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KOCH Entertainment Expands Fulfillment Offerings With Sealed Air's PriorityPak® Automated Packaging System

Headquartered in Long Island, N.Y., KOCH Entertainment is the largest independent music company in North America. With more than 80 active labels, KOCH ships multiple orders to 37,500 addresses each year. Having a packaging system that integrates with KOCH's warehouse management system and gets individual shipments of CDs and DVDs out in a timely manner is extremely important to Phil Wulff, senior vice president of logistics, and John Papazoros, senior director of distribution, for KOCH.

Climbing the Charts

During the 2006 holiday season, KOCH Entertainment began expanding into mail order fulfillment, a part of its business with tremendous growth potential. Almost immediately, Wulff and Papazoros noticed these additional orders were causing backup at the bulk packaging station where they packaged and shipped to customers.

“We needed to divide the packaging operation for individual mail orders and bulk orders so all of them could be packaged properly and shipped quickly,” Papazoros stated. “Sealed Air's PriorityPak® system provides an efficient method to package single unit orders for both domestic and international shipment.”

Jazzing Up the Packaging Line

Wulff and Papazoros were introduced to Sealed Air Corporation's new PriorityPak® automated packaging system by Glen Road Systems, Inc. (GRSI), a company that specializes in integration services with automated packaging solutions. The PriorityPak® system and GRSI's FastTrak® warehouse control system complemented each other flawlessly and became the perfect solution for KOCH.

“The key to the whole packaging process is integration,” stated Wulff. “We viewed a few other systems, but the PriorityPak® system was the best solution to fit with the FastTrak® software and our existing warehouse management system – which was an absolute must.”

Measuring approximately 30 feet long, the total packaging system consists of the PriorityPak® system and material handling automation components, which include auto feeders, scanners, a random barcode printer, an in-motion scale, a print-and-apply labeler and a sorter, all controlled by the FastTrak® system. The only customization needed to the PriorityPak® automated packaging system was a barcode inkjet printer and an extra scanner so the package could be easily identified further down the packaging line.

“The team from Sealed Air trained our staff on how to use the system and monitored the system to ensure it was running properly,” stated Papazoros. “But, honestly, there was not much training needed because the packaging system does all the work.”

Rockin' Results

“The addition of the PriorityPak® system allowed us to effectively take on a different side of the business,” stated Wulff. “There was consumer demand for something we could provide, but we didn't have the best packaging method for single-item shipments. Sealed Air and GRSI's FastTrak® presented us with the perfect solution to our problem.”

“One thousand orders used to take two days from receipt of the order to it going out the door,” explained Papazoros. “Now every order placed ships the same day.”

According to Papazoros, the company now ships more than 3,000 mail order shipments per day. The PriorityPak® system can package up to 1,200 individual packs per hour. The integrated system allows KOCH to package, weigh and label all individual mail orders in less than two hours.

Because of the speed of the PriorityPak® system, KOCH estimates labor savings of more than $90,000 annually. KOCH also receives improved customer satisfaction and minimal damage claims

“The biggest complaint we hear is that the shipments sometimes arrive too fast,” Wulff laughed. “Can you imagine that being a problem?”

Humming Along

Koch uses a warehouse management system (WMS) to pick individual mail order shipments throughout the facility. For picking purposes, 100 individual orders are grouped into one batch. When these orders are ready to be packaged, the WMS separates each batch into single-order shipments.

“All we need to do is load a stack of CDs and DVDs onto the auto feeder and let the system do the rest – package, weigh and label,” explained Wulff.

The smart-sensing technology on the PriorityPak® system scans the item's dimensions and delivers the correct amount of the Cold Seal® cohesive-coated PriorityWrap™ Rigid Board from the two supply rolls to the PriorityPak® system. As the two sheets of PriorityWrap™ Rigid Board are fed into the system, the product is captured between them, minimizing product shifting and providing additional corner protection. The protective package locks and seals the product in place providing superior product protection from the rigors of shipping and handling. GRSI's FastTrak® systems, which controls the other automated components, simultaneously scans the barcode on the item and assigns it to one of the printed random bar codes from the top web of the PriorityWrap™ Rigid Board which now becomes the license plate for that customer specific order. The packaged item then continues down the conveyor where it is scanned, weighed, labeled and sorted.

KOCH also uses four Sealed Air Fill-Air Elite® inflatable packaging systems for void-fill in packages with larger items that do not fit through the PriorityPak® system, such as box sets. The company ships approximately 2,500 packages a day using Fill-Air® cushions.

Learn more about the PriorityPak® system