Introduction
Picking and packing in e-commerce logistics are considered the keys to successful order fulfillment. However, the pick-and-pack aspect of fulfilling e-commerce orders can be quite challenging due to the resources, time, and manual effort it requires.
Data even suggest that warehouse picking accounts for as high as 55% of a facility’s operating costs.
If you are wondering how to reduce these costs and optimize your picking and packing strategies, this post is for you.
Here, we will discuss some of the proven order fulfillment picking strategies to help you optimize the picking and packing processes you use for quick warehouse deliveries.
What Is Picking and Packing in Logistics?
Picking in the context of e-commerce logistics is the process of taking the correct type and number of items/merchandise from the shelves of your warehouse and adding them to your respective customer orders.
Likewise, packing refers to the process of putting products and other items in envelopes, packets, boxes, or other fitting containers before the shipping labels are printed and sent off to your customers.
Top 3 Best Practices for Warehousing Picking and Packing
Here, we have listed some of the picking and packing strategies for faster warehouse deliveries and to help you improve the overall process for your warehouse operations.
1. Prioritize Warehouse Design
Depending on factors such as the size of the warehouse and the total number of orders, a great deal of time could be wasted just moving from one storage point to another to complete each order.
The best solution to optimize the entire process here is to work on your warehouse design in a way that maximizes efficiency. Some of the ways to do this include the following-
- Make sure to store and keep items that are sold together.
- Keep your inventory arranged from top-selling to low-selling.
- Always place your popular or top-selling products closest to your packing stations.
Apart from this, also make sure to store items at an optimal height where the warehouse workers don’t have to bend down or reach up, and things are spaced out properly to avoid instances of congestion.
2. Efficiently Plan Picking Routes to Save Time
Statistics suggest that traveling during the warehousing-picking process takes more than 55% of the complete order-picking time.
To reduce this order completion time, the most important thing that warehouses need to do is to plan out the most efficient packing techniques and best picking routes possible.
Some of the things you can do here include the following-
- Ensure the layout of the warehouse is designed optimally to ensure an efficient route for the pickers to take.
- The size of the warehouse is another factor that will dictate the number of picking routes required.
- The volume of goods, items, or products being stored in the warehouse will help you decide the number of products that need to be picked per route.
The type of products being stored in the warehouse also needs to be taken into consideration, as it dictates the order in which the products are picked.
3. Utilize Mobile Technology to Improve Inventory Accuracy
Another strategy to optimize the picking and packing process is to maintain warehouse inventory accurately by utilizing mobile technologies such as barcodes and RFID scanners.
This is important because the chances of human error in the case of manual data entry are high. Scanning barcodes or RFID tags gives you a relatively more accurate and error-free way of entering data into the system.
Additionally, you can also work on setting up wireless networks and mobile scanners properly, as it allows you to update the stock count in real time as soon as cargo is scanned and picked.
This helps you to maintain an up-to-date count of inventory to ensure accurate scheduling of orders as well as give real-time visibility to help make effective business decisions.
To Conclude
With the ever-changing demands of warehouse deliveries, technology, and automation have emerged as two of the strongest pillars for defining success.
To remain competitive in this challenging space and ensure faster order fulfillment, warehouses will need to turn to better strategies and methods (as discussed above) to ensure an optimal and efficient picking and packing process.
From technology-driven warehousing solutions to mobile barcode scanning, Shipyaari is your go-to logistics enabler partner that offers several software solutions to ensure you are on top of your order fulfillment game.
Contact us today to try a demo and learn more.
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