Goods-to-Person (GTP)
Goods-to-Person (GTP) is an automated order-picking approach in which the storage system brings the required items to a stationary picker at an ergonomic workstation, rather than the picker travelling around the warehouse to find and collect goods (“person-to-goods”). Automation — AS/RS, shuttle systems, cube-based grids or robots — retrieves the needed tote or item and delivers it to the operator, who picks and then sends it back.
GTP dramatically cuts the walking and searching time that dominates traditional picking (often more than half of a picker's effort), delivering much higher productivity, accuracy and storage density, plus better ergonomics. It is a defining technique of modern automated fulfilment, well-suited to the high-volume, many-SKU demands of e-commerce. The trade-off is the capital cost of the automation. GTP is often combined with put-walls and pick-to-light at the workstation for accurate order consolidation, and is coordinated by the warehouse control and management systems. It represents a fundamental rethink of picking that automation makes possible.
Traditional picking wastes over half the picker's time just walking to the goods — goods-to-person flips that, bringing items to a stationary operator and multiplying productivity, accuracy and density. It is the picking philosophy behind modern automated fulfilment, and understanding it explains why AS/RS and warehouse robotics deliver the gains they do.
How does goods-to-person improve productivity?
It eliminates the walking and searching that dominate traditional picking by bringing items to a stationary picker via automation.
What technology enables GTP?
AS/RS, shuttle systems, cube-based grids and robots that retrieve and deliver totes to the picking workstation.