Imagine a well-oiled machine. Orders flow in, products are retrieved swiftly, and packages zip out the door – all within a customer’s desired timeframe. This seamless operation represents the ideal warehouse, but the reality can be quite different. The picking and packing process, often referred to as fulfillment, can become a major bottleneck, creating delays and frustrated customers. The reasons for this problem include the labour intensive nature of picking and packing, and the failure of many businesses to give the problem the attention it deserves.
In today’s fast-paced world, where speedy deliveries are a key differentiator, inefficiencies in fulfillment can spell disaster for your business. This article delves into the reasons why picking and packing can become a bottleneck and explores strategies to streamline this crucial process.
Why Picking and Packing Becomes a Bottleneck
When it comes to eliminating the picking and packing bottleneck, speed and accuracy is the name of the game. If your pickers are slow on average, the resulting slower deliveries mean losing customers to competitors with faster delivery times. Hiring more pickers to compensate will help, but there’s a limit to this strategy because too many pickers crowded within the aisles of your warehouse increases inefficiency as well as your labor costs.
Picking errors also contribute to the picking and packing bottleneck. These errors not only contribute to customer dissatisfaction, but are costly to rectify. Picking errors mean that items are shipped out, shipped back, and correct items are then shipped out. Additional losses include extra processing and restocking of returned items.
Below are the key reasons why picking and packing becomes a bottleneck:
- Limited Storage Space: Cramped warehouses with poorly organised layouts can force pickers to travel long distances, wasting valuable time.
- Inefficient Inventory Management: Outdated inventory systems or inaccurate stock levels can lead to pickers searching for missing items and causing delays.
- Manual Processes: Reliance on paper-based picking lists or manual packing slows down the entire operation.
- Improper Staff Training: Inexperienced pickers might struggle to locate items efficiently, while packers may use inefficient packing methods, leading to wasted space and higher shipping costs.
Strategies to Improve Picking and Packing
Combating the picking and packing bottleneck requires a multi-pronged approach. Below are strategic techniques to improve efficiency within your warehouse:
- Warehouse Optimisation: Implement a clear and organised layout that minimises travel distances for pickers. Consider veritical storage solutiosn to maximise space usage.
- Optimising Movements: Minimising picker movement through smart pick sequencing of the items of each order, as well as smart grouping of orders to be picked. Other methods of minimising picker movement include the use of conveying systems to bring the product to the picker and the use of zone picking. Minimisation of picker movement not only saves time but reduces fatigue.
- Minimising the Handling of Picked Items: The more times an item is handled, the greater the risk of error. Picking directly into shipping containers reduces the handling of each product to a single person.
- Maximising the Use of Technology: These technologies include bar coding and scanning, RF scanning, pick to light, and voice directed picking.
- Invest in Inventory Management System & WMS: Using a warehouse management system (WMS). A WMS serves to integrate picking and packing with the other operations that transform an order into a customer delivery. These operations include sales, customer service, inventory management, supply chain management, and shipping. A WMS keeps real-time track of orders, inventory size, product location and its flow. The picking and packing technologies previously described aren't fully exploited unless they are tied into a good warehouse management system.
- Staff Training: Provide thorough training to pickers and packers on efficient picking strategies, proper packing techniques, and safety protocols.
Picking and packing can be crucial bottleneck in any warehouse operations. Implementing strategies outlined above can streamline processes, improve efficiency, and enhance customer satisfaction and profitability.
To get a fuller appreciation of what’s possible with the right WMS, contact us today.
