If you can benefit from picking to the shipping carton or predetermining the exact contents of a shipping carton upfront, then you need cartonization logic.

Cartonization is the process of evaluating the contents of an order to determine the number and size of each shipping carton required for the order. Cartonization normally requires dimensional information (weight, height, length, and width) for each item. 

Cartonization uses basic mathematics to determine the best way to pack a carton.   Many existing systems use the fluid fill method. This method simply determines the cubic volume for the order by aggregating the cubic volume of each item (times the quantity ordered).

More advanced cartonization methods take into account:

• The list of available cartons with known dimensions and maximum weight the carton can hold.
• The ability of some items to be nested allowing the placement of one item partially inside of another to reduce the amount of space required.
• The need for special packing and dunnage for items that can be damaged during the shipping process
  

When an order is entered into an Order Entry system, often there is a need to calculate the number of cartons to be shipped and the shipping charges. If you ordered any Christmas presents online you likely wanted to know the total cost of your purchase (cost of the product plus the cost of the shipping charges).

Many companies today offer shipping and handling fees that are based on marketing business practices more than cost plus a fare mark-up. With cartonization you can determine the actual number of cartons the order will be shipping in, the size of each of the cartons and even the cost to ship the order to the customer.

Cartonization software can come from one of several sources:

• In-House Developed Software, once very common and still popular among shippers with advanced cartonization needs.
• Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) providers
• Warehouse Control Systems (WCS) providers – see The Role of the Warehouse Control System in the DC  

WMS/WCS systems typically utilize their cartonization modules to determine the number and type of each carton required to pick the order. Each of these cartons can then be assigned a unique tracking ID used to control the launch of the carton and subsequent tracking of the carton through the picking, packing and shipping process.

With the contents of the carton known, the carton can be launched at the pick zone requiring the first pick rather than at a central carton launch location. This can significantly the reduce the travel time for a carton within your system and also reduces congestion in upstream picking areas because the carton skips those areas.

The label applied to the carton (or tote) can contain a bar code representing the license plate number could actually be the shipping label (since the carton contents are predetermined).

The need for a separate packing process may be reduced or eliminated because the pickers can be responsible for the packing of the items in the carton. The carton may require dunnage before sealing and potentially a packing list applied prior to shipping.
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The cartonization process requires you to capture many attributes of each item, including:

• Item Dimensions and Weight (Height, Length, Width) by Unit of Measure (Pallet, Full Case, Master Pack, Unit)
• Special Packing Requirements (for breakable items)
• Nesting Information (sometimes the dimensions of a specific quantity of the item)
• Packing requirements: for example, what items cannot be packed together

The cartonization process also requires you to define attributes about the available cartons:

• Carton Size Name (like the B-2 box or the 12 x 15)
• Carton Dimensions (Height, Length, Width)
• Maximum weight the carton holds
• Weight of the Carton (for shipping charge calculations)

Sometimes not all cartons are available for all orders. For example, you may use cartons provided by the Carrier (UPS or FedEx) which require you to ship via the carrier in order to use.  You may have requirements that certain customers don’t accept certain cartons (too big or too small). The cartonization data configuration capabilities should allow for these types of rules to be defined.

Some cartonization routines will even take into account the logical pick sequence and use this to determine which items to place into each carton for multi-carton orders.  This helps reduce the number of pick zones that a carton needs to visit in zone routing systems.

Summary

Cartonization provides many benefits for order fulfillment operations where items are picked in less than full case levels at both the order processing level and the pick execution level.   Successfully implementing cartonization into your operation requires more than cartonization software, it requires an implementation plan that includes good upfront data collection and an ongoing commitment to maintaining the data when new items are received.

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