xTrack PMS – The returnable packaging management software solution

Returnable packaging is one of the vital material resources in logistics. It is impossible to imagine transporting goods without containers, pallets, shuttles, crates. Apart from the practical importance of such packaging items, the costs involved are not to be neglected either. For large companies, for example, the pallet losses in a year can add up to tens of thousands of euros in costs. And that’s just the cost of packaging to which the wages for the staff managing it may be added as well. However, managing returnable packaging with the right software solutions can reduce all these costs.

Returnable packaging management with xTrack PMS

xTrack PMS is the software solution for the automatic management of returnable packaging items (Euro pallets, non-standard pallets, crates, containers, etc.) in which goods are transported to customers.

To support logistics companies (and not only!), Axes Software has created the xTrack PMS (Packaging Management System) application, attaining one of the Axes Software project objectives (code 129490). The project is co-financed by the European Social Fund through the Competitiveness Operational Programme 2014-2020 and entitled “Innovative platform for the artificial intelligence management of work processes in factories and warehouses“.

The application is extremely flexible. It can be tailored to the logistics needs of each individual company and  it is designed for companies like manufacturers, distribution companies, 3PL service providers that manage a large number of returnable packaging items. These companies need to keep strict records of packaging items and their location so as to minimize the costs related to losses.

Managing returnable packaging items, especially when they are used in network warehouses, is complicated and difficult and digitalization is a necessity as the accuracy of data in a ‘manual’ system leaves much to be desired.

What does xTrack PMS do? Application features

The functionalities of the application can be defined starting from the “states” of the returnable packaging items. These can be in stock (available) or in other locations: with the carrier, in one of the logistics company’s warehouses, or at the consignee (the recipient of the goods, who keeps the packaging items until they are emptied). Returnable packaging items can be declared as damaged or replaced with value vouchers until they are physically returned. 

The xTrack PMS application records all these states for each individual packaging item, and any changes that occur are very easy for operators to make and for managers to track. Automatic data processing whenever changes occur allows users to know at any time how many items are available, how many there are in other locations, where they are and what state they are in.

Management of the returnable packaging circuit

The carrier must return the same number and types of packaging to one of the logistics company’s warehouses after initially picking them up from a customer and using them for transport (this is flagged in the xTrack TMS). The physical return of packaging items is recorded in the application by the operators who collect them from the drivers.

If there is a shortage of packaging in another warehouse or goods simply need to be delivered, returnable items are transferred between warehouses, with or without goods, and the two situations are treated differently in the xTrack PMS application.

In order to replace (compensate for) destroyed or lost packaging items, the logistics company can purchase them from various suppliers. These are recorded separately and have no return-to-customer feature.

Packaging stock digital records are kept in minute detail, so restrictions can be placed so that no more packaging is returned to a customer if that customer’s packaging has not been recovered from the final recipient of the goods.

Packaging return management

Packaging is returned to customers from the warehouses closest to them. Thus, the collection flows to the selected warehouse for all the packaging items recovered from the other network warehouses are organized with xTrack PMS.

If the carriers does not return the packaging after each trip, they have the option to return the packaging items used on several trips in one single batch. The xTrack PMS application keeps track of the returns for each individual carrier and the registration of returned packaging  items in the system is simple, fast and error-free.

Operators enter the number of packaging  items in the system for all applicable options (physical return, vouchers, lost or damaged packaging) and the application automatically processes each piece of information and updates the database. This ensures up-to-date records of all packaging items, including damaged ones.

Management of the voucher circuit and other documents

Packages that are not physically returned immediately are temporarily replaced by vouchers certifying that they have been left with the beneficiary. The carriers (drivers) receive these documents from the beneficiaries and present them to the operators at the warehouse where they originally took the packaging from to justify why they have not returned it. Within the logistics company, there may be several internal validations until the vouchers are passed on to another carrier who then physically retrieves the packaging specified in these documents before their validity expires.

The vouchers can be scanned and saved in the application for further verification and traceability. In this way, the logistics company knows exactly, for each customer, how many packaging items are physically in stock, how many vouchers there are, who issued them and the date by which the returnable items specified in them are to be retrieved, how many there are with the carriers and how they will be used (delivery to beneficiaries, transfer between warehouses or to be returned).

Returnable packaging items are accompanied by documents, such as pallet notices or CMRs (Convention relative au contrat de transport international de merchandises par route), which certify their delivery. Possible changes to these documents or entries that change the stock status of the packaging are also entered into the application.

Management of returnable packaging losses

There are certain situations, impossible to fully control, where returnable packaging can be lost:

• damage;
• theft;
• discrepancies between the declarations of the parties involved.

Packaging losses are managed separately for each customer, beneficiary and carrier. Keeping a clear record of these losses at each stage of the flow implemented in xTrack PMS allows the party (customer, driver or beneficiary) that generated them to be quickly identified.

With the agreement of the parties involved, deadlines can be set up, when the losses recorded above the accepted limit can be charged either by invoicing the entity that caused the losses or by that entity’s physically replacing the lost packaging (compensation).

Compensation for packaging losses

Some packaging items deteriorate and become unusable. Others may be lost through the fault of the logistics company because vouchers were lost or the packaging was not recovered before the voucher expiry date. In such cases, the logistics company must make up for its own stock shortages or purchase enough packaging items so that it can physically return them to customers in place of those lost for various reasons. Clear records of all packaging by category allow the number, types and value of items that need to be replaced to be determined quickly.

Change of returnable packaging ownership

To eliminate the waste of time and resources involved in transporting packaging items between warehouses, logistics companies can operate a ‘change of ownership’. This means that customers assigned to a warehouse become the owners of other customers’ packaging who have such items there when needed and vice versa. In this way, the logistics company can change ownership in its database to avoid cross-transport of physical packaging, while respecting the quantities and types of packaging originally owned by each customer.

Change of ownership is a form of compensation that allows logistics companies to save transport costs and to quickly meet the returnable packaging needs of their customers.

xTrack PMS integration with other applications

The benefits of returnable packaging management through xTrack PMS are maximized when the application and other logistics management software are interconnected.

From TMS (xTrack TMS) and even POD (xTrack POD) applications, for example, xTrack PMS takes information related to the loading of goods from the customer and unloading at the final beneficiary. The software solution can also be interfaced with a WMS application, which provides data on changing statuses within a warehouse. In this way, every event recorded in external applications the application is connected with generates a change of status in xTrack PMS.

Advantages and benefits of xTrack PMS

The advantages of the xTrack PMS software solution are:

• flexibility – the possibility of adapting functionalities according to the specific operations that the user-company carries out;
• simple and fast management of the number of packaging items allocated to each customer (goods supplier and packaging owner) and beneficiary;
• simultaneous tracking of several types of packaging;
• more effective control of packaging losses;
• access to a flexible reporting system;
• ease of operation due to the user-friendly nature of the application.

And the benefits are not slow in coming:

• complete traceability of packaging items, from the moment they leaves the warehouse until they are returned;
• data accuracy due to automatic processing of information taken from other software systems or entered by operators into the application;
• the elimination of paper documents by digitization (scanning);
• clear record of the status of returnable packaging;
• maximization of profit by minimizing financial losses related to packaging;
• increased customer satisfaction;
• business sustainability (using the application you protect the environment by keeping track of packaging items and thus limit resulting waste and recycle damaged packaging).

Would you like to enjoy the advantages and benefits of xTrack PMS? Fill in any of the forms on the website and our consultants will contact you in 48 hours.