In this piece, we will focus on packaging optimization in the apparel industry and how that can have a positive impact on DCs.
Global apparel brands might ship products from Southeast Asia factories to DCs in the EU, Britain, the U.S., or other countries. Distribution center requirements vary by location. Designing apparel transport cartons that concurrently meet the needs of all DCs can be quite challenging.
This is an example of an underpacked carton. The volume of the carton remains consistent. A carton that is fully packed and a carton that is underpacked take up the same amount of space in a DC. Fully packing a carton optimizes available space in the DC.
An apparel packaging audit can examine all of these aspects within a DC to discover opportunities for improvement that will enhance the overall efficiency of the DC. One example of opportunities to increase efficiencies at the DC, that can be revealed by a packaging audit, is finding “hidden space availability.”
When transport cartons are not packed to their fullest capacity, some carton space may contain only air. The volume of a carton – whether packed fully or underpacked with empty headspace – takes up the same amount of space on DC racks. Helping brands develop procedures to fully pack each carton will increase product capacity at the DC. This is just one of many benefits that an apparel packaging audit can provide.
DCs have established infrastructures that may have evolved over many years to accommodate a variety of industries and products. Their layout, traffic patterns, and racking systems may be well established. Altering any of this existing infrastructure may require a substantial investment.
Brands may ship their apparel from a Southeast Asia factory to a DC they own or to a third-party DC. In either case, the overall layout of the DC, including racking configurations, may be somewhat fixed. It is easier to modify transport cartons than it is to redesign a DC.
Within these fixed architectural structures, it is still possible to improve DC efficiency by optimizing apparel carton packaging. In addition to customizing carton design to work well with existing DC layouts, using perforated cartons can provide unique benefits when processing apparel orders.
Perforated cartons help prevent apparel product damage and help avoid injury to DC personnel. Opening cartons with box cutters can sometimes lead to polybag damage (for apparel that is individually wrapped) or to apparel damage. The blades of box cutters can also lead to bodily harm of DC personnel.
Perforated cartons can improve efficiency and safety in the pick and pack area of the DC, and can reduce product damage as well.
Perforated packaging also provides consistency in the size of the “hole” that is generated when the carton is opened via the perforated opening. The size of the opening is carefully designed to provide easy access to the products within the carton. In contrast, boxes that lack perforated access may have cut openings created by a worker’s box knife.
This ad hoc opening may be either too small (which would make accessing products difficult) or too large (which could cause products to fall out of the carton unintentionally). These ad hoc inventory access holes may also have rough edges that may be harmful to DC personnel.
Perforated cartons with uniform inventory access openings make it easier for DCs to fill pick and pack orders. Even if just a few seconds are saved on each pick and pack order, when this time saving is multiplied across thousands of orders, this time saving can result in a substantial reduction of both labor costs and average order fill time.
Levels of DC automation vary from brand to brand. In some instances, levels of automation may vary within the same brand. (This may occur when one brand uses multiple DCs. Each DC may have distinct levels of automation.)
Apparel transport carton design needs to be optimized for the most rigorous environment the transport carton will endure. Highly automated environments require precision as cartons travel on conveyor belts, pass through scanners, and may even be racked using robots. Since a factory in Asia may send products to multiple DCs, understanding the downstream journey of the transport carton enables the designers to design cartons that will efficiently travel through multiple DC configurations.
Prior to designing a carton, packaging engineers gather data regarding the intended use of the transport carton. This data may include:
Once this information is collected, packaging engineers design an “ideal" carton that has the structural integrity to withstand the rigors of the journey. This carton design will include specific dimensions for volume and corrugated board. Downstream decisions, including selecting pallets and planned racking at the DC, presume that the actual carton will conform to the theoretically designed carton.
However, there are often variations between the theoretical and actual carton size. This deviation can occur when the factory does not have sufficient quality control systems in place for their packaging vendors.
Discrepancies between theoretical package size and actual package size can cause DC inefficiencies to proliferate. DC slowdowns may be caused by:
Optimizing apparel DC efficiencies can substantially reduce inventory and distribution costs. Financial savings can be achieved by designing apparel transport cartons that precisely meet the needs of each touch point in the carton’s journey through the DC, improve product access, meet automation needs, and drive compliance between theoretical carton size and actual carton size.