Warehouse Order Fulfillment Tips

A survey conducted on order picking warehouse operations revealed an increase in the need to improve productivity and reduce operating costs in the coming years to remain profitable and competitive in today’s market.  Survey participants include a broad range of order fulfillment warehouse fulfillment operations from produce, snack foods, health and beauty, and hardware goods.  Positions of those who contributed to the survey ranged from Owners, C-level executives, Director of Operations, Warehouse Managers, and VPs.

While adding more SKUs, reducing labor costs related to order picking, and reducing pick errors are important to any warehouse fulfillment operation, the majority of focus for many is to increase order picking rates.  This implies that many warehouse operations put more attention on getting orders filled and shipped quickly to their customers.  A result should be improvement of customer satisfaction. 

We will dive deeper into each segment of the main goals for order fulfillment and review the 3 specific tips that will help you improve your operation and get ahead on the competition.

 Proliferation of Consumer Products

 

With today's growing demand for more variety of products... the number of SKU's you need to inventory naturally grow with it; thus forcing order picking operations to adapt.  Organizing your warehouse layout, pick slots and pick bays in your warehouse for maximum order filling speed and easy replenishing are part of this challenge. 


As warehouse fulfillment operations are forced to add more products into their facility, the only way to gain a competitive advantage is by cutting costs and increasing productivity.     

While forced to add more SKUs, "How do you increase pick rates, reduce labor costs and reduce errors?” 

Whether you require discrete order picking, batch case picking, or consolidated piece picking, there are proven methods to further improve your order picking process to gain the competitive advantage you want and need.

The more orders you process, the faster you ship orders, and the more you increase customer satisfaction, the more competitive advantage you gain. 

Warehouse Order Fulfillment Tip #1

You MUST increase order picking productivity
There are many ways that you can pick orders.  We will quickly review some of the most common order picking methods and its benefits.  The goal of this information is to help you understand some of the most popular methods used to improve order picking productivity.

Discrete picking is the most basic form of all order picking methods and is typical for low volume fulfillment operations.  The order picker starts with one order and completes the entire order.  This order fulfillment process may require the order picker to walk throughout a majority of the warehouse.  Items picked are then placed into totes or shipping cartons on the pick cart.

Pick and pass order picking is generally the next type of picking as the volume of orders increase.  SKUs/ pick items are grouped into “zones” to try to minimize walking distance for order pickers.  When an order picker has completed their picks for the order or tote in their area, they pass it to the picker in the next area.  As a result, order pickers become familiar with their designated areas and therefore become more productive with their pick rates. 

Batch picking is fulfilling multiple orders all in one trip.  Orders are downloaded by order picking software that consolidates all orders and optimizes picking.  Order pickers then pick the entire order and sort all orders into a specific tote or shipping carton. 

The process of combining picks from several orders allows faster order picking and reduction in travel time.  Almost any warehouse fulfillment system can be converted to batch picking.  This includes paper picking, pick-to-light, pick-by-light, voice directed picking, bar code scan, and carousel pick systems. 

How to Increase Order Picking Productivity

Picking rates go hand in hand with success for any order fulfillment warehouse operation.  Batch picking is one of the fastest ways to dramatically increase your order picking productivity. 

FastFetch is an order picking system that allows you to batch pick orders in “clusters” and is one of the most cost effective systems.  FastFetch allows you to increase pick rates by selecting batches of orders as defined by your parameters -  such as travel distance between picks, picked case weight, weight per shelf, cube per picked order, product commonality per order, required box size, and others. The result is maximized worker productivity.

Warehouse Order Fulfillment Tip #2

You MUST reduce labor costs
As the number of SKUs increase, so does the distance between picking different orders.  In traditional warehouses, order pickers can spend up to 60% to 70% of their time traveling to pick bays, leaving only 30% to 40% for actual order picking. So how do you reduce time spent on traveling during the order picking process? 

How do you optimize time to order pick rather than waste time traveling throughout the entire warehouse?

FastFetch order picking systems are a patented super smart technology that allows you to dramatically CUT TRAVEL DISTANCE related to order picking.  The FastFetch order picking warehouse fulfillment software system will download hundreds of orders at a time and sort orders based on the order picker/ order selector's real time location and optimized pick path to cut down travel distance.

Warehouse Order Fulfillment Tip #3

You MUST Reduce Errors as well as Costs Related to Errors
As order fulfillment volumes increase, it becomes more and more important that you use technology to keep picking errors down.  There are many different options to consider when looking into an order picking system:

•    Bar Code Scan
•    Pick-to-Light/ Pick-by-Light
•    Voice Directed Picking

Bar code scan systems offer 1) very fast data entry of information and 2) extremely high input accuracy.  This is valuable if you are handling extremely costly products and/or need 100% order picking accuracy.  Another benefit for bar code scanning technology is that you can use it for receiving, put away, replenishment, stock verification, and picking.  Instructions are transmitted via the RF network to the local terminal.

Pick-to-Light/ Pick-by-Light is directed order picking by visual display devices (commonly LED displays). The displays are mounted at picking locations.  They indicate where to pick and the number of units to be picked.

Pick-to-Light systems significantly reduce pick errors because the order picker no longer relies on paper picking, therefore reducing user error related to referencing back and forth from paper to pick location.  Instead, the order picker focuses on the lights illuminating items and the quantities to pick. 

Voice Directed Picking is similar to the bar code scanning method because the information transmitted on a bar code scan display can be spoken to the.  Pick verification is done by speaking the SKU identification number for each pick.  A huge benefit voice directed picking systems have over the bar code scanning method is that order pickers have their hands free while working. 

How to Gain near-perfect Order Accuracy
With so many choices in order picking technologies what is the best option?  Is it Pick-to-Light/ Pick-by-Light, Bar code scanning or Voice directed picking?

You no longer have to choose, you can now “HAVE IT ALL” with FastFetch.  FastFetch is a 3-in-1 pick directed technology that combines light, voice, and bar code scanning to gain virtually 100% accuracy.

FastFetch customers have gained improved picking rates with virtually 100% accuracy.  Labor reduction with FastFetch can be as high as 40% to 50%,  savings that customers enjoy year after year. 

FastFetch order picking systems have helped its customers, including GNC, Lucky Vitamin.com, Capay Organic Foods, Atlas Vending, A Beka Book, Stanley Black & Decker, Nash Finch and others.  FastFetch Customers Enjoy:
•    Increased picking productivity (pick rates)
•    Reduced labor costs
•    Decreased errors with near-perfect picking accuracy

For more information on FastFetch order picking systems, visit our website at www.fastfetchusa.com or call us at (714) 496-4499.  We look forward to serving the growing needs of your order picking fulfillment operation and help you gain the competitive advantage you want and need.

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