Meeting the 3pm cutoff at a spare-parts distributor
The situation
A distributor of spare parts promises next-day delivery on orders packed by 3pm. Most orders are small, high in volume and urgent. The warehouse prints pick lists in batches through the day, so an urgent order that arrives just after a batch can wait an hour before anyone sees it.
Labels are printed one at a time from the carrier’s website, and at 2:45pm the packing bench is the busiest place in the building.
What we’d build
- Warehouse devices showing every approved order the moment it’s approved, sorted by delivery date, with orders that must be packed before the 3pm cutoff highlighted.
- Pick lists sorted by product group, so pickers walk the warehouse in a sensible order. Opening an order marks it as in progress with the picker’s name, so nothing gets picked twice.
- Automatic printing. A small, pre-configured print PC connects the existing label printer and A4 printer through PrintNode. The DPD label prints the moment the booking is made, and the ship note prints when the order is completed on the device.
- A warehouse dashboard on a screen in the warehouse: a countdown to the cutoff, the number of orders still to pack, orders at each stage, and any failed bookings.
How an order flows
- An order is approved at 1:52pm and appears at the top of every device, highlighted for the cutoff.
- The nearest picker opens it. The dashboard shows one more order in progress.
- The order is picked, packed into a single parcel, weighed and photographed.
- As soon as Complete order is tapped, the ship note prints, the parcel is priced and booked with DPD, and the label prints at the bench.
- The tracking number is saved to the order in Linnworks and the order is completed.
What changes day to day
- Urgent orders are visible the moment they’re approved, not at the next print run.
- Nobody types weights into a carrier website or prints labels by hand.
- The team can see at a glance how many orders are still to pack before 3pm, and which ones.
Typical scope
The warehouse and shipping phase is the heart of this build, usually following order automation. The warehouse dashboard add-on fits naturally. See pricing for indicative ranges and running costs, including the one-off hardware.