Is your shipping department a profit center or a loss center?
If life were all about just saving money, then why would anyone want to buy a $30,000 car? Walking is cheaper. Shipping departments should be viewed the same way. In business saving money equates to being more profitable. Businesses have both materials and labor to consider in determining the most cost effective way to package and ship their products.
Materials, Labor, Opportunity, Equipment, and Loss/Damage in Transit.
Materials - The consumables used to pack, process and ship your products. This includes the box, tape, and void fill materials. Used boxes, plastic tape, and news papers are lower cost than new boxes, form and fill, and gummed tape.
Labor - The time it takes to find, use, and process with the materials and equipment that are available to the employee. Used boxes require time to prepare and process, collecting newspapers and seperating the pages to crinkle take time, and the more tape you use means more time to apply.
Opportunity - Space used to store used boxes, newspaper and used void fill materials, and the time crunch one hour before the small package carriers show up to pick up the days shipping mean loss opportunity on getting more orders out or needing extra employees to process the orders.
Equipment - Money invested in equipment to speed up the packing and shipping processes generally mean a better return on your investment. Inexpensive equipment can cost more to keep and operate than the most expensive equipment. (Ie, time spent looking for lost tape guns, knives, pens, markers, manually moving products, etc.)
Loss/Damage in Transit - Poorly sealed cartons can lead to loss of products when the carton fails or pilferage by handlers along the way. Boxes need to stay securly sealed during transit.
The art to a well run profitable shipping department is finding the balance of all five areas. If you are a home type business shipping a few items a day it doesn't make sense to spend a lot of money on automated equipment. If you are processing several hundred items a day it doesn't make sense not to.