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It’s highly imperative to understand the value of a smooth and efficient picking process at the warehouse as it can have a deep impact on the bottom line. Therefore picking optimization should be considered one of the most crucial aspects to improve the customer experience and keep a check on the picker efficiency at the same time. 

Let’s decode the basics of the pick list, the challenges in the row, and finally, the right ways to increase picking efficiency in the long run.

What’s a Pick List? 

A pick lists can be defined as an all-inclusive document sent to the warehouse pickers for order fulfillment. The list consists of the items that are required to be retrieved from storage. Why is it required? Exactly how you need the right planning before execution, a pick list is the part of the plan which makes the picking process organized. Pick list optimization facilitates faster and more efficient order fulfillment along with a significant reduction in SLA breaches. 

Importance of Pick List

Pick list are crucial in e-commerce warehouse management, streamlining the order fulfillment process and enhancing overall efficiency. Here are five key points highlighting their importance:

• Order Accuracy and Fulfillment Efficiency: Pick list ensure the right products are selected and packed for each order.
• Optimized Warehouse Operations: Pick list help organize and optimize the picking process within the warehouse. This efficiency translates to higher productivity and cost savings.
• Batch Picking and Grouping: It helps expedite the picking process by enabling workers to pick multiple orders simultaneously, increasing productivity and reducing fulfillment times.
• Inventory Management and Stock Replenishment: Pick list are essential for real-time inventory tracking, providing valuable insights into stock levels, enabling timely restocking, and preventing stockouts or overstocks, ultimately improving supply chain efficiency.
• Data Analysis and Performance Tracking: Utilizing pick list allows data collection to identify bottlenecks, improve picking strategies, and enhance overall warehouse performance. It provides valuable insights for continuous process optimization and decision-making.

What are the Challenges of Pick List?

When the pick list is assigned to the warehouse picker, the process requires edge to edge tracking to gather picker insights and check the efficiency at the same time, however, a manual process lacks tracking which can lead to delays, errors and a messed up delivery. To optimize the pick list management, it’s advisable to have a warehouse management system recording your data, saving product images, adding in additional information required to ensure the pick list, having the right idea for quality control, and most importantly ensuring accurate picker activity from assigning the list, procuring the product, allocating it at the right place and ultimately delivering on time. 

Ways to Increase Warehouse Efficiency with Pick List

Optimizing warehouse operations is beyond necessity and for doing it right, it’s important to have a system that not only lets you manage the stocks but provides picker staff tracking as well. As efficient picking leads to delivery accuracy and a thorough streamlined process. 

Read: Essential WMS Features that let you Attain Operational Capabilities

As a business owner, if you’re in splits over declining growth rates or waning productivity, there are surely some adjustments that can help in making the picking process effective – 

1. Assigning Pick List to the Agent 

Once a pick list is ready to be assigned, consider assigning it to the right agent. When the picker is assigned manually, there can be more errors & delays as you can never track picker efficiency accurately, but, through incorporating a warehouse management solution, picker is assigned automatically through analyzing their regular activity logs and tracking the efficiency as well. Alongside,  the pick list can be assigned based on the order location or can be filtered based on the marketplace as well, for instance, you can assign picker location wise – Picker A for Delhi, Picker B for Bangalore etc. This will save time and get the deliveries done quickly and accurately. Also, if the picker is assigned based on the marketplaces such as Flipkart, Amazon etc., this again helps in quick deliveries and lesser SLA breach, and streamlined operations. This can further facilitate knowing where the process lacks and finding the reason for delivery delay loopholes, helping a business to streamline the order delivery process.

Read: Enhance the Operations of the Warehouse with Order Picking: Process and Methods

2. Consider Right Placement

Larger warehouses might have tons of products stored in and the placement of the products might be the prime reason for delays. Why? If the highest selling SKUs are kept at the extreme ends of a single warehouse, it might eat up heaps of time for the picking staff. Be wise in organizing your inventory in such a way that picking can be done faster. While in most cases inventory organization is done by SKU number, it’s always better to have it organized based on the probability of being bought together. This can save your time and ultimately get deliveries quicker.

3. Give a Thought to Storage Racks 

This might seem an underrated idea but can actually save you a lot of time! Picking up the right racks for your warehouse is another good option to consider. It’s also good to have elevated racks that are easy for the conveyor belts but, in case manual picking is your go-to, trust the floor racks which are easier and faster to access for the pickers. 

