Warehouse picking: what it is and how to optimize it
Warehouse picking is a fundamental logistical activity for every distribution center, but even more so for drop shipping companies and those that manage a high number of ecommerce shipments every day.
It is an essential aspect of order fulfillment and is considered one of the most expensive and time-consuming and labor-intensive activities for warehouses.
According to authoritative studies in the sector, in fact, warehouse picking would make up to 55% of the operating costs of a distribution center.
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In this article, we will see what warehouse picking is and how to optimize it to reduce the costs and risks associated with order preparation.
What is warehouse picking?
The term picking literally means “picking, selecting” and refers to the process in which individual items in stock are picked to be grouped, processed, and finally shipped to fulfill customer orders.
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It is a complex of activities that requires intense work by the pickers (or pickers) who, with speed and precision, search for and pick the products on the picking list to process the order as soon as possible.
The level of efficiency of operations has a direct impact on key aspects for companies such as:
- Customer satisfaction
- Corporate reputation
- Profitability
For these reasons, optimizing warehouse picking has become a top priority in companies around the world. Before understanding how to improve this aspect, let’s see what the two main types of amazon FBA box labels picking are: manual and automatic.
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What is warehouse picking?
- Manual picking
- Automatic picking
3 tips to better manage picking operations:
- Coordinate logistics processes with a centralized system
- Standardize packaging and labeling
- Optimize warehouse mapping and picking
Manual picking:
In classic manual picking, an employee scans the barcodes with a manual computer that can connect with the company’s shipping platform.
This type can also include the use of particularly functional technologies and automations for mass picking and ecommerce returns management, especially if the warehouse uses returns management software such as Sendcloud’s, which is able to simplify and automate return procedures.
The most widely used manual picking technologies in this regard are:
- Pick to light: a light guides the operator to the right position.
- Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID): allows very fast picking because it does not require the reader to bring the reader close to the item but identifies hundreds of codes in a few seconds.
- Voice picking: also called “voice picking”, it involves a voice guiding the picker’s work.
These solutions speed up operations and guarantee high precision, in fact they are adopted above all by ecommerce and businesses that need to dispose of reverse logistics procedures more quickly and effectively.
The most interesting results in terms of time and resource savings occur when you connect warehouse picking to a smart picking and packing system such as Pack & Go, Sendcloud’s functionality that makes the picking and packing process more precise and faster, reducing errors and time for order preparation.
Warehouse inventory:
The warehouse inventory can be carried out at different intervals: annual, monthly or continuously. The definition of the timing depends on the needs of the business, although it is better to prefer the monthly or quarterly frequency, so as to always have stocks under control.
Inventory is a vital business operation and how essential it is that it is carried out as accurately as possible.
For this reason, nowadays, not even the smallest business can afford to keep a paper inventory anymore.
How, then, do you keep an inventory? There are essentially two solutions:
- Inventory with spreadsheets (Excel)
Excel is a program known and used by most companies, which also provides templates and templates dedicated to inventory management. Due to its ease of learning and by virtue of the preset templates, it can be a valid solution for managing a small inventory, although it involves some risks, including: the possibility of making errors in data entry, the difficulty in tracking down any anomalies and the danger of data loss.
- Management
software The alternative to spreadsheets is the use of management software developed specifically for inventory management. Among the main advantages we can indicate: the reduction of manual work (with a consequent reduction in the margin of human error), real-time access and monitoring of all data and the possibility of generating reports and statistics thanks to data aggregation.
A program such as the Danea Easy fat amazon FBA box labels management system is able to automatically update warehouse availability with loading and unloading movements, and to return inventory in real time, in which, for each product, quantities in stock and updated values are indicated. In addition, it can offer additional features, including invoicing, electronic invoicing, budgeting, sales, purchases and payments.
