Public Warehouses Offer Expanded Pick and Pack Options

There’s no escaping picking and packing. If a business wants to fill an order and get it out to the customer, it has to be picked from storage and packed for shipping or distribution. Because of space and equipment constraints, businesses are often limited in the pick and pack methods they can use. But with a public warehouse that offers third party logistics (3PL) services, like Brendamour Warehousing, Distribution & Services, a full array of order picking and packing options awaits.

Options are important in the order fulfillment process because they can enhance the efficiency of business operations, save in labor costs, improve customer satisfaction, and deliver deep savings to a company’s bottom line.

Types of Pick and Pack Processes

There are many different types of order picking methods, and it’s not uncommon for 3PLs to use a combination of picking operations depending on their customers’ goods or ordering profiles. Some factors taken into consideration when implementing a particular pick and pack process are the:

- Type and size of the product being handled;
- Storage of the goods, such as pallet, case, piece, etc.;
- Total number of orders;
- Number of picks per transaction and their quantity;
- Total number of SKUs and picks per SKU;
- Customized processing needs, such as private labeling or bundling.

In general, there are three basic types of picking methods used by public warehouses, but within each type are additional order picking operations, such as zone picking, batch picking, wave picking, and task interleaving. In addition, each picking type takes different kinds of picking equipment.

Full Pallet Picking Option

As the name implies, orders are filled by the pallet, a process also called unit load picking. A lift truck is used to get the applicable pallets of goods one at a time and bring them to one of three places: the staging area designated for shipping the order, a unit load conveyor that leads to the staging area, or directly to the trailer truck container.

When full pallet picking is employed, Brendamour Warehousing, Distribution & Services utilizes its state-of-the-art automated order fulfillment equipment, including bar code scanners, automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS), and automated conveyor and sortation system.

Case Picking Option

This method is typically used with products that have a high number of picks per SKU or have very few SKUs. With case picking, cases of the same item are picked either from a floor area or a pallet rack. Picking methods may include pick to light or voice-directed picking, with a pallet truck picking the cases from the floor and a turret truck picking off the pallet rack.

With case picking, Brendamour Warehousing often utilizes its pallet flow rack, bar code scanners, ASRS, unit load carousel, and automated conveyor and sortation system.

Piece Picking Option

With piece picking, items are picked individually or by the piece. The process is also referred to as pick/pack or broken case picking. It is often used when there are small quantities to pick, or a large number of SKUs. Generally, goods are stored on some form of racking system or static shelving and a warehouse order picker picks the applicable items needed to fulfill a particular order and places them in a picking cart. Often times, batch picking, zone picking, and wave picking systems are used to enhance efficiency.

The picking equipment Brendamour employs with piece picking may include horizontal carousels, automated picking machines, ASRS, automated conveyor and sortation, pick to light systems and bar code scanners.

More Pick and Pack Options Deliver Key Savings

With pick and pack, it’s all about working quickly and accurately to get orders out and into the hands of customers effectively and efficiently. When you use a public warehouse that invests in advanced technology, it’s going to give your business more pick and pack options that will save you money.

The more order fulfillment options available to you, the more opportunities for increasing pick rate productivity, reducing order cycle time, and ensuring accuracy.

At Brendamour, we’re committed to equipping our warehousing facilities with the most sophisticated equipment available to provide our customers with the most effective and efficient warehousing, order processing, packaging, and distribution services around.

Get in touch and let us show you how we can expand your current pick and pack options and save your business money.