Final Thoughts

Pick list optimization is an integral part of every ecommerce business, though there’s a dire need to automate or digitize the warehouse processes to make order management, inventory management, and returns management more streamlined. Incorporating a warehouse management system (WMS) in your business can effectively help in making the supply chain run smooth and error free. A few adjustments in the way your warehouse is being operated can help in fewer errors and promote faster & more accurate deliveries.

Related read:

• What is a Warehouse Management System (WMS)?
• What are the challenges in Order Management?
• Healthcare Industry Challenges, Opportunities & Solutions in India

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But to make the right decision of choosing a technologically advanced Warehouse Management System you need to be well accustomed with all the processes involved that differentiate the best from all the rest. 

Vendors help you with all your daily needs and supplies whether they are for your business needs or facility requirements. You need them for almost everything on a regular basis, even multiple vendors to fulfil a variety of your demands at different prices or quantity.

But with different vendors involved, you may need separate ways to keep a track of their details, your demands, prices for your supplies, delivery times of each product and much more. 

The process of vendor selection and onboarding can be a real task if you do not know where to look for them, but with a fully integrated and completely automated WMS solution, you get to screen out the most appropriate service providers that align well with your business needs.

Steps of Vendor Onboarding Process:

1. Creation of Vendor Agreement

At first, you need to gather up all the information that you could find about your Vendors and then include them in a well-elaborated and clearly defined agreement. The necessary conditions and clauses your agreement should have include:

• Full name and addresses of both parties 
• Goods and Services Offered 
• Confidentiality of information exchange
• Coverage of loss or damages
• Causes if Termination of contract

2. Development of Guidelines for Payment Processes

After an agreement has been made between both parties, it is necessary to lay some guidelines in terms of payments in order to avoid any issues or disputes. 

Your ability to convey clear and understanding rules on payment processes can help your vendors not only be well informed on all aspects of their services but also to improve the quality of services offered to you. Major points to keep in mind when you are developing guidelines for payments, include:

• Quoting Final Prices for Product Offerings 
• Providing correct details of payable accounts 
• Highlighting terms of payments 
• Generating detailed and clear invoices of services offered
• Following industry tax standards 

3. Establishment of Rules for Delivery

As the two fundamental requirements are cleared up, you need to also provide your conditions for how you expect the vendors to make deliveries of the products and services.

Figure out your expectations first based on your consumer reach and demands and then go ahead with some basic instructions for your vendors to follow, such as:

• Providing a proper timeline for deliveries
• Conveying reasons for delay if any
• Ensuring to meet delivery requirements
• Highlighting types of insurances offered for each service 
• Implementing proper security support for products

4. Registration of Vendor and form updation in ERP system

To seize the vendor onboarding process, you need to register your vendors on a portal to ensure all terms are agreed upon and conditions are met. 

Post-registration, the vendors need to:

• Add documents that specify their service capabilities
• Declare adherence to company policies of performance
• Provide industry-specific compliance documents
• Add purchase order and invoice transmission preferences

5. Dry run and testing of complete inward cycle

It is necessary to test a purchase-sales workflow to get a fair idea of the forward proceedings and to do that you can begin with product purchases. The method to do so includes:

• Choose a preferred vendor and initiate a purchase order 
• Finalize a small amount for a fixed purchase price
• Generate the purchase order invoice
• Complete the payment to the vendors
• Post receiving the orders, start your sales process
• Dispatch your products and initiate customer invoices
• Get the payments, analyze the process and contemplate the results of the test

6. Segmentation and Prioritization of vendors

With more vendors, you need more management and the level of that can vary for each one of them. This task can be carried out by segmentation and prioritization of vendors based on their role and dependency for your business.

Vendor segmentation is done by figuring out how aligned are your vendors to the business model you have selected and what would be the exit strategy for your business in case of disputes. 

You can basically segment your vendors into four sections, based on your relationship with the more than just the delivery of services:

• Emerging – the ones who help you set a strong foot in an emerging market with unique and innovative services 
• Strategic – those who are the primary service providers for your business and are well aligned with all the requirements of your business.
• Tactical – the ones that can be of low assistance to your business and majorly provide transactional support.
• Legacy – those who have been providing essential services for your business in the past but now little value of their support.

Depending on the role each of your vendors play in supporting your business you need to decide which to prioritize and focus on. It is necessary to develop strong and steady acquaintance with your vendors, rather than just being fixated on the pricing and delivery of performance by them because that will help you and your business achieve better overall performance, have value-driven participation from your vendors and maximize your profits for the long haul.

