Pick and Pack
Pick and Pack is the core warehouse process of selecting (picking) the items on a customer order from their storage locations and packing them ready for shipment. It is the operational engine of order fulfillment: an order arrives, the items are picked from the shelves, brought together, checked, and packed into a carton or parcel with the right documentation and labelling.
Picking can follow several strategies — single-order, batch, zone or wave picking — chosen to balance speed and efficiency, and is increasingly aided by barcode scanning, pick-to-light, voice picking and automation. Accurate picking is critical, because mis-picks (wrong item or quantity) drive returns, costs and customer dissatisfaction, while efficient picking is often the single biggest labour cost in a warehouse. Pick and pack, guided by a warehouse management system, is where fulfillment accuracy and productivity are largely won or lost.
Pick and pack is usually a warehouse's biggest labour cost and its main accuracy risk — a mis-pick becomes a return, a refund and a lost customer. Optimising picking strategy and arming it with scanning and automation is where fulfillment operations get faster and more accurate, which is why WMS effort concentrates here.
What are common picking strategies?
Single-order, batch, zone and wave picking, chosen to balance speed and efficiency for the operation.
Why is picking accuracy important?
Mis-picks cause returns, extra cost and unhappy customers, so accuracy directly affects service and profitability.