Designing a fast packing station for D2C: layout, reach and flow

My first rule for a packing station is simple. The packer's feet should not move while an order is being packed.

Every step away from the bench is time when nothing gets packed. A walk to fetch boxes, a trip to a shared printer, a hunt for the tape roll... and the station has lost more time than any faster tape gun can win back.

This guide is for D2C operations already dispatching a few hundred orders a day or more. At that volume, a few seconds on every order add up to hours of packer time each week.

At Jagannath Polymers we have made packaging since 1997, including the things that sit on packing benches: tape, void fill paper, honeycomb paper, air cushions and mailers. We also pack and dispatch orders from our own factory in Jaipur. So I look at a packing bench from both sides.

The short answer: put everything the packer needs inside arm's reach, make orders flow in one direction, and bring refills to the bench so the packer never goes to them. Then time the station, change one thing, and time it again.

What zones does a packing station need?

We suggest drawing these six on the floor plan before you buy a single table:

1. Inbound. The picked order arrives here in a tote or crate, always on the same side.
2. Work surface. The clear area where the box is built and filled. It stays empty between orders.
3. Consumables. Boxes, mailers, void fill, tape and inserts, placed in the sequence the packer uses them.
4. Information. The screen, the scanner and the label printer.
5. Outbound. The sealed, labelled parcel leaves here, onto a roller, a chute or a cage on the far side.
6. Exceptions and waste. A tray for problem orders (a damaged item, a short pick, a wrong item) and a bin for packaging waste.

The exceptions tray is the zone I would add first if it is missing.

Without it, a problem order sits on the bench and blocks the next one. Or worse, it gets packed anyway because there is nowhere else to put it.

How high should the bench be?

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) gives a simple guide in its page on working in a standing position (last revised November 2022). For light work, the work surface sits about 5 to 10 cm below elbow height. For heavy work with downward force, it sits 20 to 40 cm below. Precision work goes about 5 cm above elbow height.

Packing is mostly light work, with some downward force when tape is pressed.

One point is easy to miss on a drawing. The packer's hands are not on the bench. They are at the top of the open box, and a deep carton lifts the hands well above the table. A bench that suits mailers can be too high for cartons.

So I would set the height by the box the station packs most, not by the furniture catalogue.

Adjustable legs help. For a shorter packer, a firm platform under the feet is cheaper than lowering the whole line.

How far should a packer reach?

CCOHS describes three reach zones in its guidance on working in a sitting position (last revised July 2024), and they work just as well on a packing bench. The primary zone is immediate reach, for the things used most. The secondary zone is within arm's reach, for occasional items. The tertiary zone needs a lean forward, so it is for rarely used items.

Watch a busy chai stall at a railway station. The chaiwala does not take a step between customers. The kettle, the cups, the sugar and the ginger are exactly where his hands expect them, in the order he uses them.

A packing station should work like that chai stall.

To decide what goes where, count how often each item is used in 100 orders:

1. Used on every order (tape, the main void fill, the most common box or mailer): primary zone.
2. Used on some orders (the second and third box sizes, fragile stickers, gift notes): secondary zone.
3. Used rarely (spare rolls, unusual sizes, gift wrap): tertiary zone, or a shelf behind the packer.

I would stock boxes at waist height. If cartons sit on the floor, the packer bends for every order, and that adds up over a shift.

How do you make the flow go one way?

I would pick one direction and use it on every station, so any packer can work any bench. Many teams run left to right for right-handed packers. Whatever you choose, keep it the same at every station.

The picked tote comes in on one side. The sealed parcel leaves on the other, onto a gravity roller or into a cage sorted by courier. Empty totes go on a shelf under the inbound side, never stacked on the work surface.

My target is one touch per item.

If the packer takes items out of the tote, puts them on the bench and picks them up again to wrap them, that is two touches. Wrap straight from the tote where the product allows it.

Two more changes we would try early:

1. Build boxes before the rush. Folding and taping the bottom of a carton is slow inside every order. A person who builds a stack of the common sizes in a quiet hour saves that time across the shift.
2. Give single-item orders their own lane. They need no counting and usually one box size. Multi-item orders need more checking space and more time, so keep them apart.

Where do the screen, scanner and printer go?

1. The screen sits at eye level, in front of the packer. It shows the order with a product photo, the quantity in large digits and any special note (gift message, fragile, add a sample). The packer should read it in one glance.
2. The scanner sits on a fixed stand, hands-free. A packer can then present each item with both hands. A handheld gun has to be picked up and put down for every scan.
3. The label printer sits on the outbound side, one per station. The label comes out where the parcel leaves. A printer shared by two stations creates a queue, and sooner or later a label goes on the wrong parcel.

Set the system so the shipping label prints only after every item in the order has been scanned. That one setting stops many wrong and short shipments. I have written more on it in how to cut mis-shipments.

How do consumables get refilled without stopping the packer?

A packer who leaves the bench to fetch a box of tape has stopped packing. Refilling is someone else's job, and our advice is to make it a named role on every shift.

1. Use two bins for every consumable. When one empties, the packer pushes it to a refill spot and works from the second.
2. Load from behind. Shelves or flow racks filled from the back let a runner refill without entering the packer's space.
3. Refill at fixed times, for example before each courier pickup, rather than when someone shouts.
4. Mark a minimum line on the void fill hopper and the box stack. Below the line, the runner fills it on the next round.
5. Give every item a marked home with floor or bench tape. If it has no home, it will wander.

Consumables also decide speed, and this is where our own trade comes in. A tape that needs a second strip, void fill that tangles, or a box that will not fold square costs seconds on every order.

I am biased here, because we make these products. So test ours and everybody else's on the clock, on your own line, and buy what wins, even if it is not ours.

How do you measure cycle time?

Cycle time is the time from the start of one order to the start of the next, at one station. We use two sources.

1. System times. Most order systems record the first scan of an order and the label print. Export one day. The gap inside an order is packing time. The gap between orders is waiting, walking or searching.
2. A short video. With the packer's knowledge, film one station for 30 minutes on a phone. Watch it back and write down each step with its seconds: take the tote, scan, choose the box, build it, place the item, fill, close, tape, label, push out. Mark each step as packing or not packing.

Let us take a worked example. Every number in it is an assumption, for illustration only.

Say the video shows 75 seconds for a single-item order, and 20 of those seconds go into building the box. With boxes built in advance, the order takes 55 seconds. On paper, the station moves from 48 orders an hour (3,600 ÷ 75) to about 65 (3,600 ÷ 55).

You will not see the full 65.

Nobody packs every second of an hour, and that is fine. Measure again for a week after the change and keep the number you actually get.

Change one thing at a time. If you move the printer, the boxes and the scanner on the same day, you will not know which change helped. The weekly numbers I would watch are in packing KPIs to track every week.

What should you check on your own stations this week?

Walk the floor with our list. Every "yes" is your next change.

1. Does the packer take any step during an order?
2. Is anything used on every order outside immediate reach?
3. Are boxes stacked on the floor?
4. Do two stations share one printer?
5. Is there no exceptions tray, or is it ignored?
6. Do stations flow in different directions?
7. Are returns or spare stock parked on packing benches?

One honest limit. A well-laid station will not fix a bad pick. If the wrong item arrives in the tote, the fastest bench in the building will pack the wrong item faster. Layout and picking have to be fixed together, and our guide to warehouse layout and slotting covers the picking side.

Film one station tomorrow morning and count the packer's steps. If you would like a second pair of eyes, send us your daily orders and box sizes through the contact page, and we will tell you what we would change first.