Advise and register packaging
Using Packagings, it's easy to choose the right packaging at the packing table. In addition, you gain insight into usage, so you can purchase efficiently and charge packaging costs to your fulfilment customers.
To use this feature, first set up your packaging under Settings > Packaging.
Advise packaging
At the packing table, it can sometimes be difficult to estimate which packaging you need for an order. Will this fit in this box? Is it okay to send this in an envelope? New employees in particular struggle with this. This uncertainty takes time and often leads to unnecessarily large shipments. By advising packaging in Picqer, you help employees to quickly choose the right type of packaging.
For each picklist, you can advise one type of packaging. This advice is shown on the picklist and when creating a shipment, eliminating guesswork at the packing table.
There are 2 ways to advise packaging: Automatically or manually using Rules.
Automatically advice
This way Picqer advises packaging for each new picklist. This is done by stacking all products on the picklist on top of each other and searching for the smallest packaging that fits them. Of course, this only works if the dimensions of your products and packaging are known.
By default, automatic advice is disabled. You can enable this at the bottom of the packaging overview. When editing packaging, you can choose to exclude it from the automatic advice. This is useful for special types of packaging, such as pallets or tubes.
Manually advise using Rules
For more flexibility, you can use Rules to advise packaging. This can be done using the picklist rule action "Advise packaging". This is ideal for items that always require a letterbox package or for special packaging like tubes or pallets.
How do I advise a type of packaging using Rules?
Suppose you have a single picklist with 1 product that should always be shipped in an envelope. You can advise this as following using Rules:
Conditions:
- Product tags > contain > "letterbox package"
- Amount of products > is smaller or equal to > "1"
Action:
- Advise packaging > "Envelope"
There are also 3 rule conditions that can be useful: "longest length", "widest width" and "total height" of all products on the picklist. This allows you to advise a type of packaging based on the dimensions yourself, if you prefer not to use the automatic advice.
Register packaging
To gain insight into usage, you can register the packaging used when creating a shipment. This can be done using a click or scan if the packaging has a barcode. By default, the advised packaging is selected. You can always select a different packaging. This is useful when the products fit better in a different type of packaging or when the packaging advised is out of stock.
Via Reports > Packaging, you can see which types of packaging have been used during a specified period. Based on this report, you can purchase packaging efficiently or charge them to your fulfillment customers.
You can also find the used packaging on the picklist, the Shipments report, and the fulfillment customer report.
