Sports South is in the shooting sports industry. Its inventory includes firearms, ammunition and accessories. In shipping, one of the challenges is finding a package secure enough to contain ammunition safely all the way to the customer. Ammunition is heavy. We asked Ezra Weinstein, the company’s IT director, how he managed the automation of their packing process and maintained quality control.

Modern: Describe how an IT director looks at packaging problems.

Weinstein: I inherited the task of warehouse automation. I'm used to extremely difficult networks and managing wireless communication among 30 remote salespeople. My programming background made problem solving a major part of my career. So when I started looking at warehouse automation in general, I thought, “How difficult can it be?

Modern: Was that the case?

Weinstein: Approaching warehouse problems with a computer programmer's mindset is a mistake. Just determining the right size and number of boxes, and the amount of void fill for a shipment, was a challenge.

Modern: How did you approach the challenge?

Weinstein: We solved a lot of packaging problems with a Smart Karton (636-724-8181, www.smartkarton.com). It's a box made of composite corrugated and film, and it's part of a system that includes an automated erector, a heat shrink tunnel and a taping machine. It eliminates the need for bubble wrap, air pillows, and foam peanuts.

Modern: Did the system live up to that promise?

Weinstein: You shouldn’t expect any system you buy to work the minute you take it out of the box. Our packers go through a checking process when they process each order. Items are scanned as they're packed, resulting in a UPS shipping label. However, some UPS labels aren't happy to go through a heat tunnel. I learned that UPS has different chemical compositions on its labels and you have to read the lot number on it to figure out which ones will survive a heat tunnel. We've been using this system for shipping accessories and ammunition for six months. By reducing the decision making process and eliminating the dunnage-adding process we save time and reduce product damage. We've also reduced UPS claims.