2. Reslot early and often.
When it comes to piece picking, one of the most common
mistakes companies make is failing to reslot in a timely
fashion, says Ken Ruehrdanz of distribution equipment and
systems developer Dematic. “As demand for each SKU
changes, so do the pick rates and therefore, so should the
slotting,” he says. Skip that step and the operation is likely
to see its efficiency drop over time.
How often should you reslot? It all depends on your
products’ life cycles, says Jack Kuchta, president of Jack
Kuchta Supply Chain Advisors. If you’re handling high-fashion apparel, you may need to reslot daily; machine tool
companies, however, could probably get away with reslot-ting every year or even every five years.
How do you know when it’s time to reslot? “There’s no
easy rule,” says Kuchta. “The only way to know is to keep
running a [software] program that looks at what percentage
of your picks are still in the correct slot zone. When you
start dropping below 80 percent, then it’s time to reslot.”
“I find it useful to begin thinking about the simplest one
first,” says Jim Apple, partner with the consultancy The
Progress Group, “and then work toward more sophisticated
methods as the volume increases.” Examples of simpler
solutions would include multi-order cart picking and the
use of parallel picking zones. Techniques like wave picking
would be found at the opposite end of the sophistication
scale.
3. Keep it simple.
With so many picking methods to choose from—
multi-order cart picking, pick and pass lines, zone picking, wave
picking—how do you decide which is best for you?
4. Don’t be afraid to mix and match technologies.
As for what’s the “best” technology for your piece picking operation, there’s no simple answer. It’s rare that one
technology will be a good fit for all the SKUs in your facility, says Jerry Koch, director of product management at
material handling solution provider Intelligrated.
For example, you may be able to get by with RF and
order carts for your slower-moving SKUs, while the fast-movers might require carton flow racks combined with
pick-to-light or voice technology for maximum efficiency.
For that reason, says Koch, most facilities will be best
served by a mix.
the drive to get small
5. Be realistic about your needs.
When choosing a picking system, be realistic about how
much accuracy you really need. Although some
operations—pharmaceuticals, for instance—may
require accuracy rates approaching 100 percent,
that’s not true of everyone. And it’s important to
keep in mind that perfect accuracy often requires
some sacrifice in productivity.
When buying equipment, take into consideration
how much an incorrect pick costs you and how
much time your workers spend confirming picks,
advises Steve Mulaik, partner with The Progress
Group. Then weigh those costs against your need
for speed.
What’s driving the trend toward smaller orders?
The obvious answer is that the growth of e-commerce has led to
more customer-direct shipping. But there are other factors as well.
One is the down economy. “In the last 18 months, even brick-and-mortar retailers have started shipping ‘eaches’ to their stores
not only because sales volumes are down but also because there’s
a big drive to reduce investment in inventory at the store level,”
says consultant Jack Kuchta.
That push to cut inventory has led some retailers to adopt what’s
known as a “continuous replenishment” strategy, says Ken
Ruehrdanz of Dematic. “This means replenishing the store shelf
more often. In fact, some retailers replenish every store every day.
The effect on the distribution center is smaller-sized orders
[placed] more often.”
SKU proliferation also factors into the trend. “Manufacturers just
can’t seem to resist adding new products,” says Jim Apple of The
Progress Group. “Without significant top-line sales growth, each
new product dilutes the volume of the rest. This creates lower
stocking positions at the retail store that need to be replenished in
smaller quantities.”
Don’t expect the trend toward smaller orders to reverse itself
anytime soon. If anything—according to Steve Mulaik of The
Progress Group—orders are getting smaller. “Some retailers this
year are telling suppliers that in order to reduce transportation
costs and the order size further, they want suppliers to pick ‘tiny
orders’—less than four units—for [their] stores,” he says.
6. Be store friendly.
In the past, companies looking to boost distribution productivity typically focused on streamlining activities inside the DC, says Ruehrdanz.
Now, however, some retail leaders are finding
there are far bigger gains to be made by streamlining operations at the receiving end. Store labor is
often more expensive than warehouse labor, which
means that anything the warehouse can do to
optimize store putaway will likely have a big payoff—whether it’s building pallets that correlate to
a retail store’s planogram or picking an order in
the reverse sequence of how it will be replenished
at the store.
“The cost of one more selector in a distribution
center is vastly smaller than the cost of adding an
associate per retail store across 30 or 40 stores,”
says Koch.
