A guide to Pick Lists: Meaning, options & Principles to remember

Mistakes in the pick list lead to sending customers incorrect products, incurring wasted packaging and shipping costs. Excessive time spent on each pick list delays shipments to customers. This article will explore the definition of a pick list, common challenges associated with them, and various methods to create a pick list suitable for your business.

What is a pick list in warehouse?

A pick list is a document sent to warehouse pickers to fulfill customer orders. It details the items to be retrieved from inventory storage, including inventory SKU, quantities, and locations. Once a pick list is generated, the order fulfillment process begins.

This document helps warehouse management organize the picking process by assigning orders to each picker, ensuring they have the next set of orders queued up immediately after completing one.

Read more: What is the Packing List and how to do it correctly?

The 2 Varieties of pick lists

Order picking is a crucial step in the fulfillment process, with the pick list serving as the definitive guide that initiates it. Directing the order and everyone involved in the warehouse, pick lists must be adhered to meticulously.

A pick list ought to resemble the customer's cart pre-checkout, serving as a concise summary of their ordered items. Whether it includes one item or a mix of SKUs, clarity is key for pick lists, ensuring they are easily comprehensible. Various methods exist for distributing picking lists.

1. Physical pick lists

In the era preceding widespread integration of software, mobile technology, and Wifi, warehouses relied on traditional methods for generating pick lists: printing them out. This involved the manual creation of physical pick lists, with each list handed out to a picker on a piece of paper.

2. Digital pick lists

Digital picking lists streamline warehouse operations by leveraging mobile devices, tablets, or laptops on the warehouse floor. Order specifications are swiftly allocated and dispatched to individual pickers, who execute tasks with precision guided by digital instructions. Enhanced with product visuals, these lists serve not only as a means of ensuring accuracy but also facilitate additional quality checks, reinforcing the integrity of the picking process.

Challenges Unique to E-commerce Pick Lists

In the realm of commerce, fledgling enterprises or those with limited sales often adopt a strategy of picking orders as they trickle in, a feasible approach owing to the sporadic nature of their sales. Typically operating with a modest product range and storing inventory within domestic confines, these entities undertake order fulfillment independently.

Yet, as businesses mature and diversify, embracing a wider array of SKUs, sales channels, and inventory volumes, the simplicity of order picking diminishes, giving rise to a more intricate, error-prone, and time-consuming process. This necessitates the adoption of warehouse management systems (WMS) to generate pick lists in-house or the delegation of fulfillment tasks to third-party logistics (3PL) providers.

Furthermore, the utilization of multiple fulfillment centers introduces logistical complexities, mandating the optimization of order routing to minimize shipping costs and transit times. The generation of picklists is contingent upon the specific inventory allocation within each facility.

The efficiency of pick list completion is contingent upon various factors such as warehouse size, layout, and operational proficiency. As downtime accumulates from traversing the warehouse between orders or retrieving items, the imperative for enhanced inventory management and warehousing practices becomes apparent.

Although seemingly trivial, the implementation of pick lists significantly influences supply chain optimization. A seamlessly integrated infrastructure connecting storefronts, orders, inventory, and warehouses facilitates the expeditious, precise, and scalable fulfillment of customer demands.

How to creating a Pick List ( 6 Key Components )

The composition of your pick list will vary according to the specifications of your warehouse, enterprise, and inventory. In the absence of a Warehouse Management System (WMS) or the outsourcing of retail fulfillment, necessitating the automatic generation of pick lists, it becomes imperative to construct a template. Provided below is a customary compilation that can be incorporated into your internal picking list documentation.

Important to bear in mind is the inclusion solely of pertinent information essential for accurate item retrieval. Extraneous details could prove distracting and elongate the reading process for the picker.

1. Customer information

In cases where a digital pick list isn't utilized, and manual methods are employed for information dissemination, it becomes imperative for the warehouse picking list to encompass data essential for subsequent stages of fulfillment. While pickers may not require customer details, such as personal information, packers or labelers necessitate the inclusion of the customer's name and shipping address for verifying order accuracy as a quality assurance measure.