Once the entire process of Vendor Onboarding is completed, you need to move on to the next step of your warehouse management which is of Procurement.

Procurement is a process where your service providers agree to the entire framework of operations set in the onboarding process and then provide their services to you based on those exact terms and conditions. 

Important Steps for the Procurement Process:

The important steps to ensure the Procurement process happens without any difficulties include:

1. Sales Forecasting

Sales forecasting helps you decide what and how much to ask from your vendors in order to seamlessly deliver good customer service. 

In procurement processes, this activity is carried out by the internal sales team and involves analytical estimation of future sales based on sales data acquired in the past months, ongoing or upcoming trends, industry-wise comparisons etc.

The analyzed report is then sent to the procurement team which further sends an ASR or Advanced Shipping Request to the vendors.

2. Vendor Updation on Availability of Products

ASR sent to the vendors contain all the information about the quantity required and based on that vendors confirm availability of goods post which a Purchase Order request is raised by the warehouse. 

3. Shipping Notice and Consignment Generation

After a Purchase Order or PO is raised, the vendors create an ASN or Advanced Shipping Notice and then ship the required amount of products to the warehouse. 

These processes are must-have deliverables of a robust Warehouse Management System to strengthen the overall productivity of a business, helping them scale up profits and Unicommerce is one such platform that provides a 360-degree experience to businesses who wish to achieve the same.

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Unicommerce Wins 2023 SaaS Awards for Best SaaS Product For Supply Chain/Warehouse Management

In a world where efficient warehouse management is paramount to success, Unicommerce proudly stands as the recipient of the esteemed “Best SaaS Product for Supply Chain/Warehouse Management” award at the 2023 SaaS Awards. 

Now celebrating its 8th year, The SaaS Awards continues to recognize and honor outstanding SaaS innovations from all corners of the world. Entries from hundreds of companies spanning North America, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Australasia were received. Yet, Unicommerce’s victory is a testament to our unwavering commitment to innovation and excellence.

Unicommerce believes in providing multichannel retail businesses with dynamic and scalable warehouse management solutions that help them power their growth. Standing out in this landscape is no small feat, but we’re proud to have earned this distinction. Managing 8000+ warehouses, we ensure that our solution offers unprecedented flexibility and scalability with a commitment to elevating the post-purchase experience. 

On this win, James Williams, Head of Operations at The SaaS Awards, said, “Unicommerce is a deserving winner in a highly competitive category. Each year, we’re impressed by the innovative solutions and achievements of our entrants. Submissions continue to improve, reflecting positive progress. With every awards program of this business software ‘Oscars,’ we see even more captivating innovations that adapt to the evolving challenges of today.”

Kapil Makhija, CEO of Unicommerce, enthused, “Winning an award in the international SaaS fraternity is a great achievement and demonstrates our commitment to producing excellent work, especially in a competitive area like e-commerce and retail tech. This recognition is a testimony of our robust product and our committed efforts to power leading brands across multiple geographies. We are thrilled that the SaaS Awards have acknowledged our work on a global scale. This victory motivates us to continue stretching the bounds of what is conceivable in the SaaS world as we work towards better standards for both our industry and our customers.”

WMS Features That Contributed to Our Success

Trusted by 20,000+ businesses globally, Unicommerce’s success can be attributed to the remarkable features and capabilities of its Warehouse Management System (WMS). Some of the key features that contributed to our success include:

• Bulk Order Processing: Quick order dispatch with minimal stock-picking time
• Cost-Saving Automation: Automates crucial day-to-day warehouse operations 
• Effortless 200+ Stable Integrations: Easy expansion across multiple channels
• Efficient Logistics Management: Reduced shipping times and error-free deliveries

How Can Unicommerce WMS Help Your Business Achieve Higher Operational Efficiency

Unicommerce’s Warehouse Management System (WMS) is designed to help businesses achieve higher operational efficiency in their supply chain and warehouse management processes. Here is how our WMS can benefit your business:

• Gain insights using handheld devices, improving accuracy, reducing waste, and boosting efficiency.
• Enable cautious and quick handling of inventory with location allocation across multiple warehouses.
• Perform smooth inbound operations, including SKU scanning, cycle counts, and more. 
• Execute smooth AI-based outbound QC and manage manifests and invoices.
• Capture detailed inventory information with precision using a superior barcoding system.
• Mitigate stock losses with systematic batching and rotation.
• Accurately map inventories with minimal downtime using an efficient inventory cycle counting feature.
• Enhance your product portfolio by selling your products in combo packs with systematized bundle management.
• Solve the biggest pain points in online returns with 100% product traceability.

