In warehousing, distribution, and e-commerce fulfillment centers, operational and customer success relies on fast and accurate fulfillment, but achieving and maintaining this service level can be challenging.
How to Improve Warehouse Picking Speed with Automation
Article from | Onward Robotics
How to Streamline and Improve Warehouse Picking Speed and Accuracy with Automation
Increasing demand and high customer expectations can put more pressure on warehouse teams to perform: rapid fulfillment can put a strain on already scarce resources, and orders must still be processed on time without sacrificing quality. Historically when spikes in demand occur, additional temporary labor could be used to keep order picking processing time low. In today’s competitive labor market where warehouse workers are in high demand and come at a high cost, automating order fulfillment can be a viable solution to support existing labor and increase efficiency, resulting in reduced order cycle time and an improved on-time delivery rate.
Automation enhances warehouse operation performance strategies by streamlining inventory management, reducing congestion, and optimizing the pick path. By integrating batch picking, zone picking, and real-time data into a warehouse management system, businesses lower error rate and boost order picking accuracy. This leads to faster fulfillment operations, higher customer satisfaction, and improved labor efficiency.
Eliminate Downtime to Boost Speed and Efficiency
Wasted time is the enemy of order picking efficiency. From induction to packout, the fulfillment process needs to be lean. Designing an efficient warehouse layout and choosing the right order picking method can help to reduce travel distance and improve order picking speed. When introducing automation, proper resource allocation and process planning can subtract valuable minutes from cycle times. The travel path of both the picker and autonomous mobile robot (AMR) should be optimized for efficient and dense picks. Smart automation technology should analyze where resources are needed and guide them to the optimal path to reduce wasted travel and time.
What to look for when automating order picking:
- People need breaks, robots shouldn’t. Look for easy-to-charge AMRs with higher battery life to keep order picking moving without slowing down throughput
- People should work alongside robots, not follow them or spend time trying to find them. Look for automation solutions that bring people and robots together, eliminating wasted time and budget.
- Technology that works for you: the software behind the mobile robots is just as important as increasing fulfillment process speed. Look for software that integrates with your WMS and uses artificial intelligence (AI) and data to proactively plan, direct, and adjust resources as needed.
- Every second of the end-to-end fulfillment process counts. Look for technology that minimizes and optimizes picker movement. Whether traveling to their next location or picking items from the shelf to a tote, pickers should move efficiently, staying on-task so delivery can stay on-time.
Increase Picking Accuracy by Eliminating Guesswork
Warehouse autonomous mobile robots should help to support pickers, not guide them or gate them from their next task. Pickers need to move independently from AMRs to keep the order picking process moving. To do so, they need to be enabled with the information they need to perform: where to go, what to pick, and where to put it. Warehouse automation should remove time-consuming decision-making and uncertainty from the order-picking process. Pickers who are well-informed and engaged will be more confident and efficient when picking, leading to faster cycle times and happier pickers.
What to look for when automating order picking:
- Smart process coordination. Order picking automation models that coordinate robot and picker travel and tasks can differ per vendor. Look for AMRs and technology that intelligently coordinates your resources while seamlessly integrating with your warehouse and order picking team.
- Clear communication for continuous workflow. Without information, pickers can be helpless in a complex and dynamic warehouse. With increased pressure to stay on-task and on-time, workers need to be empowered with the guidance they need to perform. Look for easy and engaging order picking automation that guides associates through each step: reducing confusion and increasing order picking speed.
Maximize Picking Speed with Optimized Resource Planning
Your order queue needs to be optimized to quickly and efficiently deliver on your customer commitments. Order picking automation software should align and coordinate picker and robot resources to your needs, prioritizing and prioritizing fulfillment flow and communicating directly with your team to execute. AMRs that support various SKU sizes and types can help increase order density and optimize throughput.
What to look for when automating order picking:
- You shouldn’t need an army of robots to complete your picks. Look for AMRs with large payload capacity and configurable shelves to accommodate a variety of SKUs.
- Use data to enhance your resource planning. Look for smart coordination of resources to make picker and robot travel more productive to enable more efficient, denser picks.
