VIDEO: Reducing Costs in Packaging and Shipments with Automatic Dimensioning

Honeywell Safety + Productivity Solutions introduces the AutoCube 8200.

In manufacturing, part of the challenge is getting your product out of the factory and into the hands of your customers. Once you’ve packaged that product, you’ve got to ship it — and shipping isn’t cheap.

In the video above, we discuss how automatic dimensioning can reduce costs and save time by taking the manual element out of the product and packaging measuring process.

“We have a product called the AutoCube 8200, for manufacturers who want to ship out boxes without having to manually measure,” said Praveen Issac, product manager at Honeywell Safety + Productivity Solutions. “Now it can be automatically measured nearly instantly and with the accuracy shipping carriers value.”

In high mix, low volume environments, weight, dimensions and shapes can vary drastically, making packaging a complex and costly obstacle to getting products to customers. Even in low mix, high volume environments, larger packages are now more expensive to ship, which means minimizing packaging size is essential.

Using the machine vision capabilities of the AutoCube 8200, manufacturers won’t need to manually measure each product or package. Instead, an employee can just drop the product on a scale and measurements will be done automatically, as demonstrated in the video.

Measurements taken include the length, width, height, volume and dimensional weight. Many of the courier providers have moved away from weight-based pricing to dimensional based pricing, Issac explained.

“It’s really important to have an automatic way of measuring dimensions, which is where AutoCube plays a big role. We currently use 3D depth sensing technology to quickly look at a package and instantly determine length, width and height. The measurements are then sent to our shipping software.”

For more information, watch the video above and visit the Honeywell website.

Written by

James Anderton

Jim Anderton is the Director of Content for ENGINEERING.com. Mr. Anderton was formerly editor of Canadian Metalworking Magazine and has contributed to a wide range of print and on-line publications, including Design Engineering, Canadian Plastics, Service Station and Garage Management, Autovision, and the National Post. He also brings prior industry experience in quality and part design for a Tier One automotive supplier.