About Unicommerce

Unicommerce is one of the leading e-commerce enablement SaaS platforms in India that powers post-purchase experience for retail companies, D2C brands, marketplaces, and e-commerce companies. The company’s integrated suite of products empowers brands to manage every aspect of the post-purchase journey, from managing orders and inventory to warehouse and store operations.

Unicommerce is becoming a preferred choice of brands going Omnichannel. So far, the company has powered warehouse operations across 8000+ warehouses and 3000+ stores across the country and is consistently growing its presence across the international markets. The solutions are currently powering businesses across the Middle East (which includes UAE and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines).

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FIFO Based Picking for Inventory Management in the Warehouse

Many retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers or even e-commerce sellers have hundreds of locations to carry thousands of items. But majorly face these three specific challenges with the inventory-

• Out of Stock
• Shrinkage
• Outdated

Stock rotation to avoid loss due to out of date inventory is the prime issue companies face which even digs them into huge losses if not managed efficiently in time. Many businesses have the inventory with an expiration date. So, shipping the items on the principle of “First in, First Out“, protects the product quality and freshness. Using FIFO, you can ship products relatively in neat and clean boxes, as products would have spent less time in your warehouse.

Companies that sell perishable products, such as food products, medicines or in trend fashion accessories, apparels, footwear etc. commonly follow FIFO as their method for inventory valuation.

For example, a medical store purchases medicines at regular intervals to stock its shelves. As customers purchase medicines, the stockers push the oldest medicine carton to the front of the shelf and replace medicines with new MFG date behind those cartons. The cartons of medicines with the nearest expiration dates are sold first, whereas the ones with later expiration dates are sold after the older medicines. This ensures that the first products purchased will be the first products sold!

Read: How Urban Company Achieved 8X Growth in 27 Months with Unicommerce’s Warehouse Management Solution!

Benefits of Adapting FIFO Inventory Software based Picking in Warehouse

1. Reduce Inventory Loss Due to Obsolescence

Outdated or obsolete products aren’t an issue for most of the industries. But for those who deal in perishable products, to remove the outdated inventory is the costliest and most unnecessary task in a warehouse. Use of FIFO in such industries ensures the products to be picked and shipped as quickly as possible.

2. Improved Customer Experience

Reduce the number of incidents where customers can receive an older, obsolete product due to improper rotation of stock in your warehouse. With FIFO you can now ensure a better user experience and deliver a fresh product which is cleanly packed.

3. Warranty Control Improvements

With FIFO implemented in your warehouse, define Shelf life, Expiry, Manufacturing Date & Tolerance. This will eliminate incidents of shipping products that are close to or past warranty expiration.

4. Make Your Warehouse Stock Rotation Efficient

Implementing FIFO will ensure that you ship the most recent and desirable products to your customers. It is the most widely used inventory valuation method as it is practically much easier and safer for companies to opt.

Related read – How FIFO & FEFO Methods Minimize Stock Losses for Business

Let’s Manage Inventory Smartly!

By implementing FIFO, businesses can effectively overcome common inventory challenges, streamline operations, and ultimately contribute to higher customer satisfaction and profitability. Adopting such a robust system is vital for the success of any inventory-dependent business.

More resources:

• • • Top Multichannel Inventory Management Challenges and Solutions
    • Inventory Management Software – Top 9 Benefits
    • Top Challenges & Solutions of Inventory Management
    • Why do e-commerce businesses need Inventory Management Software?
    • Types of Inventory Management Techniques
    • UniShip – Advanced Shipping Tracking Platform
    • UniReco – E-commerce Marketplace Payment Reconciliation
    • Key Challenges & Benefits of Marketplace Payment Reconciliation
    • Benefits of Shipping Notifications
    • E-commerce Shopify Integration with Unicommerce

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The e-commerce industry in the UAE is growing like never before. Businesses are increasingly shifting from offline to online. And do you know why? Because the seismic shift has fundamentally transformed the human mindset and the way business is being conducted. Not only are the consumers’ buying patterns changed, but their thinking patterns are also replaced by the convenience of online shopping. 

