- Inbound checking: partial or even 100% quality or sample checking, with percentage cases or items to be checked set by the supplier. Trusted suppliers have a lower percentage than newer, seemingly less reliable, suppliers, which drives supplier KPIs
- Cycle-counting/stock checking: perpetual inventory activities built into picking operations (RF or voice), which confirm remaining quantity or confirm empty after a picking task, can drive savings. This needs to be balanced against overall picking productivity.
- Replenishment of pick faces: based on a percentage threshold of inventory remaining in the picking location, with an automatic priority increase of the replenishment task while it remains unfulfilled. This helps prevent stockouts and the picker having to skip or miss picks, especially effective where palletisation or pallet build is important (such as with crushable items, picking heavy-to-light)
- Picking: hands-free picking with voice technology can deliver significant productivity gains (over RF-based picking) and add data integrity and accuracy benefits over paper-based 'pick and tick'.
Pick and mix for top technology payback
1 min read
When it comes to automating processes in the warehouse, manufacturers should choose carefully to ensure maximum return on investment.
That's the advice from Jez Tongue (pictured) of warehouse management system provider @logistics Reply.
The following warehouse processes, says Tongue, give the best ROI when automated.
