Sortation involves identifying items moving on a conveyor system and divert them to expected destinations for packaging. As manual sortation depends on human efforts to identify and redirect things, automated sortation is better and faster. It applies technologies such as barcode scanners and sensors to allow for efficient sortation processes without human intervention. Companies are embracing sortation systems to improve workers’ productivity and reduce the cost of production. Below are details you need to have on automated sortation applications.

Receiving

Leveraging automated sortation in the receiving stage ensures an efficient process inventory. It guarantees improved inventory visibility in the putaway process hence reducing the labor needed for this low-value task. When there is adequate info about the return, cartons are put in specific stations to handle the return process. After disposing of the goods, there is sorting of items before returning them to vendor, destruction, or put away into stock. 

Picking and packing

Orders’ picking and packing are the most labor-intensive jobs in orders’ fulfillment tasks. The operations applying the manual picking technique require workers to walk the floor picking items and organize them in orders before processing. The task is expensive in terms of cost and time. However, medium-and high-volume fulfillment operations have automated sortation systems. The system ensures a complete picking and arranging process of items. It completes more picks within a short period.

Shipping

After picking and packing the orders, the items are ready for shipping. An effective sortation system allows orders not to go through parcel hubs or the so-called zone skipping by presorting the orders. The system saves a lot of time that would have been spent in sorting the orders reducing the company’s productivity. Therefore, more orders are processed within a stipulated timeframe making sure that customers remain happy and satisfied. In most instances, LTL or carrier/service methods handle the sorting process.