Amid such transformation, especially within the younger cohorts, e-commerce players have been reinventing ideas to expand their trade over multiple sales channels. Right from expanding their brand reach over multiple sales channels to redesigning the strategy for consumer retention, e-commerce businesses are broadening their horizons. But you know when the problem arises? When they have the plan to sell over marketplaces but their backend operations are not capable enough to manage it. 

Imagine this; you are planning to expand your customer base, for which you have started selling on multiple sales channels, which has eventually increased your warehouse management workload capacity (to manage inventory & orders efficiently). But due to manual labor, you are not able to manage the operational workflows seamlessly, right from managing the cycle count to updating the warehouse inventory in real-time. Maybe you don’t have a centralized view of your inventory. Or maybe you don’t have proper stock visibility of your inventory and order data. This is when the need for a robust warehouse stock management system arises.

In a nutshell, with the surge in the opportunities for e-commerce and the need to sell over multiple sales channels, it has become difficult to align your inventory & order operations across multiple warehouses. But what can you do to solve it? Well, you need to automate your functionalities on a centralized interface system so that you don’t disappoint your customers and fulfill orders on time. 

Still, confused? 

Well, let us first walk you through the challenges in warehouse management that the businesses like yours are facing in the UAE & Saudi Arabia amid the multifaceted e-commerce ecosystem along with their solutions. 

Challenges Faced by E-commerce Businesses of UAE in Managing Multiple Warehouses & Their Solutions

Some of the common pitfalls of managing multiple warehouses are poor visibility of inventory, problems in analyzing unique demands, and messing up the warehouse structure. 

Looking at the e-commerce industry in the UAE from the warehouse perspective, it’s one of the toughest markets to crack. Why? Because the e-commerce industry is continuously evolving in the countries, right from the adoption of new technology tools to selling over diversified sales channels. 

Don’t you want to understand what these challenges are and how can you overcome them to boost your business in the UAE? Come on, let’s have a look at them!

1. Difficulty in managing inventory

Managing the inventory across multiple sales channels is itself a crucial task. But it goes hand-in-hand with warehouse management. And when you add multiple warehouses, the level of complexity also increases. Now you not only have to manage the inventories of one warehouse but you also have to accumulate the incoming & outgoing inventory of multiple warehouses. If you fail to manage it optimally, you will have to bear the consequences of inventory stockouts and overstocking — the occurrence of which can be both dangerous and heinous to your business.  

How to solve it? 

With a centralized and integrated warehouse inventory management system, you can have full control and visibility over your inventory operations. While the centralized system updates all the inventory from multiple warehouses in real-time, uneventful situations of overstock or stockouts — if they happen — can also be tracked almost immediately. Additionally, it’s the best way to manage inventory as the automatic stock synchronization ensures accurate stock visibility and helps improve sales and controls order cancellations.

2. Varied consumer demands in different areas

Which item should you have more in your warehouse and which product do you need to slow down on manufacturing? Maybe chamomile tea leaves could be appreciated in the northern part of your country but don’t hold any significance when sold in the southern part.

Thus, it is fairly difficult to fulfill the demand of multiple markets simultaneously over a short period of time. And when you are planning to expand your horizons by adding multiple warehouses, you can definitely come across these types of situations. While the complexity behind equating the demand & supply can challenge your backend capabilities, the seasonal trends add another layer of difficulty. 

How to solve it? 

If your warehouse management system has the functionality of reports & dashboards, most of your efforts get centralized, easing out your distress. From checking the inventory availability of fast-moving SKUs to analyzing the products with zero orders last month, you can actually get the real-time insights that can allow you to track your sales, stock, and revenue proportion and forecast apt plans for the markets. 

3. Managing shipping across multiple warehouses

When you have warehouses spread across the country, you can easily ship orders from one place to another and fulfill them timely. But it becomes challenging to establish real-time coordination between warehouses. Information can be distorted and the lack of sync can also restrict the ability to manage various functions such as picking/packing, sorting of inventory, and placing in shelves. But if you are not integrated with multiple logistics providers, you might end up shutting your operations in one or more warehouses due to high costs (capital cost & logistics cost).

How to solve it? 

Outsourcing a sound logistics & warehouse management system software that is pre-integrated with multiple logistics players and shipping aggregators can solve your problem. This way you can also tie hands with the local logistics providers who are aware of narrowed nooks & crannies of your region — which is again one of the crucial problems in the UAE, due to the absence of postal codes. 

