Packing benches with everything in reach

Bench height and depth

A bench at the wrong height turns every parcel into a small strain. Rather than quote a standard figure, we size the bench to the person who packs most: you measure their elbow height in the shoes they work in, and we set the work surface a little below it for taping and boxing. If two people of very different heights share the bench, the plan shows either an adjustable bench or a raised board for one end.

Depth follows your largest regular carton. The bench should hold that carton open with room in front of it for the item and the paperwork, without forcing the packer to lean across. Width follows how many parcels are packed at once: one station needs space for an open box, a stack of flat cartons and the finished parcel; two stations side by side need that twice, with a shared shelf above.

We draw the bench in plan and in elevation, with its measurements taken from your figures, and mark the space the packer needs to stand and turn.

Materials within reach

Most time lost at a bench is spent reaching, walking and searching for the right box. We plan the materials around the packer in three rings.

• Within arm's reach without moving: tape, scissors or a knife, labels, the slips for today's orders and the most-used carton size.
• A half-step away: the other carton sizes, kept flat in a rack beside or under the bench, void fill, and mailing bags.
• Across the lane: bulk packaging stock and inbound cartons, refilled into the bench rack at the start of each day.

The plan also gives the bench a place for the shipping label maker and its roll, a waste bin for backing paper, and a shelf for items waiting on a missing part, so incomplete orders do not clutter the work surface.

A clear outbound lane

A finished parcel should travel one way only: from the bench, along a marked lane, to the place where the courier collects it. When parcels go back past the picking bays, they get knocked, mislaid or picked up again by mistake.

We draw the outbound lane on the floor plan, together with a collection point near the door with room for a day's parcels on a trolley or in cages. Inbound deliveries are routed the other way, to the receiving area and then to putaway, so the two flows never cross at the bench.

In small rooms where there is only one door, the plan separates inbound and outbound by time instead of space, and says which part of the day each one uses.

What the full stockroom layout includes

Packing benches are planned inside the full stockroom layout, because a bench only works when the room around it does. The full layout combines everything:

• The shelving plan: bays, shelf levels, aisles and fast-seller slotting.
• The pick-path and labelling plan: zones, location codes, labels and the one-walk route.
• The packing-bench layout: bench size, materials in three reach rings, outbound lane and collection point.
• Inbound receiving and putaway, drawn so new stock does not block picking.
• A recorded video walk-through of the drawings, around twenty minutes, explaining the plan to whoever will set up the room.
• Two revision rounds on the drafts.

Each extra room — a second store room, a cellar, a mezzanine — is planned to the same standard for €420, provided it belongs to the same shop and is measured with the same sheet.

The price

The full layout is a fixed fee for one room. Extra rooms are added at booking or during the draft stage. If you have already bought a shelving plan or a pick-path plan within the last three months, what you paid is set against this fee.

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