Picture this: a bustling warehouse where every item has its designated place, ready to be swiftly picked and expertly packed for shipment. Gone are the days of chaotic searching and time-consuming errors. Robust pick and pack processes can fulfill your orders with precision and speed.

Implementing a warehouse management software enhances picking and packing, on top of other vital functions.

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Table of Contents:

• What Is Pick and Pack?
• Key Factors
• Benefits
• Steps Involved
• Common Challenges
• Best Practices
• Next Steps

Some of the most advanced WMSs integrate with robotics and material handling, making picking and packing seamless. These systems provide real-time insights into warehouse operations that boost efficiency and performance.

What Is Pick and Pack?

Pick and pack is a multi-step order fulfillment process involving skilled warehouse personnel swiftly navigating through aisles and shelves to find the products needed.

It pulls, gathers and packs the ordered items for shipping. This efficient warehouse operation can significantly improve your order fill rate and enhance customer satisfaction when performed correctly.

The pick and pack process begins when a shipment arrives at the warehouse. It then undergoes scanning and tracking after its shipping details go into a WMS or inventory management system.

Implementing an efficient pick and pack system streamlines the overall fulfillment process. It reduces returns by efficiently packing and shipping the correct items. It also minimizes delays in product movement within the warehouse, leading to faster fulfillment times.

Veeqo, Shipedge and Manhattan WMS are some of the popular market vendors.

Key Factors

When considering implementing a pick and pack system, it’s also important to understand the factors that can impact its success. Every organization is unique; what works for one may not be suitable for another.

Let’s explore the factors that can influence the effectiveness of selecting the right system.

Order Volume and Variety

A consistent order flow increases picking and packing efficiency. Additionally, companies dealing with a wide variety of products or diverse order profiles find pick and pack beneficial, as it allows for flexibility in handling different order types.

Time Sensitivity

Pick and pack operations become crucial if your company delivers time-sensitive orders like perishable goods, medical supplies or just-in-time inventory.

The speed and accuracy of the process facilitate an efficient order fulfillment rate, minimizing delays and meeting strict delivery deadlines.

Product Characteristics

The pick and pack process suits companies that deal with individually packaged products or have specific packaging requirements. These can include consumer goods, eCommerce products, small parts or fragile items.

The ability to handle different product sizes, shapes and packaging specifications is crucial for the success of these operations.

Order Customization

Companies that offer customized or personalized products can easily assemble individualized orders, select specific product variations or include personalized messages to strengthen customer satisfaction.

Scalability and Growth Plans

Pick and pack operations benefit companies with plans for growth and scalability. The flexibility of this process can handle high order volumes without compromising accuracy or speed.

This scalability supports business expansion and adaptability to changing market demands.

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Primary Benefits

Now that we’ve spoken about the factors that can influence how viable the pick and pack process would be for your business, let’s outline the benefits.

Strengthen Customer Expectation

Implementing the right pick and pack strategy guarantees timely deliveries, contributing to the establishment of a loyal customer base and setting the company apart from competitors.

Customers expect correct, error-less orders without substitutions. Careful product selection and packing minimize the chances of mistakes.

Boost Efficiency

Streamline workflows by organizing inventory, establishing logical picking routes and synchronizing packing stations. This process reduces unnecessary movement, minimizes time wasted searching for items and maximizes overall productivity.

Since most fulfillment activities happen under a single roof, it reduces time spent assembling products from various storage locations and sending them to other locations for packing and labeling.

Improve Cost-Effectiveness

Implementing picking and packing alongside a WMS gets you more bang for your buck by automating various tasks and prioritizing orders based on predefined rules.

Logistics companies can also achieve cost efficiency by allowing collaborative robots (cobots) to work alongside human workers. Thanks to these automated partner’s quick and precise nature, the global cobot market size is expected to grow from $2.58 billion in 2023 to $7.11 billion by 2027.

Steps Involved

The pick and pack process features four key steps.

1. Inventory Receiving

A warehouse receives inventory from suppliers or producers, and then the following steps occur:

• Check for incorrect product entries. The number of products should match the warehouse record.
• Add tracking SKUs/barcode labels.
• Look for damage or spoilage.

Integrate your sales channel with existing systems to monitor these tasks seamlessly. You can use 3PL providers to manage your warehousing and shipping operations if you don’t have an in-house system.

2. Picking

The next step includes using different picking strategies. While different order picking systems can handle this process, you need to know which method works best for your business.

• Single Order Picking: Pickers pick one item at a time from their list. Though this process is time-consuming, it’s cost-effective for small warehouses.
• Batch: Pickers pick multi-product orders under the same SKUs. This method minimizes walking time to increase efficiency.
• Discrete: Discrete picking or pick-to-order is a low-cost approach suitable for small warehouses. The picker reviews the order list and picks items one line at a time before moving to the next order. Usually, warehouse managers schedule only one picking activity during a shift and other orders during another day or shift.
• Zone: Also known as pick and pass, this method allows bins and carts to travel to pickers while they remain stationary.
• Wave: Similar to batch picking, warehouses prioritize wave picking based on order needs. It relies on automated picking systems to organize picking by considering time-based elements like delivery deadlines, schedules and how quickly the order needs to move out.
• Cluster: Pickers can pick items for more than one order simultaneously by collecting them into a cluster.
• Multi-Order: Pickers gather multiple orders from different locations around the warehouse. This strategy is ideal for pickers traveling long distances.