4. Problems in utilizing warehouse space

Another problem associated with warehouse management is when you fail to utilize the warehouse space adequately. A small warehouse can still be managed easily, but the main problem arises when you have to manage multiple spaces with a large set of inventory. It’s not just about keeping a hygienic structure, but it’s rather about wisely placing inventory so that the fast-moving goods can be picked easily when required. But the presence of multiple warehouses negates it as you need to hire more staff to manage the same that will eventually increase your manpower cost. 

How to solve it?

If you have a robust warehouse management system in place, you can wisely plan & structure your warehouse components. You also get a virtual warehouse feature that gives you a unified view of operations so that you can place and position your products wisely. Moreover, you can also manage shelves with the virtual system while streamlining the identification of product placement.

5. Failing to minimize the Product damages

One of the many reasons to increase your warehouses is the rise in consumer demand. But in order to fulfill the demand on time, you often compromise with the quality check processes. While that could directly pose a risk to your bottom line, you might witness a huge rate of order returns. 

How to solve it? 

Preferably, your company needs a barcode inventory system where you can conduct a seamless quality check of the products at various stages to be sure before it gets delivered to the final user. You can use handheld devices such as barcode scanners. This way you can capture an array of detail regarding the item, facilitating smooth order processing and returns management.

6. Managing Order Returns/Exchanges

Another warehouse challenge that e-commerce businesses face is dealing with the issues of returns. Order Returns often challenge the operational efficiency of the business, especially when you have more than one warehouse to manage. And when you receive the returned item in another warehouse, making space for it is a whole new challenge. Additionally, transporting it to its original destination could be costly and might damage the product. So the question is what can you do to avoid such circumstances? 

How to solve it? 

You can’t obviously avoid the problem of returns from your business but a seamless backend system can definitely enable you to minimize it. Moreover, a robust e-commerce system with robust returns management feature can answer all sorts of order returns queries. With returns management aligned to your operations you can:

• Organize the warehouse space
• Allocate a dedicated area for returned products
• Segregate returns items based on their nature and type
• Enable smooth & efficient order replacement
• Hasten up Return Inventory Turnaround

With the change in customer behavior, we need to clearly buck up our current operating system so that it doesn’t get bogged down while adding multiple warehouses. Thus, the warehouse managers must design a full-proof action plan to maximize the performance index while leveling the trade-offs for improved profitability. Also, one thing’s for sure, you definitely need a centralized warehouse management system that can support all your warehouses all while giving a centralized view of operations. An agile warehouse management system can assist you in centralizing the crucial tasks such as maintaining healthy stock levels automatically and location-allocation in multiple warehouse sites along with real-time e-commerce inventory management, automated purchase management, routing and tracking of shipments, order management from multiple POS, etc.

Related read –

• Top E-commerce Marketplaces in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
• Order, Inventory, and Logistics Management in the UAE – Challenges & Solutions
• Retail & Fashion Industry in UAE – Growth, Challenges & Solutions
• Beauty and Personal Care Industry in UAE – Challenges & Solutions
• How to Sell on Amazon Marketplace in UAE?
• How does Warehouse Management System Works?
• UniShip – Advanced Shipping Tracking Platform
• UniReco – E-commerce Marketplace Payment Reconciliation
• Key Challenges & Benefits of Marketplace Payment Reconciliation
• Benefits of Shipping Notifications
• E-commerce Shopify Integration with Unicommerce
• Why Pick List is Important for Warehouse Operations?
• What is Inventory Cycle Counting?

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Understanding the Basics of Warehouse Order Picking

Order picking involves retrieving inventory from its designated location within the warehouse to initiate the delivery process. During the process of picking, a Picklist is created, which encompasses orders received from multiple marketplaces. This Picklist is then handed to the warehouse staff, providing them with the item’s designated locations. Once the shelf is located, the inventory is scanned, picked, and prepared for packing and delivery.

Given that the picking process can be time-consuming, it is essential to have a technologically advanced warehouse management system in place. Such systems enable multiple scans and facilitate the quick location of goods in a warehouse and then help the staff collect them and move forward with other processes.

By deploying the right picking processes for your warehouse operations, you can provide your business with the ease to enhance the overall customer experience.

Why is an Efficient Order Picking Process Important?

