What is the key to order picking optimisation? In a word, speed. A VDC study, commissioned by StayLinked late last year, said it all: In retail, the highest priority (by 50% over the second highest priority) was speed! The next closest priority was efficiency, writes Justin Griffith, Chief Technology Officer at StayLinked, followed by improved storage utilisation, whilst accuracy came in at number four. Efficient and accurate order picking, based on market data, hinges on speed.
The right picking technology facilitates this need for very high speed. The technology can go in at high speed, employees can be trained at high speed, and deployment can be executed at high speed.
However, the picking technology can be burdened with environmental factors that slow it down: network coverage interruptions; device issues interrupting a user’s workflow: a locked or frozen screen and dropped or lost pick sessions.
Terminal Emulation (TE) software solutions like StayLinked SmartTE eliminate these burdensome issues right out of the box and prevent the number one warehouse productivity killer – dropped sessions.
To speed up efficient and accurate picking we are seeing a huge focus on new and emerging Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies, such as wearable mobile computers, with major manufacturers releasing new wearable devices.
Order picking optimisation is all about communicating very clear instructions to the worker at the appropriate segment of the workflow and in an optimised format: Green for go and Red for stop, for example.
We just haven’t had the breadth of wearable form factors, until very recently, that can deliver the right instructions. Now, new technologies like heads-up displays are available, plus a variety of accessories that pair with wearable mobile computers.
Wearable mobile computers are now the hub for several different IoT accessories, such as fully standalone Android devices that can be worn on the back of the hand or on fingers. Deployment of these new and emerging wearable technologies is key to optimised order picking but the problem for many warehouse operations, is how and where to start!
Low-risk, low cost, and innovative no-code technology adoption platforms, like StayLinked Evolve, provide the answer. They quickly and easily allow the necessary integration by enabling these new technologies and the warehouse management system (WMS) to talk the same language. Existing workflows are quickly and easily augmented without the requirement for coding or scripting.
With your order pickers, your order picking technology and your WMS all speaking the same language, optimised order picking is a no-brainer!
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