The job of a warehouse manager is not easy. He or she is accountable for a lot of things to keep the warehouse fulfillment operations running as efficiently as possible. No one knows better that “the customer is always right”. Customers’ demands determine what order picking is required in the warehouse with the internet has putting customers in a stronger position today: they want everything “on demand”. The effect is a warehouse needs to increase warehouse order picking speeds:

carry more items/ add more warehouse inventory
order pick faster/ increase order picking speeds
ship items quicker

Improve Order Picking

To add to the customer demands, a distribution center needs to keep customers satisfied or they will go to your competitor. To beat the competition, a successful company needs to:

Ship faster than the competition
Store and provide new and popular products faster than the competition
Gain a payback that goes to your bottom-line year after year
Reduce operating costs related to order picking system, and labor

Having the capability to fulfill orders faster not only means retaining a customer, but beating the competition for better bottom-line to the business. That is why optimizing order picking in the warehouse for faster order picking , faster shipping and 100% accuracy (as a goal) is crucial.

Many companies use two scenarios when picking:

discrete picking
batch picking

Discrete Order Picking

Discrete picking is when an order selector picks for one order at a time, moving around the warehouse until that order is complete, then starting on the next order.

Batch Order Picking

Batch picking is when the order puller pulls multiple orders at the same time. This can be confusing unless orderpicking solutions are used. These optimizing systems allow the warehouse operation to

Productivity Tip

60% to 70% of the cost to pick a product is travel time and distance between picks. Reduce travel by combining orders and you will increase productivity while decreasing warehouse order picking costs.

Cluster picking

Cluster Picking is defined as picking one SKU to multiple orders or multiple SKUs to one order.

Summary

To increase warehouse picking productivity, a warehouse manager needs to focus on increase picking speed and accuracy by decreasing pick path travel and combining picking activities in the warehouse.