An efficient picking process plays a crucial role in the smooth operation and success of a business. Here are some reasons why it is important:

• Provides higher efficiency and accuracy
• Allows better order fulfillment and processing
• Increases overall revenue of the business
• Enables faster and smoother deliveries 
• Saves time by reducing manpower and stock management costs

To enhance and streamline the picking process, it is essential to implement a barcoding system. The first step is to initiate product serialization, which helps the warehouse staff to locate and track each item in your warehouse; this involves assigning a unique code to every product. 

Serialization is done using barcode systems that generate a combination of unique characters in a 2D or 3D format. These codes are then affixed as labels onto individual items and subsequently scanned during the picking processes to retrieve pertinent details.

Types of Warehouse Order Picking Processes

There are various picking processes you can use, depending on the fulfillment requirements of your e-commerce business. Here are the two major order-picking processes:

• Zone Picking
• Batch Picking

1. Zone Picking 

Zone picking involves dividing the warehouse into distinct zones or areas, with each zone assigned to a specific picker or group of pickers. For large warehouses that cater in multiple categories and have a wide range of inventory, the process of zone picking is recommended. 

In a warehouse using zone picking, let’s consider an example with three zones: Zone A for electronics, Zone B for clothing, and Zone C for household items. 

For three customer orders:

• Order 1: Requires a laptop (Zone A) and a T-shirt (Zone B).
• Order 2: Requires a blender (Zone C) and a pair of jeans (Zone B).
• Order 3: Requires a vacuum cleaner (Zone C) and a smartphone (Zone A).

A picklist is created, and the system routes the order items to the respective zones and assigns pickers accordingly:

• Order 1: Laptop goes to Zone A picker, T-shirt goes to Zone B picker.
• Order 2: Blender goes to Zone C picker, jeans go to Zone B picker.
• Order 3: Vacuum cleaner goes to Zone C picker, the smartphone goes to Zone A picker.

The pickers collect the items within their zones and transfer them to a handoff point for consolidation, packing, and shipping. 

Features of Zone Picking: The process of zone picking allows you to – 

• Improve the efficiency of collecting goods
• Speeds up the collection of multiple items
• Decreases move-around time within the warehouse
• Allows multiple pickups in one go

2. Batch Picking

Batch picking, also known as multi-order picking, involves picking multiple orders with the same SKU in a single pass through the warehouse. Instead of picking one order at a time, the picker collects items for multiple orders during a single picking trip. This type of picking can also be done for the same channels, same logistics provider, priority orders, etc.

For example, In batch picking, three customer orders are received:

• Order 1: Laptop, keyboard, and mouse.
• Order 2: Printer, ink cartridges, and paper.
• Order 3: Tablet, headphones, and charger.

Batches are created as follows:

• Batch 1: Includes laptop and tablet.
• Batch 2: Includes keyboard, mouse, printer, ink cartridges, paper, headphones, and charger.

Pickers gather items for their assigned batches, optimizing efficiency. After picking, items are sorted and allocated to the respective orders for packaging and shipment.

Importance of Batch Picking: Ideal for e-commerce businesses, the process of batch picking enables you to: 

• Increase order fulfillment rates
• Decrease travel time for picking
• Save on warehouse space 
• Organize inventory in a better way

Batch picking is recommended if you wish to make the most out of your small or big warehouse and to equip your staff to fulfill multiple customer orders at the same time.

Let’s Make Order Picking Efficient!

When it comes to optimizing order picking, there are several factors to consider, including the size of your warehouse, product availability, item variety, demand, manpower, and facility location. By carefully analyzing these elements, you can choose from a range of efficient picking methods. 

Moreover, integrating automation into your picking processes can offer improved oversight of your warehouse operations. To achieve seamless order fulfillment, it is crucial to implement a reliable e-commerce Warehouse Management System (WMS) that automates the entire picking process, minimizing errors and issues.

Related read – 

• What is a Warehouse Management System?
• Role of Warehouse Management in the FMCG Industry in India
• Logistics vs Supply Chain Management: Key Components, Benefits, Comparison
• E-commerce Apparel Industry – Trends, Challenges & Solutions
• Footwear Industry in India – Trends, Challenges & Solutions
• Healthcare Industry in India – Trends, Challenges, Opportunities & Solutions

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Right from Vendor Onboarding and Procurement, Receiving, Putaway, Picking, Packing, to managing returns and cancellations, warehouse operations are a collection of intricately handled tasks that require complete accuracy and effectiveness to produce profitable results and to scale up your services. 

