.
On-demand packaging
On-demand packaging. Some warehouses find benefit in building cartons on demand. With order dimensions in hand, machines automatically cut cardboard into custom-sized boxes. Your team members fold the custom-cut boxes into cartons, pack the order, and send the optimally sized package on its way.
In-motion manifesting
In-motion manifesting. Cubing and weighing technologies are commonly combined with barcode scanners to be used for in-motion manifesting systems. An in-motion manifesting system enables your operation to automatically retrieve or generate a shipping label based on an order’s size, weight, delivery destination, and service level. The system then prints the shipping label and applies it to the package. It then confirms the order using a comparison of the applied label, weight from in-motion scales, and expected order weight. This system removes all labor from your manifesting, allowing for faster, cheaper, and more accurate processing.
Quality control
Quality control. Cubing and weighing systems catch issues before parcels leave your facility. In-motion scales flag orders with discrepancies between anticipated and actual weight. These flagged orders are separated before shipping for inspection. This way, you don’t have to eat the cost of packing errors, and your customers still get what they ordered on time.
Less waste means everyone wins
With a cubing and weighing system, your distribution or fulfillment center completes more orders with less labor while spending less on shipping, void fill, and packing mistakes. In an environment that asks you to do more with less, a cubing and weighing system is automation with a fast ROI.
Optimizing manufacturing with cubing and weighing
With increasing requirements for inventory storage, there are truckloads of materials entering and leaving your facility every day. To optimize space utilization, manufacturers must meticulously plan storage for incoming items and confirm they are sending correct orders to customers.
Accurately measure every step of production
Using data to streamline manufacturing
Enhancing your manufacturing processes involves collecting weight and dimension data at the point of receipt. This information is integrated into putaway, picking, and lineside and packing operations, delivering heightened efficiency across every facet of your operational workflow.
By confirming received goods, determining optimal storage requirements, using optimal production sequencing, and utilizing right sized packaging materials, your manufacturing facility ensures precise fulfillment of customer orders. This data-driven decision making empowers your operation to run seamlessly, meet customer expectations with precision, and make the best use of your manufacturing resources.
Enhance picking and lineside delivery
While traditional inventory software provides basic location tracking, integrating cubing and weighing technology allows for optimized, data-driven decision making on the storage of every product and material in your manufacturing facility.
By constantly refreshing data, your operational workflow dynamically adapts and optimizes lineside delivery routes and picking orders for all products and materials in inventory. This ensures that you maximize storage space and minimize travel time for picking and delivery personnel, resulting in a streamlined and cost-effective operation. Minimizing travel time also results in less material handling equipment on your warehouse floor, creating a safer environment for your operators and personnel.
Reduce human error
A pallet that’s received or sent incorrectly can ripple down through your entire production process. At best, it messes up your inventory integrity. At worst, an error in order fulfillment can result in resending entire orders, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from your bottom line.
In-motion scales can be added to conveyors, pallet preparation areas, loading docks, or any place in your operation for your products to be weighed and dimensioned before shipping. A cubing and weighing system validates your operational performance by catching errors before they go out the door and allowing you to fulfill orders with confidence.
What can an automated cubing and weighing system do for your operation?
A custom-designed cubing and weighing system fits into your high speed production and your commitment to your customers, allowing you to get items off the line and into your customer’s hands as quickly and accurately as possible.
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Related Resources
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Order Picking & Fulfillment
Packing Systems
Shipping Systems
Automated Labeling
Loading & Unloading Trucks
Storage
Weight & Dimensions
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Measure more, pay less in shipping, fees, and resends
Keeping close measurements on what you’re shipping allows you to make the most cost-effective picking, packing, and freight choices. Is it time to add or upgrade a cubing and weighing system in your operation?
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