Small parcels are causing big headaches at parcel hubs where traditional systems are struggling to remain competitive. CEPs must embrace change and find the best fit for their operation – for both their parcel mix today and expected growth tomorrow.
The increased prevalence of small parcels in e-commerce logistics doesn’t just pose a significant challenge to CEP operators without automation, but also to those with long-established semi and fully-automated sortation solutions.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that many of these automated CEP operations have been overwhelmed by the explosion in small parcels (typically parcels 600 by 400 by 200 mm or smaller, depending on the courier) over the last decade, and the increase is showing no signs of slowing down.
Smalls are a poor fit for traditional parcel sortation systems that use sliding-shoe technology (typical for line sorters) and sometimes also for tilt-tray (typical for loop sorters) – chiefly because the small items have a tendency to get stuck when they come in polybags.
As a result, handling smalls often requires clearing devices or time-consuming manual intervention – both of which can extend cut-off times. This negatively impacts operational efficiency and can become a competitive disadvantage for CEP providers.
There are several solutions available to solve these issues – all depending on the individual CEP operation.
This article will take a look at the challenges and what to look for in terms of automated solutions.
Historically, most sortation systems have been designed to handle medium-sized and large parcels.
But in recent years, the growth of e-commerce has seen a big increase in demand for small, lightweight parcels, of which a great proportion are polybags – plastic bags that come in a great variety of shapes and sizes and are extremely light (half of the lightweight parcels weigh less than 60 grams, and a fifth less than 20 grams).
Of all parcels, polybags are the most likely to end up as misplaced shipments.
To handle this change in the parcel mix, and the particular challenge presented by polybags, CEPs often find their existing systems are insufficient.
Even though a high number of established CEPs have been close to being fully automated for quite some time, if the designer of their system didn’t prioritise smalls – because the original scope was a certain product mix – then the technology platform for the solution can be inadequate and the possibility of adding capacity can be limited.
It’s not unheard of for CEPs with no automation to handle smalls fairly effectively.
In countries where salaries are low and the number of workers in a parcel hub is likely to be much higher than in a location in Western Europe or the USA, manual sorting can be a crazy display of throwing skills, filling bins for 20-30 destinations at speed. After all, smalls are light and therefore easier to move.
However, their small and often irregular size is not an advantage when it comes to labelling, which can often be scrunched up and partially destroyed.
Likewise for other manual processes, smalls can be inconvenient. For example, they are prone to falling out of roller cages or off pallets when moved by forklifts during in-feed and out-feed.
In most countries, however, labour is an increasingly expensive resource: not just in terms of the annual salary typically paid to a worker sorting parcels, but the cost of recruitment, training and retention. Turnover rates tend to be high as the job is not super appealing.
So when CEPs with no automation face an increase in smalls, they must take swift action, as recruiting more workers is going to be very expensive.
CEPs with traditional semi and fully-automated solutions, such as sliding-shoe and tilt-tray, sometimes struggle with polybags and ‘ugly’-shaped parcels.
First and foremost, smalls come in all shapes and sizes – from convex and cylindrical to flat and cubic, but above all malleable – and this means they frequently get stuck.
On a sliding-shoe, polybags have a habit of wrapping themselves around the shoe mechanism. On a tilt-tray, particularly in humid conditions, they can get stuck to the wooden tray.
CEPs with traditional semi or fully-automated solutions that face an increase in smalls have two choices.
Firstly, they have the option of completely overhauling their current set-up: for example, replacing the sliding-shoe or tilt-tray with cross-belt.
Cross-belt will ease most of the problems caused by smalls. Not only do smalls enjoy a gentle ride on cross-belt, which comes as both line and loop technology, but cross-belt’s double belts enable two smalls to be conveyed side by side on a single carrier, which increases the throughput. Furthermore, cross-belt can famously handle almost all sizes – for larger parcels the double belts simply come together – and precise singulation enables all parcels to be dispatched with far greater accuracy.
Secondly, CEPs can regulate the in-feed capacity and add more capacity to complement their existing system – or split their flows of small and medium/large parcels.
While some CEPs have postponed change and continue to handle all of their parcels using just one sortation system, others have been taking a two-system approach for decades.
Having one system to handle your smalls and another to take care of your larger parcels makes good sense.
Normally a two-system approach involves a major sortation system running on a loop sorter, which sorts medium and large-sized parcels, along with a second system running on a line sorter (or a small loop sorter), which sorts smalls by destination into batches of 15-20, which can then be sorted in a larger bag or tote on the main system – a huge boost for capacity.
But placing two systems adjacent to one another – for example, a line sorter and a loop sorter – isn’t always an option for a CEP where the footprint is already inhabited by a major system.
Rather than completely overhauling their main system or – at even more expense – relocating to a new location and starting afresh at a greenfield site, CEPs are discovering that they can make use of vertical space by using pouch sorter technology.
Either the pouch system can be placed on a mezzanine or suspended from a mezzanine or the ceiling itself.
When a system is designed for a CEP, careful consideration should always be given to the future and what the CEP’s clients might need.
For now, the future is clear. CEPs will need to be able to handle ever-increasing throughput peaks.
It’s vitally important, therefore, that the CEPs call on expertise to help them carry out a thorough appraisal of all their processes and needs – both current and future – right from the start.
Enlisting the help of a trusted, experienced system provider at this point will ensure the design fits the CEP’s needs.
The right choice of automation enables CEPs to increase their speed at handling smalls and their overall capacity, which will lower the cost per parcel.
And there are also other benefits:
Smalls can pose a problem for CEPs: they are tricky to handle and if their flow isn’t controlled and sortation systems are not properly set up for them, both in the parcel hubs and across the network, they will eat into capacity. The pressure is on CEPs to not just invest in automation to improve their handling of smalls today, but to find the best possible fit for their business to thrive long into the future, enjoying a long list of benefits in the process.
