Packing 100s/1000s weekend orders?

[Chrism82]

How do you guys pack weekend orders taking into account its 3 days worth of order volume of a usual weekday .Do you have extra staff on the monday or open on the weekend to pack each day?

 

[Mr D]

How do you guys pack weekend orders taking into account its 3 days worth of order volume of a usual weekday .Do you have extra staff on the monday or open on the weekend to pack each day?

Sometimes start early on the Monday.
Rare to have to pack each day.

If necessary stuff gets backlogged and gets done over a couple of days.

 

[LPB 123]

We do a Saturday drop off at the Royal Mail depot to relieve some pressure on a Monday.

 

[oliverstoychest]

Our Easter orders were very high. We went in and printed all the labels for our skipping ropes brought four boxes home, sat in the garden sunshine and bagged them all up.

 

[Manior]

How do you guys pack weekend orders taking into account its 3 days worth of order volume of a usual weekday .Do you have extra staff on the monday or open on the weekend to pack each day?

I hire extra staff on a Monday and Wednesday in a fulfillment center as these are our busiest days.

 

[Chrism82]

Thanks for replies, yes i was thinking more part timers monday tuesday to dilute some of the weekend orders down

 

[Mr D]

Can you alter your processes to speed packing up?

 

[Chrism82]

packing 100-150 orders hour per person almost impossible its sheer numbers , think simple solution more staff its just monday obviously its 3x a normal day due to 3 days worth of post.

 

[tony84]

I have ordered a few things online recently and sometimes I can be waiting a week before it gets posted out. I am sure these businesses are getting cancellations but I think most people accept there will be some sort of delay.

 

[Mr D]

packing 100-150 orders hour per person almost impossible its sheer numbers , think simple solution more staff its just monday obviously its 3x a normal day due to 3 days worth of post.

Depends on the items and the packer.
I can do 3 a minute with arthritic hands for smaller items. Several years ago could do quicker.

There's also the possibility on some sites of changing processing time to buy sufficient time to catch up with orders - so not needing 3x staff on a Monday.

 

[Chrism82]

It will be via ebay amazon so impossible unless you change the dispatch times which we have done now so u get some wiggle room for dispatching

 

[Mr D]

I have ordered a few things online recently and sometimes I can be waiting a week before it gets posted out. I am sure these businesses are getting cancellations but I think most people accept there will be some sort of delay.

I'm finding its a week plus to arrive after posted out for some stuff.

And of course there are customers ordering on a Thursday and annoyed when it doesn't arrive on the Saturday.

 

[alan1302]

packing 100-150 orders hour per person almost impossible its sheer numbers , think simple solution more staff its just monday obviously its 3x a normal day due to 3 days worth of post.

Take item, place into envelope, slap a sticker on...done. Can do that easy enough.

 

[Chrism82]

Take item, place into envelope, slap a sticker on...done. Can do that easy enough.

Yes and we do that 100-150 items per hour 100,000 plus times a month

 

[Chrism82]

Depends on the items and the packer.
I can do 3 a minute with arthritic hands for smaller items. Several years ago could do quicker.

There's also the possibility on some sites of changing processing time to buy sufficient time to catch up with orders - so not needing 3x staff on a Monday.

Hi yes this is roughly where we are at now 2 per minute packed we have 1000 plus SKU so its not as easy if in a smaller space to pick pack but thats about right now having to extend dispatch times within ebay

 

[Solly]

We went from mixed packing to printing all the single orders in one go, getting those out of the way, then doing all the multis. Sounds simple but saves loads of time.

 

[Chrism82]

Yes sorry for long reply your right its much easier singles we can pack 200 small items per hour now this way with software.One person now packs 800-1000 per day

 

[lesliedocherty]

We pack on a Sunday, then towards Black Friday, we pack on the Saturday and during the week have 2 shifts 7-3pm & 3-10pm, works for us

 

[Manior]

Yes sorry for long reply your right its much easier singles we can pack 200 small items per hour now this way with software.One person now packs 800-1000 per day

Could I ask what software you use?

 

[MBE2017]

I have ordered a few things online recently and sometimes I can be waiting a week before it gets posted out. I am sure these businesses are getting cancellations but I think most people accept there will be some sort of delay.

Some might short term, most people have become accustomed to next day delivery etc. I think most customers will be very unforgiving in general, most probably think companies are quiet and sat around doing very little.

The vast majority of people are unaware of stock shortages in many industries. I tried to buy some new windows for the house the other day, got quoted 15 weeks waiting time. I will get them elsewhere.

 

[Pish_Pash]

We went from mixed packing to printing all the single orders in one go, getting those out of the way, then doing all the multis. Sounds simple but saves loads of time.

