{"id":5889,"date":"2015-07-28T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/?p=5889"},"modified":"2025-12-10T07:53:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T13:53:45","slug":"warehousing-optimization-standards-data-and-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/28\/warehousing-optimization-standards-data-and-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Warehousing Optimization: Standards, Data and Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 100%; max-width: 300px; height: auto;\" src=\"\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/images\/site\/Systems\/wmssoftware\/voice-enablement.JPG\" alt=\"warehouse operations\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When it comes to warehousing operations, there are many ways to approach a continuous improvement project. You can automate, you can reorganize. You can employ a consultant. Three of the constant factors are time, standards, and data.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some insights on each of these important areas:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>Set standards<\/h3>\n<p>A standard productivity rate is something every warehouse operation\u00a0should calculate and use. Spend time with your employees to review performance, and perhaps create incentives to reach those goals. Provide the needed tools, equipment, education and support for your people to succeed.<\/p>\n<h4>More help:<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/26\/how-to-benchmark-your-warehouse\/\">Cisco-Eagle&#8217;s\u00a0guide\u00a0for warehouse benchmarking<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/05\/warehousing-key-performance-indicators\/\">Key performance indicators for warehouse operations<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Live by the data<\/h3>\n<p>What data can you easily get? Start there, and use it. Your WMS, WCS and ERP\u00a0systems should yield plenty of information.<\/p>\n<p>But don\u2019t stop there. Are there things you\u2019d like to know, but can\u2019t easily get? Work with your IT department and managers to obtain it, even if you have to use a manual collection system. Once you start to build data, you can look for the pareto points, where the fewest resources will yield the best results. Look for logical inconsistencies\u2014things like the time between a pick is scanned in, and when it\u2019s confirmed as a picked item, then a packed item. What causes the lag, if this is too much time? Which product slots are constantly being replenished, and is that too often? What products move so slow that they should be addressed?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-33213\" src=\"https:\/\/images.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/stopwatch-AS201401710.jpg\" alt=\"analog stopwatch\" width=\"300\" style=\"float:right\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/stopwatch-AS201401710.jpg 500w, https:\/\/images.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/stopwatch-AS201401710-300x248.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Understand what you truly need from your time<\/h3>\n<p>Time is the one quantity you can&#8217;t buy more of, so using it effectively can make or break your operation. For instance, let&#8217;s look at order picking speed. You can take an order from entry to bin very quickly if that&#8217;s your goal.<\/p>\n<p>But it shouldn&#8217;t be &#8212; not every time.<\/p>\n<p>If you have read about recent emphasis on same-day shipping, and that\u2019s the goal, then speed is the focus. If your\u00a0customers expect the order to drop the same day they placed it, you must\u00a0fulfill that need. Otherwise, moving an order into the system to be served as soon as possible may be counterproductive.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For instance, if you push orders to pickers as soon as they arrive, you may jeopardize efficiency, accuracy&#8211;or both. Picking speed isn&#8217;t always the priority, and half the battle is in finding the blend of process and technologies that provide the correct balance of these priorities.<\/li>\n<li>If an item is order 25 times in a day, pushing orders in real time will cause pickers to access that location 25 times rather than once.<\/li>\n<li>If these orders demand quick shipment, that\u2019s fine. But if they don\u2019t, you\u2019re duplicating activities (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/03\/when-it-comes-to-order-picking-dont-walk-the-walk\/\">walking<\/a>, picking, accessing) that could mostly be combined into a single or a couple of actions.<\/li>\n<li>The point is, time is only\u00a0 valuable when spent correctly<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The point is, understand what you need from your time\u2014and act accordingly. In this case, a batch picking strategy fills customer needs nicely but doesn\u2019t send your pickers across your facility multiple times.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><strong>Read more:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/15\/order-fulfillment-is-the-first-line-of-a-great-customer-experience\/\">Order Fulfillment is the First Line of a Great Customer Experience<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div style=\"padding: 20px; border-radius: 15px; border: 2px solid #E4DDDD; margin: 4px 10px 4px 10px; box-shadow: 0 4px 8px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), 0 6px 20px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.19);\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-4\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/uploads\/brochures\/order-picking-guide.pdf\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: right; width: 100%; max-width: 200px; height: auto; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 18px;\" src=\"https:\/\/images.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/guideorderpickingcover.jpg\" alt=\"download the Cisco-Eagle guide to order picking operations.\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-sm-8\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<h3>Download the Cisco-Eagle guide to order picking<\/h3>\n<p>When it comes to picking orders, you have many options: equipment types, methods, technologies and more. Download our\u00a0guide to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/uploads\/brochures\/order-picking-guide.pdf\">order picking<\/a>\u00a0to read tips and articles from our expert employee-owners. You&#8217;ll find practical examples of ways to cope with ergonomics, slow movers, various picking systems and much more.<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/uploads\/brochures\/order-picking-guide.pdf\"><strong><em>Download the guide today<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to warehousing operations, there are many ways to approach a continuous improvement project. You can automate, you can reorganize. You can employ a consultant. Three of the constant factors are time, standards, and data. Here are some insights on each of these important areas:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[380,645,646,65,723,377,11],"series":[],"class_list":["post-5889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-automation","tag-benchmarking","tag-data","tag-facility-optimization","tag-lean-warehousing","tag-roi","tag-wcs","tag-wms"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2027-04-05 18:23:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5889"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33349,"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5889\/revisions\/33349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5889"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cisco-eagle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=5889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}