Our 5 part blog series has been designed to equip you with all the necessary information and right methods to achieve the same, and the 4th topic in the series is that of Packing and Dispatch!

Packing Process in Warehouse Operations

Commencing with the process of Packing, your orders may not qualify for delivery or may even be a cause for returns when received by the consumer if your packing is not done in the right way. 

The process of packing is highly critical as it not only assures the protection of your goods but when done in the right way, gives your business the edge over all others. What you pack and how you pack it, is what your consumers receive making it the first point of impression. With packing, you get to:

• Provide safety to your products 
• Market your brand and business 
• Capture the attention of consumers 
• Give detailed insights about your services

The process of packing is based on a number of factors such as the size of the item to be packed, the type of the product, method of shipping etc., and for fragile items you need to be extra careful. 

Depending on these factors, the process of packing can be done in the following ways:

1. Manual packing – this is done for size and channel-based items where the warehouse staff picks up the item from its designated spot by mapping the SKU, and then hand packed. The method of manual packing is suitable for small businesses.
2. Automated packing – Mostly done for medium to large-sized businesses, automated packing is done based on the properties of each item and is done using a machine making it faster, more efficient and cost-effective.

Although the processes are different, the steps of packing an item remain pretty much the same. To ensure a smooth and effective packing process, you need to make sure the below steps and techniques are followed:

1. Right Box for Happy Unboxing

The saying ‘One size fits all’ does not go well when it comes to eCommerce and rightly so because of the wide range of products available in the market. So choosing a well-sized box that can fit your product with an appropriate layer of other packaging material should be your first focus. 

2. Choose the Right Packing Material

The right packing material will help you secure your products, ensure better deliveries and reduce any chances of returns due to damage. You can choose from a variety of options based on your product material, weight, dimensions and even provide the extra care fragile items may need such as bubble wrap, air cushions, foam., etc. 

3. Weigh the Final Packed Item

Once the product is packed and sealed, the entire item needs to be measured and weighed to note the final package information and that data needs to be put into an order management software to create packing slips and invoices.

4. Find the Perfect Courier Partners

With a good courier partner, you get the assurance of safe and timely deliveries. Before the delivery process starts, the warehouse staff or dedicated packers take prints of shipping labels and invoices, attach them both to the sealed packages to be sent out at visible places and ready the shipment for dispatch.

Moving on to the next steps of warehouse operations, Dispatch!

Dispatch Process in Warehouse Operations

Post the packing process is all done and you have finalized a reliable and efficient courier provider, the process of dispatch can be initiated. 

The most effective way of dispatching orders is to align the process of packing to the schedule of transportation. The packers need to work on the clock to make sure a package is all set to be loaded in the vehicle well before its departure to avoid any late or missed deliveries.

This can be easily achieved by having an automated warehouse management system by your side that keeps track of each order, the picking and packing process and gives regular updates for dispatch and shipping. 

As stated above, the shipping process begins once the right set of documents are printed and labelled on each shipment. These documents include:

• Order number
• Consignment number
• Weight and Dimensions
• Delivery address
• Transport details if necessary

While all these documents are generated for the use of courier providers, they also need to be updated within the ERP systems of your business for future reference.

Once all of this is done, the logistics partners integrated with your warehouse management software are informed via automated updation. For several orders to be dispatched together a manifest is also generated.

Once the logistics partner has picked up the consignments, they produce a proof of dispatch depending on the type of delivery : 

• First Mile where the logistics partner transports the product from your warehouse to a local logistics station.
• Line Haul where the logistics partner connects local logistics stations to the customers via several mediums
• Last Mile where the logistics partner delivers the order right at the doorsteps of the customer.

Related read –

• FMCG Industry challenges in India
• UniShip – Advanced Shipment Tracking and Notifications
• UniReco – Automated Reconciliation of Returns and Payments
• Key Challenges & Benefits of Marketplace Payment Reconciliation
• Benefits of Shipping Notifications
• E-commerce Apparel Industry: Trends, Challenges, Opportunities & Solutions
• How does Warehouse Management System Works?
• Logistics vs Supply Chain Management
• Prerequisites of Warehouse Management: Vendor Onboarding and Procurement.
• Simplifying Receiving and Putaway Operations of Warehouse: Prerequisites of Warehouse Management
• Enhance the Operations of the Warehouse with Order Picking: Process and Methods
• Warehouse Returns and Cancellations Management [Reasons, Problems and Solutions]

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