Yes packing single items first as a group works well, as does packing all same postage class at the same time...for example all UK large letters (or all EU orders, all no-EU orders etc) ...I find the biggest time sump is deciding the best carrier to use (tricky to automate due to size coming into play...and with multiple items in one order it get complicated real quick)

 

[Mr D]

Some might short term, most people have become accustomed to next day delivery etc. I think most customers will be very unforgiving in general, most probably think companies are quiet and sat around doing very little.

The vast majority of people are unaware of stock shortages in many industries. I tried to buy some new windows for the house the other day, got quoted 15 weeks waiting time. I will get them elsewhere.

My printer went on the blink in May so had to buy a new one. Different toner needed and it came with one.
However buying a spare toner - I usually have one in stock waiting for current one to run out - took over a month to get.
No online business that was open in May had any left. What with lots of people working from home and not using the office for supplies.
Took over a month to get a replacement and was almost out of toner in the printer by that time.

 

[Mr D]

We pack on a Sunday, then towards Black Friday, we pack on the Saturday and during the week have 2 shifts 7-3pm & 3-10pm, works for us

We spend half the year packing some single item stuff into boxes, labelling them then storing at storage unit. When pressed for time we can pick up stuff that takes a couple of hours while collecting other stock. Using time when we are not busy to help when we have no time.

Come late November onwards we go through those single units quickly - rare to have any left by middle of December when orders start dropping off.

 

[Naheed Mir]

How do you guys pack weekend orders taking into account its 3 days worth of order volume of a usual weekday .Do you have extra staff on the monday or open on the weekend to pack each day?

I have hired some extra staff for these busiest days.

 

[Pish_Pash]

Another time saver...make sure all your thermal printers have a peeler (dispenser)...ok, only saves a couple of seconds by not having to peel off the backing from a label, but a couple of seconds adds up when it comes to thousands of orders!

The other thing is of shipping outside the EU, have your software auto-print onto a Post Office CN22 customs form (i.e. if you use Royal Mail for your international shipments)...that said, if you're packing 1000s of orders, I'm sure you've likely got that in hand. I used to hand write those puppies...awful, but recently purchased a Thermal Transfer printer (Zebra GX430t) & it works a treat. printing beautifully onto Royal Mail CN22 for me (even the signature!)

 

[Mr D]

Another time saver...make sure all your thermal printers have a peeler (dispenser)...ok, only saves a couple of seconds by not having to peel off the backing from a label, but a couple of seconds adds up when it comes to thousands of orders!

The other thing is of shipping outside the EU, have your software auto-print onto a Post Office CN22 customs form (i.e. if you use Royal Mail for your international shipments)...that said, if you're packing 1000s of orders, I'm sure you've likely got that in hand. I used to hand write those puppies...awful, but recently purchased a Thermal Transfer printer (Zebra GX430t) & it works a treat. printing beautifully onto Royal Mail CN22 for me (even the signature!)

Could never get my Zebra to print stuff. Tech support were useless, spent a fortune on the phone with them.
Ended up taking the printer apart for parts to use in other items.

 

[Pish_Pash]

Could never get my Zebra to print stuff. Tech support were useless, spent a fortune on the phone with them.
Ended up taking the printer apart for parts to use in other items.

It needs a bit of perseverance (tech support? pah.)

There are two type of thermal printer...

1 Direct thermal (the labels themselves react to heat) - this is the most popular type e.g. GK420d

OR

2. Thermal transfer (load a special wax ribbon & it then prints onto normal labels)

to print onto a CN22...you need the latter (originally I was cloning my own CN22 in software & having it print onto a direct thermal printer...but it came out a bit blurry/low res ...option 2 is the way to go as you are then simply printing over an original high resolution CN22 labels as supplied by your local post office)

Either way, it's a mega time saver (& as the prospect of us now dropping out the customs union approaches...very essential)

 

[Mr D]

It needs a bit of perseverance (tech support? pah.)

There are two type of thermal printer...

1 Direct thermal (the labels themselves react to heat) - this is the most popular type e.g. GK420d

OR

2. Thermal transfer (load a special wax ribbon & it then prints onto normal labels)

to print onto a CN22...you need the latter (originally I was cloning my own CN22 in software & having it print onto a direct thermal printer...but it came out a bit blurry/low res ...option 2 is the way to go as you are then simply printing over an original high resolution CN22 labels as supplied by your local post office)

Either way, it's a mega time saver (& as the prospect of us now dropping out the customs union approaches...very essential)

I'm using maybe 2 a month currently. Call it 35 a year.

Next year of course its more like 900 a year - thats when a thermal printer is, I fear, needed.

 

[FrontierMan]

Hire staff to work weekends, there is no such thing as weekends off anymore, since online selling is 24/7