Google StreamTech

Small Parcel Fulfillment

Overview

Many of today’s fulfillment businesses have developed or grown towards small, frequent orders in niche markets. Often these orders may only consist of a few or less line items, and can be packaged in an envelope or some type of flat rather than a box. StreamTech engineers can show you how to further lower your labor costs and speed the process of getting orders out to your customer, and provide low-cost, practical solutions to help you do so.

Presort

Upon receiving your product, individual items are scanned, automatically associated with orders, and sorted. Typical sorts include items associated directly with open single line orders, items associated with multiple line orders and items to be placed in inventory.

Put Consolidation

Items associated with multiple orders are sorted to the appropriate bin either by human-readable label, or often by a Put to Light system. These items are often then hand packed.

Inventory Picking

Items are picked from inventory using technology most appropriate for the task. Batch picking is often utilized for very high movers, or for high levels of automation, auto dispensers are sometimes used. Deep-catalog environments often use voice picking or mobile computers. Most larger operations use some kind of hybrid picking strategy.

In Line Manifest

Once the package is automatically sealed, it needs to be identified and weighed for manifesting. Sometimes this is done by synchronizing the auto sealer with a scannable item at induction. In the case above, and RFID reader is used to verify the contents of the package for manifesting.

In Line Manifest

Freight routing is shopped, carrier is selected and the package is manifested and labeled. The label is always verified for readability.

Carrier/Zip Code Sortation and Exception Processing

To ensure accuracy, the system provides redundant checks of the package. Any one of a number of potential errors can cause the package to be diverted for extra quality control. Successful packages are diverted by carrier or ZIP Code to minimize shipping cost and transit time to the customer.