Handle more. Scan less.
Every box separately under the scanner, every pallet signed off separately, and at the end of the quarter a count that takes two days. The actions are small, but they sit in everything. STOCKflow reads a whole pallet at once, and the count becomes a walk around.
We start with one inbound or outbound process and measure time per action before and after.
Sound familiar?
These situations come back almost everywhere volume moves through a warehouse: at wholesalers, in warehousing and fulfillment, and just as much in agrifood, horticulture and building materials.
- Goods arrive at box, pallet or container level and have to be handled one by one.
- Pallets sit somewhere for a while and nobody posts that location.
- Checking that an order is complete takes more time than picking it.
- The quarterly count shuts the warehouse down and still does not add up.
- Loading errors only surface when the customer calls.
- Returns come back with a paperwork discrepancy that nobody checks.
What it costs
What single scans cost per year
Actions per day
Seconds per scan
Working days
Per year
307 hours
Calculated with euros per hour, and with the share of the theoretical gain you actually achieve:
- Conservative
- 123 hours5,520 euros per year
- Expected
- 184 hours8,280 euros per year
- Potential
- 245 hours11,040 euros per year
Worked example based oneight hundred single scans a day of six seconds each, over 230 working days. That is the scan itself only, without the walking and the searching. Not a measurement at a customer. The numbers are adjustable: put your own situation in and the outcome follows along.
How it works in the warehouse
One decision makes the difference: where in the flow the label goes on.
01 / Labeling at the right moment
Usually at inbound, on the case, the pallet or the carrier. This is process design, not a technical detail: if the label goes on too late, the gain further down the flow is gone.
02 / Reading in bulk
A handheld reads a whole pallet in one move. At a dock or a doorway a fixed reading point does the same, without anyone standing still.
03 / Seeing differences right away
What should have been loaded against what was read. The discrepancy surfaces at the dock and not at the customer.
What RFID does and does not do in the warehouse
What RFID does and does not do in the warehouse
Wel
- Read hundreds of tags at a time, through film and cardboard as well
- Register automatically what passes doorways, docks and tunnels
- Include the yard outside as its own map with zones, not just the building
- Count without shutting the floor down
- Show the difference between expected and read straight away
Niet
- Work with no labeling moment at all: something has to go on somewhere
- Read liquids, metal and tightly packed film without adjustment
- Read a pallet standing behind a wall of other pallets
- Tell you whether the contents of a box are right, unless those contents are labeled too
To get anything out of RFID, a label has to go on at the right moment in the flow. That is the most important design choice of the whole project, so we put it up front and not in the small print.
What changes in practice
Booking in a pallet at once
The trailer is at the dock and the pallet passes the gate in one move. Counting out box by box goes away.The load check at the dock
What is in the shipment is read before the door closes. The error surfaces at your end and not at the customer.The quarterly count becomes a walk
No Saturday with eight people and no downtime. One walk along the racking, and the difference is right there next to it.Carriers that come back
Pallets and crates that leave the building are on a name. What does not come back you see in the week it happens.
Does this fit your warehouse?
Below a certain volume this does not pay for itself, and we will say so.
- Size
- 25 to 500 employees
- Process
- A recurring inbound or outbound flow
- Systems
- WMS or ERP in place, integration follows later
- Volume
- From a few hundred actions per day
How we prove it: a small, paid Proof of Value
One process, one type of carrier. We label temporarily at inbound and measure the time per action and the number of missed registrations.
Scope
- One inbound or outbound process
- One type of box, pallet or carrier
- Temporary labeling at inbound
- A handheld or a simple fixed scanning setup
- Label placement and readability are assessed separately
Go or no-go
After the test period there is a measurement next to the baseline measurement. If it gains too little, that is the outcome and it stops. If it gains enough, we also know right away where the label has to sit and which reading points you need.
What you are probably thinking
We already have barcode scanners across the whole warehouse.
Then the basics are in place. The question is not whether barcode works, but how many actions you do per day where someone has to pick up a box and turn it to reach the label. That is where the gain sits. Barcode stays where it is good, and our handhelds read both.
Does bulk registration actually work in our process?
That depends on how tightly the goods are packed and where the label sits. A pallet wrapped in film usually reads well, a pallet of metal sheets does not. This is exactly the kind of question a Proof of Value answers and a brochure does not.
What does a label like that cost each?
A simple paper label costs a few cents, a label that has to go on metal or comes back in the return flow costs many times that. A reusable carrier works out differently from a case that goes out once. The choice follows from your object and your flow, so we make it in the Proof of Value and not in a price list.