Will Your Seasonal Gifts Make it on Time?

Posted on 07 November 2011

I know the clever, organised ones amongst you will have already purchased and wrapped all your loved ones gifts for the coming festive season, but some of us haven’t been quite so ‘on the ball’. Fortunately for us there are many on-line retailers able to supply gifts right up to the eve of Christmas Eve.

Which gets me thinking about just how these last minute orders are fulfilled, or more specifically how many times a package’s barcode label is ‘read’ from the time it’s applied to the time we take delivery. We’re all familiar with the courier’s consignment number being scanned when it finally arrives at our door, but have you considered how many barcodes are scanned as a result of your one product purchase? Let’s have a closer look!

So you’ve bought your Aunt Ethel Terry Wogan’s autobiography entitled “Is it me?”, online from Amazon (other biographies and on-line retailers are available) and they’ve vowed to deliver it within three days. I must confess I don’t have any inside information about how Amazon fulfils its orders, but here’s what I suspect happens next.

In the triple shift, 24 hour warehouse one of the picking staff is swiftly racing around the warehouse picking orders from the multitude of shelves. The display of his rugged mobile computer is telling him to go to isle 16, shelf 12, bin location F11. He denotes his arrival by using the mobile’s integrated barcode scanner to scan the shelf edge barcode label, if he’s scanned the correct code, the display now shows him the product, “Is it me? Autobiography – Terry Wogan, Qty = 1”. As he picks up one copy he scans the book’s ISBN barcode, his rugged mobile confirms it is the correct item.

Once he’s collected the optimum number of picks, his rugged mobile will direct him to the packing/dispatch area where he leaves all the goods for the packers to work their magic. The packers each have a list of orders to dispatch, they use a tethered barcode scanner to scan the item they’re about to pack and the label printer attached to their display spits out the consignment label for this product detailing the recipient’s name and delivery address. Once Terry Wogan has been securely packed, the label is applied and the consignment barcode scanned to confirm it’s ready to go. Then the package is whisked along a conveyor to the transport area.

The label is scanned again as the package is loaded onto the truck which delivers to the designated courier’s sorting depot where, you guessed it, the label is scanned again accepting it into the depot. This is a high tech sorting depot with automatic holographic scanners switching conveyors depending on the destination of the package. The package is likely to be scanned an average of four times in this depot before being scanned onto a trunk vehicle.

The trunk vehicle transports packages to the area depot where it is again scanned in, confirming receipt of the goods. Here it is again routed to a scheduled courier van where it’s scanned on to the van. Finally, it arrives at your door, where the courier again scans the label before asking for your name and signature on the display of his rugged mobile.

For sixteen years, Codegate’s software has been used by warehouses, couriers and logistics experts to ensure they can monitor and measure the supply chain, enabling managers to maximise efficiency and minimise costs, resulting in a better bottom line.

So how many scans did you guess? This was a single item shipment with a simple delivery route and yet fourteen barcode scans were recorded before it got into your hands. Now scale that up for the impending festive madness which is swiftly approaching, a mind boggling thought for sure!

Not bad for a forty year old piece of technology! The mighty barcode battles on and remains a staple in the Auto-ID diet!

Did you guess right, or do you have inside knowledge of how specific on-line retailers fulfil orders?  If you have I’m interested in your thoughts on this topic so please do leave a comment below.

Of course, if you’d like to discuss a possible mobile deployment for your business, feel free to drop me an email or call the office on +44 (0)845 345 0808.