7. Make sure your hiring practices reflect the new realities
of your operation.
If your operation is doing more piece picking than in the
past, you should take that into account when you hire new
workers. The physical requirements for piece picking are far
different from those for case-level picking, says Mulaik.
“When I go to a grocery warehouse [where case picking
predominates], there are huge hulking guys slinging 30-
pound cases all over the place,” Mulaik observes. “The phys-
ical traits that often define success in a piece-pick opera-
tion, however, are arm and finger dexterity—peeling a pick
label and applying it with one hand while the other hand
drops the product into a box, grabbing a packaging invoice
off a printer while you simultaneously grab a box to place
the merchandise inside.”
Mulaik believes this shift in emphasis from strength to
dexterity opens the field to more women than ever.
8. Choose equipment and technology that can grow with
you.
All too often, companies fail to look down the road when
choosing picking technology or equipment and end up
outgrowing the system within a few years, says
Intelligrated’s Koch. To avoid that, Mulaik urges DC managers to select automated equipment with an eye toward
flexibility. “You don’t want to throw up something without
thinking seriously about what may change in the next three
years, or you may find that your performance is bounded,”
he says.
9. If you don’t already have one, invest in a robust WMS.
With case or pallet picking, you might be able to get by
with a basic warehouse management system (WMS)—or
none at all. But that’s a lot harder with a complex piece
picking operation.
To support a piece picking operation, the experts say, you
need a WMS with a robust slotting program. Thomas
Gripman, director at The Progress Group, also recommends choosing a system that can select both the optimal
size carton and the parcel carrier for each outbound shipment prior to picking. “This minimizes shipping cost,
which is one of the highest cost components in an ‘each’
picking environment,” he says. “It also allows orders to be
picked directly into the shipping carton, which eliminates
additional handling.”
10. Don’t be a copycat.
Don’t design your picking operation from a magazine,
says Kuchta. While case studies and best-practice examples
can be an excellent source of ideas, you shouldn’t apply
them wholesale to your operation.
Instead, Mulaik says, explore all the options out there.
“There are many more than you would think,” he says. “I
learn new ones every month or two, and I’ve been doing
this for 20 years.”
