Cartonization is the process that suggests a container to pack items based on constraints such as cubic volume of items and container volume. Oracle Warehouse Management uses cartonization to suggest the best packaging configuration for a group of items. The system can present the packaging suggestion to you in one of many ways, including automatically generating license plates, printing container and shipping labels, and presenting the suggestion to you as part of a task.

You can create multiple levels of packaging, along with the requisite labels, so you can generate in a single operation, labels for inner cartons, packed inside outer cartons, and placed on a pallet. You can halt packing with a hierarchy of containers midway, and  then continue again at a later point, so you can pack material in a storage container when it is first received or completed, and then pack it again during sales order picking into a final shipping container.

All these considerations, in addition to the item dimensions, weight, and volume in comparison to the physical attributes of the container, are made when the system selects the container type and quantity to use.

Cartonization Uses
Oracle Warehouse Management uses cartonization in three places:

1. Sales order and manufacturing picking
2. Prepack for manufacturing completion
3. Inventory bulk pack

Cartonization at Pick Release
Cartonization is automatically performed when sales order or manufacturing jobs / schedules are released for picking, if you enable the option on for the organization and subinventory. After the lines are allocated using the Rules Engine, sales order lines are grouped by delivery, or by the delivery grouping rule if no deliveries are created prior to or at pick release. Manufacturing allocations are grouped by job or schedule.

Cartonization is then performed on each grouping. You may use this to suggest the carton to pick into, or the box to place on the conveyor belt if you perform conveyor-based picking.

Prepack for Manufacturing Completion
You can use the Container Prepack concurrent request, Container Prepack, to pre-print labels in preparation for a manufacturing completion. You can then perform the completion in an LPN triggered mode, minimizing further data entry during the completion.

Inventory Bulk Pack
You can use bulk packing of loose material to suggest the containers to pack material that already resides in inventory. You can use bulk pack for both loose and packed material. If you pack loose material, you can pack multiple items in a single operation. You can pack material into additional levels of packaging if you set up multi-level packaging, automatically creating the LPNs and labels for scenarios where inner cartons should be packed into outer cartons.

Cartonization Rules
Starting from Release 12.1.1, customers have the ability to choose and create robust rules that automatically determine the best container during the release process. Automatic rule engine runs and based on rule selected, chooses optimal packing materials.

1. Single Item – An item is always matched to the same container based on the static relationship you setup in the item/container relationship window.
2. Mixed Item – Uses the contained-container item capacity and dimension restrictions defined on the master item window and checks it against the category and category set setup as well.
3. Pick Slip Grouping – Generate an LPN for all items that belong to the same pick slip.
4. Customer Algorithm – Uses a stub API to interface with customer-defined cartonization rules.