Smart Packing Material Preferences can help shippers that have specific packing requirements related to certain SKUs, Product Categories, and material types.
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Why two types of Material Preferences? This design offers the most flexibility to get the required packing behavior for each use case. Shippers can restrict what items can be packing into a given box. Others may have use cases where they want to force certain item into specific container(s). This design accommodates both options. Select the one that works best for your use case. Sometimes both preference types will be needed. |
The two types of material preferences are the PRODUCT type and the MATERIAL type.
PRODUCT type: Use PRODUCT preferences to force (or prevent) SKUs or products within a Product Category or Subcategory to be packed in specific packing materials or containers.
Force Packing Examples:
Example #1: Glass bottles must be packed only in boxes that have inserts that keep the bottle upright and have dividers to prevent damage when shipping multiple bottles.
Example #2: Heavy items must be packed in reinforced boxes that are designed for shipping those items.
Example #3: Hazmat items must be packed in boxes that include pre-printed Hazmat markings.
Prevent Packing Examples
Example #1: TBD
“Packs Individually”. PRODUCT preferences have an optional “Packs Individually” flag which will always pack that item alone into the specific material. Each item will be packed in its own container.
MATERIAL type: Use MATERIAL preferences to define what items or categories of products may be specific packing materials or containers. These will only restrict which materials can be packing into that container. To force an item, use a Product preference.
Example #1: Boxes with dividers that are specifically designed for glass bottles should not be selected for non-bottle items.
Example #2: Reinforced boxes should only be used with heavy items.
Note: In both examples #1 and #2, both a PRODUCT and MATERIAL preference may be required to get preferred packing. One rule to always pack the heavy item in a reinforced box and a second rule to restrict reinforced box to be used only when heavy items are being shipped.
Example #3: Hazmat-marked containers should only be used when hazmat items are being shipped.
Note: In the hazmat example, the shipper may be OK to ship the hazmat items in any container given they can add hazmat labeling, but they only want to use special hazmat marked boxes when hazmat items are present. Only a MATERIAL preference is required in this scenario.
“Allow other items”. MATERIAL preferences have a setting that allows other items to be packed in a container once that container has been selected.
Allow other items = TRUE allows other items to be packed in the container as long as one allowed item is present.
Example: Use a hazmat-marked box only when at least one hazmat item is shipping but it is OK to pack other, non-hazmat items in that same box.
Allow other items = FALSE means that only the specific items can be packed in the restricted container. All other items will be packed separately.
Example: Use a bottle box only for bottle. Pack all other items, e.g. a hammer, into a separate box.
Only one MATERIAL rule is permitted per material. This avoids potential conflicts.
Example: User creates a MATERIAL rule for a given 8x8x8 box to only be used with “Shirts” and another preference that the same 8x8x8 box should only be used with “Hats”.
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Enabling Smart Packing Material Preferences for User Account
In aadmin, go to Account page and select Edit Account
In the Smart Packing section of the Account page, enable “Allow Material Preferences”
Once enabled for the account, users can access Material Preferences by clicking on the ⚙️ ->Settings page in the top right of the UI. The Material Preferences are listed with other Smart Packing settings.
Create a new Material Preference:
From the Material Preference page, select +ADD NEW PREFERENCE button
Enter Material Preference name in “Name” field
“Select Products” or “Select Packing Materials” based on the preference type
For Products:
APPLICATIONS
Select “SKU(s)”, “Product Category”, or “Product Subcategory” from first dropdown
Selects “is”, “starts with”, or “contains” in the second dropdown
Enter one or more values into “Add SKU/Category” field
ACTIONS
Select “Pack only in” or “Do NOT pack in” from dropdown
Enter one or more materials in “Add Packing Material” box. Dropdown showing all packing material options will appear as seen below.
ADD DETAIL FOR “SELECT PACKING MATERIAL”
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