Flow Through

Similar to crossdocking, but generally thought to have a different meaning, especially in retail distribution. With crossdocking, received goods are taken directly to outbound shipping lanes. With flow through, received goods are required to be processed before being shipped. This is similar to crossdocking as the received items are not put away. A common retail example is the practice of receiving full cases of goods and then sorting individual items from those cases for different stores, sometimes using automation such as a tilt-tray sorter. Other times, some sort of service (labeling, packaging, etc.) must be performed before the product can ship.