Voltex manufactures and distributes electrical accessories across Australia and New Zealand, from distribution sites in Adelaide, Sydney and Hamilton. Its range runs from tiny components to long, heavy and fragile items. Getting the right box for every order was a daily problem.

Optioryx published the case study and a short video with Voltex on 11 May 2026. It is worth eight minutes of any packing manager's time, because the before state will be familiar to most South African distributors.

Optioryx and Voltex, published 11 May 2026. Runs about 8 minutes.

The before state: repacking as standard practice

Voltex was already picking directly to container. The carton was suggested by a module inside the existing WMS. That is the setup in a large share of local DCs.

It did not hold up in practice. Alex Morton, Distribution Technology Lead at Voltex, described it plainly.

"The old process created challenges with repacking, wasting time of a picker having to repack a box before putting it on the automated conveyor. Boxes were getting shipped with too much air."

Two costs sit in that sentence. The repack itself is labour that produces nothing. The air is freight you pay for and do not use.

There was a third problem, harder to see on a report. The legacy logic had no room for real handling rules. Items that had to go on top, be wrapped, or be packed in a set sequence could not be controlled. So packers made those calls at the station, differently on different shifts.

What changed

Voltex did not replace the WMS. Optioryx Pulse connects to it by API.

When an order is ready to be picked and dispatched, the system calls the Optioryx API. The response comes back with the cartons to use, which items go in each one, and the sequence for the picker and packer to follow.

"When an order drops and it's ready to be picked and dispatched, it makes a call to Optioryx API and the response indicates which cartons to use, what items get placed in which cartons, and the picker and packer just follow those instructions."

The decision moves off the packing bench and into the system. Packers follow an instruction rather than exercising judgement under time pressure.

Morton was specific about why Optioryx was selected over alternatives, and it was not the algorithm on its own.

"What Voltex needed from a packing optimization solution was the ability for it to respond quickly and the ability to configure our own shipper cartons and optimize to fill them best way possible for customer experience and also fragility."

Configurability is the point. A carton engine that cannot encode your handling rules will be overridden by your packers, and you are back where you started.

The result, in Voltex's own words

Optioryx has not published percentages for Voltex, and neither will we. What the company has said is directional and clear.

"Optioryx has changed our packing workflow dramatically. We don't have to repack as much. Our packers are spending less time looking for another box or trying to repack the carton. They are just doing packing once and it works."

On cost, Morton names three areas.

"Results so far have been great. We've had reduced freight cost, reduced packaging cost, and then reduced labor cost by the time saved in every repacking incident we had previously."

Why this matters in South Africa right now

Freight is the part that should get local attention. Statistics South Africa put diesel up 50.8% year on year in June, and the wholesale price rose again by R1.42 to R1.60 a litre on 5 August. Every carton that ships with avoidable air is paying that increase on volume you never sold.

Cartonization is one of the few outbound levers that needs no capital and no new building. The rules already exist in your packers' heads. The work is getting them into the system so every shift executes the same way.

Three questions worth asking about your own operation this week.

What proportion of orders get repacked at the bench before they go to dispatch? Most operations have never measured it, and the packers know the answer.

Where does your carton suggestion come from, and when was that logic last reviewed against your current range? Legacy WMS modules are frequently set once at go-live and never revisited.

Can your current system encode a fragility or orientation rule, or do your packers hold that knowledge informally?

If the answer to the last one is informal, your packing consistency depends on who is on shift.

Where OptiChain sits

We implement Optioryx Pulse on top of the WMS you already run, including the 3D Cartonization module Voltex uses. Pulse connects by API and leaves the WMS, TMS and ERP in place.

The starting point is your own data. Send us a month of order lines with item dimensions and your current carton range, and we will show you where the air is and what it costs you at today's diesel price.

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