Picking plus

Warehouses are changing. They are becoming more than a place for storing boxes. A range of activities take place in the same areas, from bulk orders to item picking and value added services.

The traditional worker has often seen a simple job of moving a pallet change into a cycle of pallet moves, a cycle of boxes moves, a cycle of item picking etc.

Darrel Williams says: “We’re seeing greater demand for flexibility and agility, with a lower likelihood of specific picking areas in the DC.

“There is also now responsibility for customer satisfaction, this was once the remit of the shops assistant, now the picker and packer is responsible for this (for eCommerce orders).”

A warehouse worker may have to pick 20 of one item, pack it up and send it off. The next thing they might need to do is pick a high value item and gift wrap it according to specific instructions.

Darrel says this agility is in greater demand and voice enables a culture within DCs where any one person can do any activity. This is partly because a voice system is simple and intuitive to use, as long as you give thought to your processes before rolling it out.

There are caveats to this, of course there are still skills restrictions over who can drive MHE, for example. In addition, if gift wrapping is especially complex, this task will require specific training and may be carried out most efficiently and attractively by specialists.

“While gift wrap is a different skill, there is no reason why a picker cannot be trained to gift wrap and therefore mix their working day between picking and gift wrapping, with workload directed by voice,” says Darrel.

But there is no doubt the lines between pickers and packers as separate staff carrying out specialised roles are blurring.

Darrel explains: “If you give people the right equipment and methodology they can do any task in the warehouse.

“Voice already deals with goods receiving and put away as well as picking. You can have specific packing instructions, e.g. for high value goods going to an end user. Most warehouse tasks can be broken down into a series of instructions.”

Darrel says companies can achieve major productivity gains as this versatility allows managers to streamline operations, especially as delivery windows narrow.

Warehouse managers are also keen to increase staff utilisation. Voice, Darrel argues, allows a manager to more easily switch staff to different tasks as needed.

For example, the workload may be weighted towards put-away in the morning; picking during the day; and despatch in the evening. The argument is that voice technology makes each task smooth, so staff can comfortably transition from task to task.

“Voice also helps you to work stock-checking into the picking routine,” says Darrel. “This is important, particularly for eCommerce operations, where an up to date view of inventory adds very significantly to efficiency.”

He argues that one driver for this trend has been increased picking efficiency caused by voice technology.

“If picking is faster and more accurate it can place greater burden on the packing benches, which makes versatile pickers important, as they can help out. 

“More efficient picking also has knock on impact on replenishment and put-away, and again you can use the workers freed up by more efficient picking to tackle these issues.”

Darrel stresses that voice enabling processes are not plug and play, there are always idiosyncracies, with every warehouse different. 

“What is important is not so much the technology as the application of the technology. When we are asked to come into a warehouse and look at picking, we say we want to know about receiving and despatch too, we want to know about the relative importance of productivity and accuracy to your customers.”

There is no doubt that warehouse operations are gaining benefits from flexible, multi-skilled workers. 

Darrel concludes: “Of course, some people will always be better suited to certain tasks. But all things being equal, and if you’ve got the right staff profile, we can bring flexibility.”