Improve Picking Accuracy: Getting it Right Every Time
Order picking errors can be costly, significantly impacting efficiency and customer satisfaction. Human error, inadequate training, and unclear instructions can lead to mispicked items and incorrect quantities and ultimately dissatisfied customers and loss of revenue. Automating order fulfillment can support consistent and informed picks that result in higher order picking accuracy and lower return rate.
Streamline Warehouse Picking: Making it Easy, Engaging, and Accurate
Pickers may be apprehensive of automation technology, but order picking automation can make their work easier, providing streamlined order information over paper pick tickets, and allowing mobile robots to handle the heavy manual labor of your people pushing or pulling carts. Automating order picking should streamline not only the manual process, but employee onboarding, and overall process efficiency.
What to look for when automating order picking:
- Interactive and intuitive technology. Look for automation that excites–not scares–your pickers. Enhancing the order picking process with advancements that benefit pickers and the process such as put-to-light technology and mobile applications provide information and visual cues to improve pick accuracy.
- Keep it simple. Look for automation that doesn’t need a separate operating manual or constant calls to support. With high turnover in the labor force, it is more important than ever to have easy-to-use processes that minimize confusion and onboarding time. Simple instructions and an intuitive interface ensure accurate and efficient order picking.
Improve Picking Speed and Accuracy with Real-Time Data
In a modern warehouse or distribution center (DC), every step of the fulfillment process can and should be tracked. From incoming shipments to outbound order delivery, data is crucial to continuous improvement. Real-time data from your WMS can be analyzed and used for resource planning, task allocation and directed workflow. With smart order picking automation, pickers and robots can be directed to the right location and items, minimizing human error while increasing efficiency.
What to look for when automating order picking:
- System integration. Look for automation solutions that integrate with your WMS for real-time data driven decision-making.
- Flexibility to adjust. Look for flexible order picking automation that can adjust as priority or demand changes. Smart order picking automation should be proactive- allocating and directing resources where they are needed, not reacting to the problem too late and incurring downtime and picking errors.
- “This way” to accurate order picking. Look for software that directs all of your resources, not just part of the system. Pickers and robots need to know where they are going and what to pick. Optimizing only the robot path allows room for human error and wasted time and travel for pickers.
Move Your Order Picking Process Onward
Onward Robotics’ Meet Me automation enables a more collaborative, efficient, and flexible fulfillment team. By uncoupling the picker from the robot, workers are empowered and informed, enabling them to stay on task and perform at the highest level.
Lumabot AMRs speed up order picking, not slow it down. With high capacity, put-to-light shelving, and a hot-swappable battery, Lumabots are a powerful picking partner.
Pyxis technology independently coordinates robot and people workflows—bringing the right picker and robot together at the right time to drastically reduce downtime and aisle congestion. Our proprietary technology optimizes your order queue: prioritizing rush orders, grouping orders as needed, and allocating tasks properly across zones and robots, resulting in denser picks and more efficient picker and robot travel.
Pyxis Point mobile app guides your team through induction, picking, and pack-out via an intuitive mobile app. Pickers are informed and empowered with the information they need to perform their next task.
With easy put-to-light shelving guiding them to the proper bin location and an interactive mobile app leading them through the picking process, workers know what robot to meet, where to meet it, and the product to pick when they get there. Our innovative automation technology not only supports your team, but also makes them more accurate and efficient.
Conclusion
Improving warehouse picking speed and order picking accuracy requires more than adding labor—it depends on strategic use of automation, warehouse layout optimization, and smart resource planning. By combining batch picking, zone picking, and real-time data from a warehouse management system, fulfillment operations can reduce error rate, improve order accuracy, and keep customer orders flowing without disruption. The result is lower operational costs, faster shipping, and greater customer satisfaction—proving that the right performance strategies create lasting improvement for both employees and customers.
The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of RoboticsTomorrow
Onward Robotics
Onward Robotics delivers innovative automation technology that coordinates humans and robots as a cohesive system to revolutionize fulfillment. Our Meet Me® solution combines proprietary software with person-to-goods mobile robots to increase efficiency in warehousing, distribution, and e-commerce operations. Onward Robotics provides the boost in productivity, flexibility, and speed that companies need to remain competitive and grow.
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