With these persistent demands, warehouse managers remain caught in the middle. Whats more, for those managers operating without the benefit of automation, the picking and packing functions remain two of the most labor-intensive and costly jobs in the operation. When performed manually, picking and packing can be a major source of errors, expense and decreased efficiency.

If thats the case in your warehouse, an automated order fulfillment system may help you take your picking and packing operation to the next level.

Take a Snapshot of Your Warehouse

Whether youre starting from a simple analysis of your warehouse space or a full engineering spec for a sophisticated, automated material handling system, the decision to automate some or all of the picking and packing process can liberate your warehouse from the inaccuracy and expense of a manual system.

The first place to start in evaluating your warehouse for picking or packing automation is to obtain an accurate, current picture of your order profiles and volumes. Automating an operation based on inaccurate data is a recipe for disaster. At the same time, be sure to investigate alternative techniques. Should you pick to order or cluster-pick to multiple orders? Perhaps a put concept where products for a number of orders are bulk-picked and then distributed to individual orders has merit.

In some situations, a combination of techniques is warranted. At the initial stages of your planning, it is important to focus on techniques and not technologies. Deciding on the right techniques that will most benefit your organization will guide subsequently guide you to the right technologies to use.

Turn to an Expert

After this step, the logical process is to evaluate your warehouse layout itself. Is your layout conducive to the intended order-picking technique and, if so, is it optimal for high-productivity material handling? For an expert opinion on this question, it is probably best to turn to a material handling consultant or systems integrator.

A material handling engineer or specialist will analyze your slotting, or where your product is stored, how its stored and its volumes and speeds in order to gather information on how well your warehouse is laid out. This process normally begins with an ABC analysis, which will determine the items that move the fastest (As), those that are intermediate movers (Bs) and items that are the slowest (Cs).

Once an expert performs these analyses, your warehouse may require a reconfiguration to optimize product storage prior to picking and, ultimately, to packing. You may also need to rearrange your storage infrastructure, including racking and shelving. The process of reconfiguring your locations is commonly called re-slotting.

The goal of these reconfigurations is to optimize the picking and packing processes as much as possible so that they make sense within the physical constraints of your warehouse space and workforce. Ask yourself whether poor slotting causes your workers to walk too far, bend too much or otherwise work inefficiently or inaccurately to complete their tasks. Does your warehouse layout or storage equipment yield the same negative results?

Consider All of Your Options

Before reconfiguring your existing layout or equipment, you should begin to envision what role, if any, you want automation to play. Entirely manual picking and packing might require one layout or storage arrangement, but either partially or fully automated systems would likely require a different arrangement.

A material handling expert can offer invaluable advice when it comes to making these decisions. Do you need conveyors? Is light- or voice-directed picking or putting needed? Is a sophisticated warehouse management or control system in order?

A site analysis and risk assessment could help you determine whether productivity and accuracy would significantly improve to the extent that automated picking or packing provides a return on your investment. On the other hand, it is possible that your warehouse can benefit enough from a layout and slotting reconfiguration in this situation, automation technology may not be advantageous.

The Decision to Automate

However, there is a very real possibility that automation could be the right solution for you. In that case, you must determine which level of automation your warehouse needs. The first step in transitioning from a completely manual system to an automated one involves moving to radio frequency-based (RF) wireless data technology supported by RF mobile computers and hand-scanners. However, even though RF-based picking and packing will dramatically improve accuracy, RF systems bring a learning curve for workers who have to operate the equipment, and it may require extra training when compared to paper systems.

The results of the ABC analysis will assist in evaluating which technology, if any, suits your warehouse. Depending on your order volume, medium- and fast-moving items could be candidates for a pick-to-light implementation and possibly put-to-light for replenishment of picked items.

The pick- and put-to-light methods use light and number displays mounted on or near the shelves or racks to tell operators what they need to pick or put, which then replaces the paper orders of a manual system. Light-directed picking and putting can increase productivity by as much as 50% more than a paper system baseline because of the efficiency it adds to the process.

Extending a pick- or put-to-light system beyond the medium- and fast-moving items may also make sense, depending on whether or not the cost is justified. You might decide to implement light technology in your whole warehouse densely for fast-movers and less densely as you move down to the slow-moving items. Alternatively, RF-directed carts can be added to a pick-to-light system for cluster-picking slower-moving line items in a large product range.

Voice-directed picking is another option, particularly where RF-based mobile picking hardware is already in place. With voice-directed systems, computer-generated voice commands give pickers their instructions. Voice-picking is particularly suited for slower-moving items and for facilities where longer walks between picking areas are required.

Voice devices can also complement light-based systems. Light- and voice-automated systems free pickers from having to carry around their paper pick instructions and can dramatically improve accuracy and productivity because of how they optimize workflow.

The Final Step

These types of automation technologies require the underlying software to support them, and you may be required to upgrade your software to a system that improves your order fulfillment. Todays warehouse-specific systems are built to manage picking and packing as well as to optimize system throughput through order and wave planning. Basic order fulfillment software that is required to use automation may provide additional productivity and functionality.

These systems also work with your underlying material handling equipment, such as conveyors, picking carts, sorters and AS/RS systems, so that your warehouse work and material flow are totally integrated. For instance, your software system might direct pickers using pick-to-light or pick-to-voice, making sure that when theyre ready to pack a box, a conveyor routes a box to them and is then ready to move it to the next packer, if necessary.

The two most important reasons to automate are productivity and accuracy. If automation means two pickers can pick what three pickers used to do in a manual system, you have increased your picking productivity by 50%. Also, if automation means that orders are now close to 100% accurate, then youre helping to ensure that many more customers are satisfied and that youre incurring lower order costs because your new system makes fewer mistakes.

You will also receive more supervisory and overall system information in an automated, software-directed system. Whereas a picker in a manual, paper-based system can certainly pick whats on his or her paper order, the supervisor wont know where the worker is in the process or when he or she is finished until the paper is brought back for another order.

In an automated system using light or voice devices, the picker must respond to computer prompts at all times so that his or her actions are integrated into the softwares reporting functions. The software not only optimizes the pickers productivity but also gives the supervisor the ability to see the status in real time and to adjust to conditions such as stock-outs.

When order volumes push the limits of your warehouses productivity and accuracy, its time to consider picking and packing automation. Thats also the time to partner with an experienced material handling consultant or integrator who will help you determine if automation can help you improve your warehouse operation at a sufficient return.

Bill Hubacek is Director, Distribution Technologies, FKI Logistex North America, a global leader in integrated material handling systems. He can be reached by phone at 510-985-6307 or by e-mail at bill.hubacek@fkilogistex.com. Visit FKI Logistex on the web at www.fkilogistex.com.