Management + Systems

With the products being handled and the size of the warehouse operation varying from business to business, there is no universally right or wrong way for businesses to manage their despatch process. Here Wise Software (UK) Ltd looks at its new Ad Hoc Picking option available on its Mobile Picking module. 

For some companies the best way may simply be to pick by the order; for others it may be to pick multiple orders at a time using totes; in other situations it may be something else entirely. Businesses just need to determine the best method of picking for them and ensure they have the necessary tools to maximise the efficiency of their chosen process. However, for companies sending stock out for delivery on pallets, determining the best way of picking stock can be a little bit trickier.

When it comes to building pallets ready for delivery, staff need to be making sure that items are carefully arranged so that heavier items are on the bottom and lighter boxes are on top. This leads to difficulties when choosing the best way to organise picking routines as simply going by the most efficient walk routes could mean that lighter stock ends up at the bottom. On the other hand, simply picking by weight alone can also cause issues as often the size and shape of the box also needs to be considered when arranging stock onto the pallet. This means that often the best way for businesses despatching by pallet is to simply pick their stock using a certain level of personal judgement and gathering items in an order that means they can then be carefully stacked. 

Pick orders in the best way for you 
The OrderWise Despatch Module is already one of the most configurable elements of the OrderWise system, allowing businesses to tailor OrderWise to suit their own despatch processes and get the highest productivity out of their staff. Additional options include the use of barcode scanning through Mobile WMS devices, the set-up of comprehensive ‘pick rules’ to determine how picks are assigned to staff, monitoring picker performance, recording average travel times and much more. 

Now in version 11.5 of OrderWise, further configurability has been added to OrderWise Despatch thanks to the introduction of a new Ad Hoc Picking option available on the Mobile Picking module. Designed for businesses needing to stack stock onto pallets when shipping out orders, Ad Hoc Picking enables users to simply select a line from the lines tab of the picking module on their Mobile WMS device and go to pick that line straight away. Users will be directed to the earliest allocated transaction for that item and can then continue to collect stock from along the walk route as normal from the last bin scanned. Alternatively, the user is also able to pick a specific allocation from the allocations tab instead of picking by the line. Also, scanning a bin that does not contain stock for the currently displayed pick line, but does contain stock for another line on the pick, will change the selected pick line to allow that stock to be picked and ensure efficiency is maximised.

Fast, accurate and organised pallet picking
To make things even easier for users picking in this manner, new sort options have also been added to the lines and allocations tabs on the OrderWise Mobile WMS devices. These new sort options will enable the picker to sort lines by outstanding quantity and the allocations tab can have allocations sorted by walk route. This means users can quickly and smartly determine which items need to be picked first to go at the bottom of the pallet and go to collect that stock before efficiently guiding themselves to gather the remaining items required to complete the pick.

Thanks to this great new functionality, businesses using OrderWise to pick stock onto pallets can now benefit from being able to build up these pallets in the best way possible – whilst still retaining the high accuracy and efficiency that comes from using mobile WMS devices.