Picking is of logistical interest to companies that manage stocks or deliveries. It's an essential tool for saving time in preparing and dispatching orders, and making costs more profitable.
What is picking?
Picking is the quick, error-free preparation of an order.
For a company, picking means excellent profitability while keeping costs under control.
From a practical point of view, picking is carried out by a picker, who follows a list of products to be prepared. This may be a printed list, but increasingly, companies are equipped with terminals that no longer require the printing of lists or labels. The picker then fetches the products, before packing and dispatching them. The order picker uses various accessories such as the Picking trolley and other handling tools. RollsRapides also offers material handling equipment rental. Contact us to find out more.
Short-term needs and long-term benefits
Picking isn't just a matter for the picker: there's a whole lot of upstream work to be done by the company. The warehouse must be designed to save time: numbered aisles, grouping of items according to type, optimal storage, all these points will save the picker precious time when preparing items.
If he doesn't have the software to do this, the picker has to organize his picking to save time and make as few trips as possible.
With intelligent picking, the aim is to limit errors in orders, by picking each item according to its category. It also saves space, thanks to optimal storage. Last but not least, it saves the picker precious time, as he doesn't have to cross the entire warehouse to find a product.
It's a definite investment, but in the long term, the time saved in order preparation means greater profitability, with more orders prepared in an hour, less tired pickers in a day, better stock management and more efficient, safer order preparation, which is good for the company's image.
Picking methods
In many warehouses, the "man to item" method is used: as the name suggests, it's a physical person who fetches the products. Or the "pick to light" method: to save time, the storage shelves are equipped with lights, enabling the picker to find the ordered items more quickly. After that, the picker simply has to look in which zone the product is to be packed and place it there.
Put to light" is a method in which the entire process is managed by software. It tells the picker where the items are, how to select them and where to place them for packing.
Voice picking is based on the same principle as the "put to light" method, with the difference that it's not software that guides the picker, but warehouse operators who tell him where the items are and where to put them.
Finally, "pick and pack" is the classic method of retrieving products from storage, before taking them to the packing area for dispatch.
Today, there's also the item-to-man method. In this case, the picker's work is automated: robots bring the products to the packing area.
Picking for companies
Picking is essential for companies, because it saves time and energy, while ensuring that shipments comply with customer orders, by optimizing the work of pickers.
