Goods to Person Picking

Goods to person picking has many advantages.

A great deal of an order selector’s time, as much as 80%, is occupied with trudging up and down aisles. Keep in mind that the true goal is the picking of the item, not the walking and locating.

If your order selector is able to eliminate the walking that will vastly improve productivity.
Eliminating pick aisles and storing vertical decreases footprint.

However, there are some pitfalls to look out for and we will look at three of those today.

Pitfalls of Goods to Person Picking:

1. Product type (fast movers vs. slow movers/ FMCG vs. SMCG): Let’s look at fast movers. A very popular product is needed for many orders. If an entire pallet of product is consumed with 3 or 4 orders, then G2P is likely not the best application for that product.

A lot of equipment is needed to assist with those 3 or 4 orders and one pallet. Choosing the right product mix for your G2P is critical.

A better way of storing and picking stable fast movers would be a dedicated pick face where pallets of that product are stored and picked directly from. You could also use a case pick to conveyor option for your fast movers depending on the number of what is designated as fast movers in your distribution center.

2. Re-slotting/Accessibility of the product/Seasonal products: The management of products in a G2P system for products that can show spikes in demand is important. These products should be monitored in your Good-to-person technology, such that they are not all kept in one spot. If, for instance, one SKU or product is needed for five or six orders at one time, that product should not be stored on one pallet or in one tote. This can create a bottleneck resulting in order selectors waiting on the one available pallet or tote as that one transport unit must travel from order selector to order selector.

Upon receipt, products that are prone to these ‘runs’ should be put away in multiple storage units. This allows greater flexibility for a G2P system. Multiple storage units can go to different workstations that need the same product at the same time. Access and balancing (software wants to give work to all cranes equally – usage of equipment).

For the same reason seasonal products need to be managed for reslotting. As demand for the seasonal product changes throughout the year, the impact on the G2P system will change.

3. Consolidation and management of inventory: As product is depleted from reserve storage an eye needs to be kept on those storage locations. Between workload balancing and regular demand on products, there can be multiple containers that only contain a small percentage of products. This means that you are “storing more air” than necessary in the system.

In short, while goods to person picking is a wonderful strategy, it is only one arrow in your quiver of solutions. To really discover what will make your operation the most efficient you should talk to an expert in the field.