3. Packing

After picking up the item, it’s moved to the packing station, where it’s packed, sealed and labeled for shipping.

This step involves carefully packing items into appropriate packaging materials like boxes, envelopes or bubble mailers. Materials may vary based on the product’s nature and fragility.

Packaging may also include adding protective materials, product inserts or promotional materials.

Add shipping labels, packing slips and invoices for proper documentation.

4. Shipping

After packing, sort the orders before they move to the loading dock. This step involves coordinating with the carrier, arranging pickup or drop-off, and ensuring necessary paperwork for smooth transit.

Then, the item travels to the customer.

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Common Challenges

Picking and packing is a challenge-filled, labor-intensive process that accounts for a large percentage of overall operating expenses. Let’s discuss some of the common warehouse issues that many operations overlook.

Inventory Management

Track important metrics like number of units per order, items frequently sold together, dimensions and weight, the total number of SKUs and more to keep information organized.

A lack of product information can lead to selecting the wrong picking method, increasing pick and pack time and delaying order fulfillment. Missing product details can also increase logistics costs and hurt customer satisfaction.

Improperly marked items or inaccurate records indicate poor inventory management. For example, order items that don’t match the record might confuse pickers, leading to delayed fulfillment. Items the warehouse receives must undergo proper scanning to ensure pickers know exactly where to find them.

Seasonal Demand Variations

Many businesses experience in-demand seasonal fluctuations that can pose fulfillment challenges.

Managing increased order volumes during peak seasons requires careful planning to avoid bottlenecks, resource constraints and potential order-processing delays.

Accidental Redundancy

Unorganized workflows can cause accidental redundancies. Unknowingly, your workers may fulfill the same order twice. These issues often lead to increased labor costs and wasted products.

Order Prioritization and Deadlines

Different orders may have varying priorities or delivery deadlines based on customer requirements.

Managing order prioritization and ensuring on-time fulfillment for time-sensitive orders can be challenging, particularly when dealing with high order volumes or limited resources.

Warehouse Layout and Organization

Inefficient use of storage space due to a poorly designed layout is a common challenge. Cramped aisles, improper slotting, and lack of space to use machinery can affect overall warehouse productivity, efficiency and speed.

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Best Practices

No single strategy can ensure efficient pick and pack operations. However, a few practices can help address these challenges.

Adopt Business Intelligence (BI)

BI boosts productivity and efficiency by analyzing and tracking important metrics. Warehouse managers can analyze large volumes of data from different operations and use it to make smart and informed business decisions.

With BI, managers can generate daily, weekly and monthly automated reports while tracking real-time data.

Optimize Warehouse Layout

An optimized warehouse ensures productivity by minimizing picker movement. The inability to use warehouse space efficiently negatively impacts the entire supply chain, shipping times and workflows. Regardless of your warehouse size, storing items in the most accessible locations is ideal.

A good strategy to follow is performing an ABC analysis. It lets you place high-value products in convenient locations according to order volume.

Implement Mobile Technology

Mobile technology like RFID and barcode systems directly improves warehouse inventory. Unlike manual data entry, this method is error-free and light on effort. RFIDs are fast, cost-effective and reliable since they can provide real-time stock information, including product model, color, size and quantity.

These technologies are an integral part of warehouse operations and inventory tracking.

Maintain Accurate Inventory Records

Keep your inventory sorted so pickers can fill orders without hassle. There are high chances for customers to cancel or not place orders if the product isn’t in stock. Implementing robust inventory management software is the best way to keep tabs on current stock.

It helps manage incoming and outgoing products while maintaining and controlling inventory. Automatically order popular items and send alerts when inventory runs low.

Automate Processes

Consider automating processes as much as possible to improve speed and accuracy. Adopting 3PL software is an ideal way to deal with pick and pack fulfillment. It helps 3PL partners organize the entire order fulfillment process through last-minute delivery and boosts efficiency at all stages.

Get real-time shipping updates by tracking ongoing orders, the number of items in the container, fulfillment center location, destination country and more.

Invest in WMS Software

Implementing a warehouse management system provides a bird’s-eye view of your pick and pack processes. WMS controls everything from when the product enters the warehouse to its departure from the loading dock.

It facilitates order processing by regulating product flow. Your WMS can automatically determine the ideal packing strategy for each order. Price tags, shipping labels and logos flow through the system, eliminating the need to enter shipping information manually.

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Next Steps

Optimizing picking and packing is a smart way to streamline supply chain operations. Consider automated solutions to save time, boost efficiency and improve fulfillment operations.

Dedicating time and resources while following some best practices combined with technology can streamline your order fulfillment process.

Our free requirements template allows you to develop customized solutions that align with your unique business requirements. This approach reduces miscommunication risk, saves time and helps ensure that the chosen software fully meets your needs.

How efficient is your pick and pack process? Tell us with a comment!