Ten packages in one round: packing orders in batches
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by Verpakkingdeals.nl
5 min reading time
Fourteen orders, fourteen trips back and forth to the shelf. Instead, group orders by packaging type and pack them in fixed rounds—with a concrete workflow and the materials that make that possible.
You have fourteen open orders. You pick up the first one, walk to the shelf, find the box, tape it shut, print a label, and start over. That's fourteen times the same four actions, fourteen times back and forth, fourteen times thinking about which box goes with which. On a quiet Tuesday, that's manageable. In November, when thirty or fifty orders come in daily, it's the difference between finishing at five and working until eight.
The solution isn't to work harder, but to organize differently: not completing one order at a time, but putting ten orders through the same step simultaneously. This is called batching, and it doesn't require any investment—just a different order of operations.
What Batching Is and Isn't
Batching means grouping similar orders and processing them action by action. You grab ten letterbox-sized boxes from the shelf at once, fold all ten, fill all ten, and close all ten. Every time you switch actions—from folding to finding to taping—you lose a few seconds to transition. Ten times per order, thirty orders: that adds up.
What batching is NOT: throwing everything into a big pile and hoping for the best. Without a clear separation between orders, the chance of a mixed-up package actually increases. Batching only works with a fixed organization and a check at the end.
Step 1: Sort by Packaging, Not Order Date
The most useful sorting method is by packaging type. Print or note your open orders and divide them into three or four stacks: everything that fits in a letterbox-sized package, everything that needs a standard box, and the exceptions—fragile, extra-large, or something that needs separate packaging.
Before you tape even one box shut, everything should be on the table: the number of boxes you need, the products from the batch, the tape, the cutter, and the labels. If you have to go to the warehouse halfway through, you lose the advantage.
A practical table layout:
Zone
What's there
Why
Left
Folded boxes from this batch
You grab with your weaker hand, your stronger hand remains free
Middle
Products, separated by order
Prevents putting something in the wrong package
Right
Tape, cutter, seals, labels
All closing actions in one place
Back
Finished packages
Visible count: does the number match your list?
Step 3: One Action for the Entire Batch
Then work by action instead of by order. First, fold all the boxes. Then put all the products in. Then close all the boxes. Then put all the labels on. By the third box, you'll notice you're folding more smoothly because you've got the pattern in your fingers.
The sealing step is usually the biggest time-consumer. A tape dispenser with two rolls (€9.95) saves you from searching for the beginning of the tape with every box. For refilling, bundles are cheaper per roll than individual rolls: 6 rolls of 48x66 mm cost €21.00, while the box with 36 rolls comes to €108.00. For those who ship less, one roll of 50-meter packing tape (€3.00) is enough to start.
Also, place multiple cutters, one per zone. Searching for the only cutter on the table is a classic time-waster. A set of 8 utility knives costs €4.95; individual cutters in packs of 3 go for €1.95.
Where Things Go Wrong
The biggest mistake in batching is when products from different orders get mixed up. Always maintain physical separation in the middle zone: a bin, a sheet of paper, or simply a hand's width of space per order. And conclude each batch with the same check: count the packages, count the lines on your list, and compare them.
The second mistake is overly large batches. Ten to fifteen orders is the maximum that most workspaces can fit on a table. If you go above that, you'll start stacking, and stacking leads to mix-ups.
If you're shipping something that you want to be able to tell if it's been opened in transit, that belongs in the same round: you apply VOID security seals in packs of 60 (€9.95) to the entire batch at once, rather than box by box.
Batching isn't worthwhile with a handful of orders per day: the time spent sorting doesn't outweigh the gain. Also, for packages that are all different—custom work, gift wrapping upon request, fragile goods with individual padding—working one-by-one is often more accurate. Keep those orders separate and do them at the end, with a clear head and an empty table.
The point of this way of working isn't that you'll work harder. It's that busy weeks will be less disruptive because your process doesn't change if the number of orders doubles—you just do more rounds.
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