​For warehouses, the growth of e-commerce fulfilment, where one and two line orders are common, also comes with substantially increased order volumes, smaller order sizes and reduced order cycle times. As the number of orders increase with small order sizes the distribution company needs a cost and time-efficient approach to pick the orders.

Within our Warehouse Management Solution one of the features which gets used is our 'multi-order tote-picking'. This is where a wave pick is released and it contains multiple orders. The picker uses a trolley which is loaded with multiple reusable tote bins and the picker makes a single pass through the pick zone to pick all the orders concurrently. This reduces the pickers travel distance significantly. Therefore the picker will pick the items for multiple orders in one pass through the warehouse.

Once all orders are completed the trolley is brought back to the packing area where each tote has a single order in it to be packed. After the orders are packed, the picker reuses the totes to pick the next wave of orders. The RIC Group's WMS also allows the picker to print a pick label which can be placed in the tote. This allows the packer to scan the pick label to bring up the right order for packing automatically.
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Above shows how to release multiple orders into a wave. Ticking the check box for documents 000690 and 000691 will release into one wave pick. This creates one Pick ID.

In the above screen you can see that multiple document numbers are in the one Pick ID of 153.

When the picker drives into the product to scan the products they are picking, the document number is displayed at the top. Each tote represents a document number and the picker picks into the tote. Once completed the wave the user presses the complete button and the multiple shipments or delivery documents are updated in the ERP.

Our Warehouse Management Solution is up on the Honeywell Marketplace. You can view it here.

As the volume of global shipments continues to rise, logistics companies are facing increasing pressure to get more goods loaded faster, more efficiently and at a lower cost. To over come challenges, logistics companies are automating their operations and leveraging new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), mobility and cloud computing to heighten visibility and ultimately revolutionise business processes.

According to the white paper from Zebra which you can download from here, transportation and labour account for 70% of total supply chain costs. Also that customers have redefined expectations of 'fast shipping' from 3 to 4 days to within 2 days.

With implementing systems such as Warehouse Management Solution (WMS), companies are gaining new visibility into their dock and loading operations and using it to optimise critical processes. In The RIC Group's WMS our Load Truck feature is now starting to expand its capability and help load runs more efficiently. Also with The RIC Group's WMS there is now integration to scales from Wedderburn which dimension cartons electronically.

Please send an email to [email protected] if you have any questions about putting technology to work in your warehouse.
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