Order Picking Strategies to Improve Your Fulfillment

With the rise in customer expectations for faster delivery popularized by Amazon with their same-day and next-day delivery, retailers have to optimize their supply chain and logistics processes to thrive in the fast-paced marketplace. An efficient and streamlined order picking system helps you reduce fulfillment time, reduce costs, and increase productivity, thus leading to improved customer satisfaction and increased revenue.

Efficient order picking is the most critical pillar of a supply chain that impacts every outstanding online shopping experience. It is a cost-intensive process and has a major effect on customer satisfaction. Consequently, any improvement in the process is likely to impact the bottom line positively. Warehouses use different order picking methods and strategies to provide efficiency, speed, and accuracy to the fulfillment process.

So, let’s understand order picking in more detail here.

What is Order Picking

Order picking, known more popularly by the supply chain domain as warehouse picking, is the process of selecting products from the warehouse to fulfill customer orders. It is a labor-intensive activity that also requires speed and precision. Efficiency in picking orders is crucial as the order preparation time directly impacts the shipment and timely delivery.

Undeniably the most crucial activity of a fulfillment center, order picking accounts for 50% of its warehouse operations and amounts to 55% of warehouse operational expenses.

Hence, it is critical to streamline the order picking process and optimize the warehouse layout to make it easier and faster for the pickers to search for a specific product to fulfill an order. Be proactive and arrange the products systematically to reduce the time of picking. You can optimize the picking process through smart utilization of labor along with automation and material handling technologies.

What is Order Picking

Accurate and fast order picking affects customer satisfaction directly and, ultimately, brand reputation. It also contributes to overall warehouse efficiency. The warehouse managers should be aware of the arrangements of the products and adopt integrated systems for effective inventory management and accuracy through all the picking processes.

All the SKUs need to be organized, and warehouses and distribution centers should guarantee that each item for fulfillment is picked correctly to ensure accurate and timely fulfillment. Ensuring that customers receive accurate orders quickly starts with picking orders correctly. It is the pillar behind a successful eCommerce or retail business.

Here are some of the reasons why pick and pack efficiency is significant for just-in-time order fulfillment:

• Makes it easy for the picker – A well-organized warehouse and order picking system increases workers’ productivity and makes the picking easier and faster.
• Reduce warehouse costs – Picking orders quickly and correctly increases efficiency and thus saves time and costs for the warehouse.
• Enhance customer satisfaction – The faster the order picking is done, the faster it reaches the customer, thus driving customer satisfaction and delight.

Now, let us look at some of the top warehouse picking strategies.

Top Warehouse Picking Strategies

There are multiple effective warehouse picking strategies that work for businesses depending on the nature of their products, material flow, and others. The concept of ‘one size fits all’ doesn’t work here. Consequently, you should pick the right strategy based on your business requirements. Some of the top warehouse order picking strategies are the following:

• Zone Picking – It is a well-used picking method in which the warehouse is segmented into different zones, each dedicated to a particular product type. However, the products that are ordered frequently should be kept in zones near one another to save time for the picker.
• Batch Picking – It is a practical picking strategy for large warehouses where warehouse managers assign staff for a group of similar orders on a given day. It helps increase productivity by saving time going back and forth in different areas.
• Discrete Picking – It is a picking method that works best in a smaller warehouse with a limited number of SKUs, where the employees pick up the items individually per the list in order. It helps reduce errors in picking, thus resulting in correct order picking.
• Wave Picking – It is a combination of zone or batch picking methods that suits a large warehouse with a vast number of SKUs. In this method, a given day is divided into time slots denoted as ‘waves’, during which one employee is assigned to a specific zone. For instance, if one employee is assigned to Zone A from 9 to 10 am, they pick up all the items of that zone based on her assigned orders of the day during that wave or time slot.
• Single Order Picking – It is a linear order picking method and depends on more manual labor than the other strategies. In this method, the employees pick products for one order at a time and complete it before moving on to the next. It works for a warehouse with low order volume.
• Cluster Picking – Very different from single order picking, in this method, items are picked for various orders simultaneously. In this method, the picker usually utilizes an order picking cart with multiple compartments and picks up items for multiple orders.
• Mobile Scanner-based Picking – All items in a warehouse have unique bar codes or SKUs. In this method, the pickers use mobile scanners that show the list of items and their locations. When the pickers collect the items, they get scanned for real-time inventory updates.

Conclusion:

As eCommerce and online shopping continue to grow, brands need better warehouse picking systems as it is the lifeline of any fulfillment and distribution center. Also, with customer expectations changing daily, streamlining the order picking process and improving overall efficiency have become crucial for accurate and timely fulfillment and customer satisfaction.

The main ‘mantra’ of success will depend on picking the right strategy that aligns with your business requirement, be it batch picking, or wave picking, or adopting robust systems for automation. However, the implementation of the right strategy is just the beginning, and you need to keep on reviewing performance metrics for the optimum result.

Also, it is imperative to develop a culture of continuous improvement for success and sustainable growth. Consequently, one of the smartest moves to stay ahead of the competition in warehouse picking accuracy is to partner with a 3PL provider with experience and a wide distribution network. Connect with us if you need a supply chain and logistic expert to take your business to the next level.

About XPDEL:

XPDEL is a leading hi-tech provider of fulfillment and logistics services on a mission to enable growth for eCommerce companies. We are futuristic in our vision and constantly work on creating technology that helps us meet customer expectations for today and tomorrow. Our wide network of fulfillment centers enables us to efficiently handle nationwide delivery in the US – same day, next day, and 2-day delivery. Being closer to the end consumer, we deliver much faster than others.