2. The date and time of the order

Numerous ecommerce enterprises operate under service level agreements with their clientele, promising to dispatch orders on the same day provided they are made before a specified cutoff time. To uphold these obligations, vigilant monitoring of order placement times is crucial for teams, given the inherent urgency. Additionally, it's imperative to identify orders necessitating expedited shipping, enabling pickers to swiftly transport them to packing stations for prioritized handling.

3. Order number

Each pick list is assigned an order number, crucial for customers encountering issues such as returns or undelivered shipments. Enhanced digitalization of this system offers heightened transparency, providing insight into every stage of the fulfillment process, pinpointing potential errors.

4. Product location in the warehouse

In the realm of efficient warehouse operations, precision is paramount. It's imperative to furnish comprehensive details regarding the whereabouts of each item to eliminate any room for guesswork. Alongside ensuring clarity within the pick list, the warehouse infrastructure should boast conspicuous signage and logically ordered location names. This strategic setup aids pickers in swiftly and seamlessly traversing through bins, shelves, and pallet racks, optimizing productivity within the warehouse environment.

5. Product SKUs

A SKU number, shorthand for stock keeping unit, serves as the distinct code identifying a particular product. Take, for instance, a shirt retailer; each size variation necessitates its own SKU. Given that certain orders may require multiples of a single SKU, meticulous attention to both quantities and SKUs per order becomes imperative. The risk of product mix-ups escalates, particularly when SKUs are lengthy numerical sequences.

Moving beyond the picking list, additional considerations arise regarding product labeling. Is there a barcode directly on the product, or is identification reliant solely on a unique bin number, barcode, or shelf sticker? Amidst products situated side by side or stacked atop one another, discerning whether a bin number pertains to units above or below becomes crucial. The implementation of clear signage and the maintenance of organized shelves or racks are pivotal in ensuring accurate product retrieval from designated bins or shelves.

6. A description or photograph of the product

In the realm of consumer goods, distinguishing between closely resembling products can be a challenging task. Therefore, supplementing your selection process with additional information, like detailed descriptions or visual references such as photographs, serves as a crucial method to guarantee accuracy in product retrieval.

3 Popular Techniques for Organizing Your Pick List

Several prevalent methods exist for order picking, each geared towards enhancing operational efficiencies. These approaches differ based on warehouse layout, staff availability, and order volume.

1. Pick-to-order

In the realm of warehouse operations, the rudimentary and prevalent approach to product retrieval is through what's known as the "pick and pack" method. This method, while uncomplicated to deploy, particularly suits smaller-scale operations with limited product varieties, as incoming orders are promptly dispatched to pickers without the need for intricate routing protocols. However, its simplicity comes at a cost; it often translates to lower efficiency in terms of orders processed per hour and overall staff productivity.

2. Batch picking

Batch picking is most effective when fulfilling numerous identical orders simultaneously. For instance, it involves assigning one individual to handle bulk orders of identical backer rewards for a crowdfunding campaign. This method streamlines the picking process by having the picker execute the same selections for each order, minimizing unnecessary movement. Moreover, it aids in error reduction by ensuring consistent use of inventory and quantities across all pick lists.

3. Zone picking

Zone picking is a systematic approach wherein picking lists are organized either by product or storage location, with pickers designated to specific sections of the warehouse. For instance, if 100 orders are received overnight, all containing items stored in the same row(s) of bins, they will be allocated sequentially to a single picker. This minimizes the need for extensive traversal across the warehouse. By assigning distinct zones to various individuals, the method aims to alleviate congestion in any one area and optimize picking efficiency by reducing unnecessary walking time.

In Conclusion

In the realm of ecommerce, there's a common misconception that once customers place orders, the toughest hurdles are behind. However, the intricate task of efficiently selecting orders and orchestrating fulfillment logistics proves to be far more demanding than anticipated.

Achieving customer satisfaction while minimizing warehouse labor and operational expenses necessitates a refined and optimized order management system. Amidst numerous factors influencing operational efficacy, the cornerstone lies in meticulous pick lists.

Curious about how WorldCraft Logistics can revolutionize your order fulfillment procedures? Reach out for a pricing quote and delve deeper into the possibilities.