Excess Walking Makes “Zombies” of Order Pickers
Do your people spend more time commuting in the warehouse than working in the warehouse?
Studies indicate that order pickers spend too much time walking. Distribution center employees routinely spend more than half their day walking, not picking orders, packing orders, or replenishing stock. They’re going from point to point, burning man hours getting where they need to be, not working. And that’s the average — for really poorly designed operations, it’s worse.
As they tire, workers pick slower, pick less accurately, and work more dangerously — almost a zombie like situation! Every bad thing that can happen in a warehouse operation is amplified, the more time employees spend walking.
Check out our most recent Info-graphic, “Walking is the Walking Death of Order Picking Productivity” for more information on ways you can combat this issue.
More information:
- Ways to reduce needless walking
- When it comes to order picking, don’t walk the walk
- Gravity flow vs. shelving
Tags: ergonomics, lean warehousing, order fulfillment
Scott Stone is Cisco-Eagle's Vice President of Marketing with more than thirty years of experience in material handling, warehousing and industrial operations. His work is published in multiple industry journals an websites on a variety of warehousing topics. He writes about automation, warehousing, safety, manufacturing and other areas of concern for industrial operations and those who operate them.