Small parts are more difficult to count, measure and handle. They tend to cause more errors than case picking or larger component orders. If you are having errors, you should try to define the causes — and the suspects abound. Can you find out what’s causing the errors? Once you do, what happens next? Here are some common causes and solutions to this issue.
Tags: lean warehousing, Order Picking & Fulfillment, 5S principles, error reduction
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
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:
Tags: order fulfillment, lean warehousing, ergonomics
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
This note came to us regarding one of our Service & Maintenance clients, a major retailer distribution operation in Dallas, TX, and the experience it had with our technician. With a power conveyor out during the evening, the night before a holiday, he needed fast assistance.
“Tuesday night (July 3) we experienced a significant conveyor failure on night shift. The belt on a straight conveyor section leading into a critical area had broken and wrapped around the drive unit. A huge mess on the night before a holiday.”
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
Mistakes happen, but in order picking operations, reducing the number of errors is critical. Because order picking is the last touch point between you and your customers, it’s more important than public relations, press releases, or your website. Whether you’re shipping direct to consumers or to another processing operation, customers are directly impacted. Not only is the customer with the incorrect order harmed, so are potential future customers who suffer because of inventory errors delaying orders.
What are some ways you can increase inventory accuracy related to order picking?
Tags: inventory accuracy
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
Retail distribution facilities have multiple options for shipping product to store locations. They can send full pallets which must be unwrapped, unloaded, and stocked at the store location. They can send packed carts that can easily be rolled onto store floors and stocked at the point of sale. What method works best?
Tags: warehousing, order fulfillment, Retail distribution, Safety & Ergonomics
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
In a pick-to-tote operation, you have the advantage of a dedicated packing function that allows more precise packaging and evaluation of order quality. That added quality comes at a price, however: floor space, time, labor and dollars. Can the same functions be executed in a pick-to-carton operation?
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
Cliff Holste at Supply Chain Digest (opens in a new window) has a good piece on ways to improve picking productivity.
Distribution centers will benefit from emerging automated case picking technologies, but those don’t fit for every operation, at every level. They’re also expensive upgrades, so your ROI has to be considered as well.
Tags: ROI, Order Picking & Fulfillment, Warehouse Management, warehousing, order fulfillment, distribution center
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
When your load is case-picked, relatively light, and smooth, column flow racks allow you to create storage density and increase the number of pick faces.
Tags: warehousing, Material Handling, distribution center, Carton flow rack, gravity flow systems, Order Picking & Fulfillment
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
Three areas – picking, packing and returns – incur anywhere from 60% to 80% of labor costs in your typical distribution operation. 60% of the average pickers’ time is spent walking. Not picking, not packing, not checking for quality and accuracy – walking. This is an activity that cannot add value to your operation or to your customers, so you should strive to eliminate it whenever possible. Not only does it waste time, it makes people tired, and tends to cause a loss in focus and can increase error rates.
Tags: order fulfillment, labor, product slotting, carton flow racks, ergonomics
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
Walk into any order fulfillment operation, and you will see gravity flow rack.
The reason is obvious–it’s one of the best ways to pick orders utilizing first-in, first-out principles. It used to be that there was one kind of the stuff, the plastic-wheel tracks, but these days the choices are more diverse than ever. For the most part, these flow rack types act the same; they decline toward the picker and boxes or totes or even larger components flow toward him. They’re restocked from the rear and picked from the front onto a takeaway conveyor line, a cart, workstation, or another step in the process.
Tags: distribution center, Unex, Keneco, Conveyor, picking systems, warehousing, Material Handling, Hytrol, order fulfillment, Supply Chain, carton flow, gravity flow rack
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
