A Guide to Picking Methods and Performance Enhancements

Order picking is the process of pulling items from inventory in the warehouse to fill a customer order. The diversity of approaches to this key process is great, with so many companies even within the same industry tackling it in very different ways – and unfortunately for some – with very different results.

Every year, in the course of our work, we conduct hundreds of site visits, dozens of research interviews and an untold number of calls with both our clients and resellers. There are a number of consistencies that make themselves known over time, and “picking accounts for half of my labor force” is one that we hear most often.

Despite the outsized cost of “picking” relative to other labor costs in the logistics and warehouse space however, the diversity of approaches to this key process is almost mind-boggling, with so many companies even within the same industry tackling it in very different ways – and unfortunately for some – with very different results.

One colleague we work with shared with us the story of having the rare opportunity to see the inside of their competitors’ warehouse where he learned they were picking at half the rate that his team was – essentially doubling their labor cost for exactly the same output. Same products, almost the same equipment, but different processes and management styles that were disastrous for their competitor.

While there are engineers and scientists working in a lab somewhere to make this an entirely robot-driven affair in the future, the human element we all must nurture, train and equip to excel continues to be our focus. Today we drill down into the most common picking methods and share seven common-sense approaches to picking that will help you improve your results and let you develop benchmarks you can measure against.