Labor issues are affecting a wide range of industries and a lack of workers is just the beginning. For fulfillment centers, ecommerce companies and 3PLs, finding, training and keeping workers is becoming harder and harder. The vast majority of these companies report labor scarcity, high turnover, and high costs associated with onboarding.
Utilizing automated parcel sorting systems, like ID Parcel & Mail Solutions’ Packet Parcel Sorting System, to reduce labor costs has always been a key benefit of this technology. Today, however, parcel automation is essential for addressing workforce shortages, retention challenges, and escalating hiring costs.
As the ecommerce industry continues to grow, so does the demand for workers in parcel fulfilment roles. The labor pool is also shrinking as boomers continue to retire. And today’s younger workforce is shunning labor-intensive jobs, citing an aversion to manual, repetitive tasks that don’t have significant growth opportunities.
As a result, finding workers has become highly competitive and wages are increasing in an effort to attract them. The cost of labor associated with manual processing has always had a significant impact on the bottom line. Today, those costs are even higher and becoming cost prohibitive in some cases.
Even when companies are able to find employees, turnover has become another issue to grapple with. Increased wage offers from competing organizations, as well as the unpopularity of these types of roles, is making it harder to keep workers in place. High turnover leads to additional costs and resources associated with recruiting, training and temporary staffing. Company morale and culture are also negatively impacted when turnover is high.
Labor instability leads to a negative impact on quality and customer service. Customers today are extremely demanding. They expect fast, error free fulfilment. Errors are more frequent when new, inexperienced workers are constantly being onboarded and trained to handle the job.
Automated parcel sorting systems handle parcel fulfillment with fewer workers. And they do so faster, more accurately and with fewer errors. Parcel automation significantly reduces the number of workers needed for scanning, manual weighing and dimensioning, and sorting packages. As a result, operations can worry less about employee turnover, rising wage pressure and the scarcity of labor.
Automated parcel sorting systems utilize technology such as barcode scanners, automatic labeling machines, inline scales, dimensioning systems and automatic sorters to process parcels accurately at high speeds. Not only are fewer workers required, but throughput speed is significantly increased. Higher throughput improves asset utilization, spreads fixed costs over more shipments, and lowers the cost per parcel. All of these factors contribute to stronger margins.
By taking over manual tasks, automated parcel sorting systems can help reduce workplace injuries often associated with lifting and constant, repetitive motion. Injuries like this can have significant insurance and other costs implications. And when more menial positions are handled by automation, workers can focus on more rewarding supervisory, technical or quality assurance roles.
At ID Parcel & Mail Solutions our systems have been utilized around the world to help organizations reduce their labor dependency. Our automated parcel sorting systems are built for the specific needs of our customers. They range from small table top systems to expansive fully automated setups with all the bells and whistles. Reach out to our team to learn more.
