Do You Have a Productive Pick and Pack Process?

December 8, 2016

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Picking is the process of pulling inventory from one or more locations to be included in an order, and packing is the gathering of these items to be placed in packages to be shipped to the customer.  An efficient pick and pack process means your company is operating optimally, while satisfying customer expectations.  To make sure your company’s shipping process is efficient, make sure you are doing the following:

Inventory Counts

A productive pick and pack process starts with a correct inventory count for each and every product.  Since miscounts result in oversells and understocking, it is important to start with an accurate inventory amount.  An automated counting system like a barcode scanner or RFID sensors will keep track of your items.

Layout

Being able to find items to pick is important to operating an efficient warehouse.  High-selling items should be placed closest to the packing stations since they will be picked most often.  This increases productivity by cutting down on the time it takes for an employee to pick an order and process it.  If you have items that are purchased together, put them near each other for greater efficiencies.

Organized Areas

Your pick areas should be neatly organized so warehouse workers do not waste time searching for items.  Warehouse shelves should have bins that are easily accessible and are transparent.   At the packing stations, packers should have all supplies necessary to pack efficiently.  Have several box sizes that fit your products size and weights correctly to eliminate shipping overages.

Kitting

Kitting refers to the pre-assembly of individual products in a ready-to-ship package.  Putting items together saves time during the picking process, and cuts down on the materials necessary to pack the order.  This works especially well if you sell in bulk quantities or have products that are complementary and are often purchased together.

Plan

Sometimes, certain events happen that will affect your fulfillment processes.  Your pick and pack services should be flexible enough to handle these events, or a sudden surge in orders.  If you are a retailer that experiences a higher volume of orders during the holiday time, make sure you have a fulfillment plan for that season.  Your pick and pack processes should be well-documented to get through any challenging or busy periods.

Final Check

Mistakes are going to happen, but decreasing the chance that they do, will add to your bottom line.  For every incorrectly picked order, there is a significant cost associated with it with return shipping, and then re-shipping the correct item.  One error costs as much as shipping two or three products.  While automation is a great time-saving tool, an actual employee should do a final check of each shipment before it leaves.  This final double-check can catch costly errors before they leave the warehouse.

If your company’s pick and pack process is not operating optimally, it might be time to look to another resource.  Kable Fulfillment can handle your business’s fulfillment process from start to end.  To learn more, please visit our website at www.kablefulfillment.com.