1) Bulk picking, and re-sorting at the packing station
Granted, it is faster to pick for multiple orders and send them and the pick lists to the backing area in one container. Still, online customers today expect, and are justified in expecting, no mistakes in assembling their order. Any practices that compromise accuracy in favour of speed should be looked at with a high degree of suspicion. We can do better than this.
2) Sorting and prioritising invoices manually
Sorting your orders out based on warehouse pick location requires you to use permanent stock locations. I don’t need to tell you why this is inefficient. You really should be using dynamic locations and sorting your invoices by carrier, or some other relevant variable. The use of handheld barcode scanners and an automated picking route really helps out here.3) Several orders and invoices per picking box
Similar to the above problem, this leads to mistakes. If it can’t be avoided, you should at least require the packer to re-scan the barcodes, and verify that each is going out with the right order. If it doesn’t scan correct, then at least you know the problem is still in the box, or was mis-picked.4) Pre-printing the invoice, and using it as a manual pick list
We all know that manual picking systems are less accurate than semi-automated ones, but using the invoice is just sloppy. By the time it reaches the customer it has been written on, ticked, initialled, and is usually fairly crumpled. It doesn’t look good, and it makes your e-fulfilment look unprofessional even if there are no mistakes.In addition, it introduces another chance for error. The invoice only says what was ordered, where as one generated after picking shows what was actually scanned and picked. If a pick error was made, you have no way to track it.
