Manual vs. Automatic Packing

Packing products involves more than just putting items into containers for shipping. There are two ways to accomplish this – manually and automatically. We’ve got a lot to cover on this topic, so let’s start unpacking it right now.

Manual:

Putting together a packing list by hand takes time and precision. You don’t want to forget anything in the order or accidentally include more items than are in the order. It can also be difficult for warehouse workers to remember all of the box sizes they have at their disposal and then guess which ones will work for different orders.

Problems:

Manual packing is fraught with potential problems, such as incorrectly typing in the packing list and taking an unnecessarily long amount of time to fit all of the parts into the smallest number of shipping containers.

Automatic:

Packing lists aren’t done by hand in a business automation platform. They are automatically created from the sales order. Not every order needs to be packaged; some come prepackaged, which means a warehouse worker can just check it off by clicking an auto-pack button. The software system also contains default container sizes, allowing workers to see what’s available and what will work best for each order.

Solutions:

Obviously this setup saves a lot of time and prevents errors. In addition, it lets warehouse workers and managers monitor orders as they go through the packing process to ensure that everything goes smoothly.