Order Picking & Packing

What is picking and packing?

Order picking is the process of retrieving the required items from the stock in your warehouse to fulfil customers orders or to fulfil works orders. Order packing is the process of preparing the picked items for despatch.

In low volume operations the same user might do both the order picking and the order packing but as volumes grow the two processes are generally given to different people or teams. The ideal approach is to move orders through both processes at roughly the same rate. OrderFlow provide warehouse software solutions fine-tuned to your organisation’s exact requirements and designed to get the optimum balance between the two processes with the flexibility to fine-tune when required.

Why is picking and packing so important?

The efficiency of your pick and pack operation can impact your business’s profitability in a number of ways:

Operational Costs – the order pick and pack process is usually the most labour intensive operation within a fulfilment process. As labour costs continue to rise any improvement will have a direct effect on your bottom line.
Customer expectations – customers have come to expect lightning-quick delivery times for their orders, next-day delivery is now the norm in many sectors.
Accuracy – not only do customers expect to receive orders quickly they expect them to be 100% correct every time. Incorrect orders have a significant impact on customer loyalty. Rectifying incorrect orders is also disruptive and expensive.

OrderFlow’s WMS is designed to drive efficiency in your warehouse by increasing automation and the speed and accuracy of the order pick and pack processes.

Different methods of order picking and choosing the right method for your warehouse operation?

Choosing the right picking strategy depends on factors such as the nature and size of your products, the volume and profile of your orders and the layout of your warehouse. At OrderFlow we carefully scope each customer’s requirements which enables us to provide you with a WMS customised to your requirements.

Picking to Order – picking to Order is the process of picking and packing each order individually. Typically it is used in B2C environments with very low order volumes and where each order might be made up of multiple pallets.
Batch Picking – batch picking is the process of grouping together orders so that all the required items can be picked in a single pick process. The grouping logic that determines which orders are grouped together in a particular batch provides an opportunity to achieve significant efficiencies in the pick process and reduce the pickers walking distance.
Zone Picking – warehouse staff are assigned to different efficient picking zones in the warehouse and they are tasked with picking items from that section. It either needs a mechanism to pass picked items across different areas or a consolidation process after picking that ensures the items picked within different zones can come together before being presented to the packing process.
Combination of strategies – for the majority of organisations, it makes sense to subdivide the order pool and choose the optimal approach for different order profiles. OrderFlow allows this process to be automated but can also gives your team leaders the ability to determine which strategies are applied to specific orders where this is appropriate. Assigning the optimal picking strategy to each order provides substantial improvements to speed and efficiency.

Wave Picking

Layered over the picking strategies used to pick individual orders is the concept of a picking wave. A wave is a group of orders that are released into the fulfilment process at the same time with the intention that they should all be completed before the next wave is released.

Bulk Operations

Bulk operations that despatch pallet or case quantities will do things differently. Pallets might be moved into a lane within the marshalling area to await despatch or mixed pallets of case quantities built up by multiple users.

The outgoing pallets will typically be identified by a unique licence plate label that will be referenced in the ASN information sent to the recipient. Increasingly GS1 labels are used to encode information about the contents of the pallet in a structured form that can be scanned by the recipient.

OrderFlow is able to support the bulk operations required to fulfil B2B orders alongside the very different processes needed to fulfil B2C orders within the same warehouse.

Packing Options

Consumer orders and small trade orders are usually packed at a dedicated packing desk that has all the packaging, other consumables and the label printers that are required by the packing process. The packer is typically required to start the packing process by scanning a cart or tote presented to them by the picking process. They are then usually required to confirm the items being packed by scanning a product barcode if one is present or by clicking on a product image in the product is not barcoded.

Once the user has confirmed they have all the correct items they are then able to print the carrier label and any customer paperwork that is despatched with the order.

Within this basic process there are lots of variations that will be applicable for particular orders. The pack process should be configured to ensure that the packer is always prompted to complete the appropriate steps for all the different permutations to the pack process that are required. This might include:

Requiring the user to identify how items are distributed across a multi-part despatch for international orders which require customs documentation
Requiring the user to capture the packaging used and/or the dimensions of the despatch so the appropriate courier label can be produced
Automatically printing product specific documentation or displaying product specific packing instructions
Prompting the packer to include flyers, free gifts or other inserts

Orders that are physically larger and more uniform might be packed through a handheld driven process.

How to improve your Picking and Packing processes

In addition to choosing the best picking and packing strategies there are a number of things you can do to improve your efficiency, which OrderFlow can help you with.

These include:

Implementing a modern WMS – a WMS will enable you to automate and streamline many of the processes and will provide live information on what is happening in your warehouse which enable you to plan effectively. It will enable you to track and manage inventory and orders more effectively. At OrderFlow we configure our systems to your exact needs to maximise efficiency and provide you with the information you need to run your business.
Using barcode scanners – there are many advantages to using barcode scanners including reducing costly miss-picks and loss of customer satisfaction. The scanners will also feed live information back to the WMS on order progress and stock levels. The scanners will also enable you to manage staff more effectively as they will be instructed to pick and pack in the most effective way and follow the optimal picking routes.
Make the process flow – reviewing how stock needs to flow through the process is critical to improving your efficiency. This includes reviewing how each stage of the process should naturally flow into the next process as quickly and efficiently as possible. The slotting logic of items in the picking faces should be considered with fast-moving stock being allocated to high-value “easy access” locations, closer to packing stations or in multiple aisles to reduce pickers’ walks. When we provide systems to our clients we make sure we gain a detailed understanding of your needs to ensure stock throws through the process and efficiently as possible.
Routes and travel – picking the products is typically the stage which takes the most time and resources so planning the most efficient picking routes is important. However, you will need to take into account the size of your warehouse and the type of products.
Thinking of picking and packing as a linked process – although they are two different processes, they are complementary and dependent on each other. There is no point in one process happening much faster than the other as this will lead to bottlenecks. In many cases, it makes sense to have staff who can carry out both tasks so they can switch between the processes to keep the workloads balanced.

OrderFlow provides Order Pick and Pack processes fine-tuned to your organisation’s specific needs

As highlighted above there are considerable benefits to utilising a modern WMS with hand-held scanners to maximise the effectiveness of your pick-and-pack operation. This includes automating many tasks, tracking inventory & orders, live information for planning, increased order accuracy and increased efficiency.

OrderFlow takes this to the next level by providing systems tailored to your organisations’ exact needs and designed to maximise efficiency. However, what makes the system even more powerful is that it has the flexibility to adapt to different circumstances which require different pick and pack strategies. For example, during any one day, you may need to prioritise certain orders due to courier deadlines, the system provides the flexibility to change your strategies to prioritise these orders.

In the longer term, your business will hopefully need to cope with higher order volumes and new products. As a result, the optimal pick and pack strategies will need evolve as your business grows and changes. OrderFlow provides you with the flexibility to change your strategy to meet your new requirements. Our customer service team are on hand to make any changes and updates needed to ensure the system continues to ensure your pick and pack processes are as efficient as possible.