How Can Parts Counting Scales Improve Efficiency?
Parts counting scales make your counting tasks more efficient – let's get into the what’s, why’s and how’s of counting scales.
What are Parts Counting Scales?
Parts counting scales are designed to count identical pieces or parts by weight. Parts counting scales like Adam’s Cruiser CCT or BCT offer more features dedicated to counting than a standard scale that includes a parts counting function, such as Adam’s Latitude LBX.
Parts counting scales are an ideal choice for order picking, inventory and packaging tasks, among others!
Common Problems Without Parts Counting Scales
If you’re not using a parts counting scale, these are the problems you’re likely dealing with daily:
Long Order Fulfillment Process
Without a parts counting scale, someone needs to count out each part manually. This takes a significant amount of time, especially when part orders reach the hundreds or thousands. Minutes to hours could be spent simply counting to fulfill one order, limiting productivity!
Increased Human Error
Not only does this take a significant amount of time, there’s also a high risk of human error. Miscounting and sending 299 parts to a customer when they ordered 300 can chip away at the trust they have in your company’s reliability. On the flip side, sending 301 instead of 300 means you’ve ultimately lost out on money, and there’s one less part around to send to another customer later.
How Parts Counting Scales Improve Efficiency
Decreased Counting Time
What would take one person hours to count hundreds of parts now takes mere seconds with the help of a counting scale. Simply pile on the parts and watch the count grow! Orders are fulfilled in triple the speed, meaning more can be done per day!
Decreased Human Error
Since the machine is doing all the counting for you, there’s less risk of human error. Customers will get the amount they paid for, no more and no less!
Full Numeric Keypads
Parts counting scales like the Cruiser CCT offer full numeric keypads. This comes with multiple benefits, including typing in any sample size or just the weight of a part to skip the sampling process, and to store and recall PLU values.
PLUs
PLUs are Product Look Ups. They provide you with the ability to store the weight of pieces you count most often to the scale’s memory. That way, you don’t have to sample them every time. The Cruiser CCT can store up to 140 parts, while Adam’s BCT Label-Printing Counting Scales can store over 1,000 parts, perfect for large warehouse operations.
Dedicated Buttons
To start parts counting, to recall a PLU value, or to set a PLU value, parts counting scales have dedicated buttons for each operation. This removes the guessing game and eases the training process.
Three Displays
Most scales offer one display for weight. Adam parts counting scales offer three displays: one for the total weight, one for the unit weight and one for the count. This allows for all three bits of information to be viewable at the same time.
How Do I Use Parts Counting?
Specialized parts counting scales offer features that make navigating the parts counting process quicker and easier – this is an excellent option for companies using parts counting all the time.
- Press the parts counting button
- If you're recalling a previously stored sample, enter in the PLU code
- If you're entering a new sample, type in your desired sample size and place that number on the pan; or, type in the weight of one piece to skip sampling
- Once the scale recognizes the average weight of one piece, you can place any number of pieces on the pan for it to count - up to the scale's capacity
- To store that part in your scale's memory, use the PLU button and the numeric keypad to assign a code for recall later
Do you think a parts counting scale could help your operations but you're not sure which one to choose? Contact the Scaletec team, we're here to help.