Case Study · Shipping Verification

The Wrong Pallet Doesn't Cost You the Pallet. It Costs You the Return.

Two hundred thousand pallets shipped with automatic dock verification. The load is checked in motion, without anyone touching it — and the error surfaces before the truck leaves, not when the customer complains.

200,000 pallets shipped Bidirectional SAP Automotive parts
The client

Tecfil

Founded in 1953, Tecfil is one of the largest automotive filter manufacturers in Latin America and a reference in the parts aftermarket. Over sixty years of operation and a catalogue of more than 2,000 SKUs.

Two thousand models that look alike, shipped by the thousand every week, is the combination that makes a picking error almost inevitable — and hard to spot by eye. See how this is handled in supply chain automation.

The challenge

The Error Is Cheap to Prevent and Expensive to Discover

Sending the wrong product to your own distribution centre or to the customer's has operational, financial and commercial consequences. And when data is keyed in by hand, or systems don't talk to each other, shipment information isn't available at the moment it matters — which is exactly when a correction would still be cheap.

Two thousand lookalike SKUs
Filters that differ by details invisible at picking speed. Visual checking does not scale to this catalogue.
Manual entry between systems
Keyed data introduces error and delay precisely where the shipment record has to be exact.
The error surfaces at the customer
Not at the dock. By then the cost is a return, freight both ways and a commercial conversation.
Checking competes with volume
Any verification that requires stopping loses on peak days — which are the days errors are most likely.
The solution

A Dock Portal, Checking in Motion

The pallet is identified as it crosses the portal, along the normal path of the operation. Nobody stops, nobody aims a reader, nobody touches the load — and the discrepancy appears while it can still be corrected.

Tags Carrying ERP Data
The RFID label is printed and applied to the pallet carrying product information generated by the corporate system itself — not a generic code.
Portals at the Exit Points
Fixed readers with antennas installed at the main stock exit points, following the pallet as it leaves the facility.
Contactless Reading, in Motion
The shipment is identified while moving between docks, without interrupting flow and without extra handling.
Bidirectional SAP Integration
The read event goes to SAP and SAP returns the shipment context — both sides talk, instead of one exporting a file to the other.
The Right Truck
The operator knows which products were loaded onto which truck, and the inventory report comes out with both historical and current data.
No Paper in the Process
Automating shipment and transfer removes the printed form — fewer transcription errors and no step that depends on someone filing it.
Why bidirectional matters

A one-way integration tells the ERP what was read. A bidirectional one lets the portal know what was supposed to be on that pallet — which is the difference between recording a shipment and verifying one.

Without the return path, the system logs that pallet 4471 went out at 14:32. With it, the system knows pallet 4471 should have carried filter model X for customer Y — and can say so before the door closes.

Results

What Changed at Shipping

200,000
pallets shipped with automatic verification
2,000+
filter SKUs in the catalogue
SAP
bidirectional integration
Zero
paper in the shipment process
The right product on the right truck — dock verification confirms the load before departure, not after the complaint.
Accurate stock at all times — real-time monitoring keeps stock levels current, instead of correct until the next count.
Less manual work — shipment, transfer and invoicing no longer depend on typing and item-by-item checking.
Decisions on current data — what passes through the dock door is captured automatically, allowing loading and receiving to be planned on fact rather than estimate.
Conclusion

The Check Has to Be On the Path, Not Beside It

That is what decides whether it happens every time or only when there is time. Any check that requires stopping, aiming a reader or filling in a form competes with volume — and loses, precisely on the peak days, which are the days an error is most likely.

A dock portal competes with nothing: the pallet goes through it anyway. The verification is a by-product of a movement that was already happening — and that is why it holds up on the busiest day of the year.

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When do you find out a shipment went out wrong?

If the answer is "when the customer calls", the check is happening at the most expensive possible point. Moving it to the dock door costs a fraction of one return.