Improve Your Order Picking Productivity with these Best Practices | LoadProof

 

Getting products into hands of the customer quickly and efficiently is quickly moving from a differentiation to table stakes. As expectation of buyers increase, distribution centers must look for new ways to get things done correctly and efficiently.

Consider these realities:

1. Often, the picking process is the most time-consuming process off all, making it a potential bottleneck.
2. More orders picked translate to more orders shipped. That leads to quicker invoicing and increased revenues.
3. Picking also directly impacts throughput metrics, so that improving the productivity and speed of the picking process, directly improves distribution center throughput. Throughput is the measure of inventory that is received into the inbound dock doors and shipped through the outbound dock doors by fulfilling orders.

Bringing a variety of best practices to bear can create nearly instantaneous benefit.

1. Follow location sequence for the pick path

When pickers pick travelling in a well-defined location sequence, the picking process becomes efficient because:

1. Users don’t have to go to the same locations twice.
2. Users need not zig zag, but instead following a streamlined path that eliminate confusion.
3. Location sequences simplify the skipping and returning to orders in situation when replenishment is needed.
4. Sophisticated warehouse management systems (WMS) can configure the pick location sequence in multiple ways to accommodate a variety of warehouse layouts.

2. Establishing multiple zones that group locations

Dividing the pick locations into zones and assigning pickers to specific zones contributes to even better picking process because:

1. This practice reduces picker’s travel time by confining them to one area of the warehouse and reducing walking time.
2. When pickers are confined within zones, they become experts within their zones, and can find things more quickly.

3. SKU velocity classification

1. SKU classification into A, B & C SKU’s based on SKU velocity enables the correct slotting of SKU’s.
2. Fast moving or high velocity SKU’s, often called the A SKU’s, are slotted close to the shipping area to expedite picking.
3. Moderate velocity SKU’s, called B SKU’s and are slotted further away but still not very far from the shipping area.
4. Slow moving or low velocity SKU’s, often called as C SKU’s, and are slotted far away from the shipping area since they are in less demand.
5. Sophisticated WMS can automatically categorize SKU’s as A, B or C SKU’s, based on sales volume, to cut complexity.
6. The WMS can also automatically create move tasks and assign them to user to be reallocated to the appropriate bins or areas.

Click here to continue reading this article.