A Study on the Picking Process Time

Abstract

The order picking activities in distribution center are mainly sorting and arrangement works classified by destinations in accordance with customer's request. The activities consist of lifting, moving, picking, putting, packing and other works basically. Also it can be classified into box picking, client picking, etc. according to the shape of products, type of process, type of picking system and so forth. In some companies, picking process consists of pre-picking and auto picking. Pre-picking refers to the work before the auto picking system classification where orders received from clients are checked and products are sorted by unit of box, pallet or auto picking unit. The auto picking (or semi auto picking) is defined as the process of sorting the pre-picking-treated products according to the units of clients, order, vehicles, etc. through the auto picking system. Although these activities are very simple and easy, every warehouse has different process for picking due to the lack of standard process. In this paper, we present a standard picking process for light weight cargo & productivity analysis for warehouse picking systems considering operational processes to compare: standard process versus ad-hoc process; conventional manual picking (e.g. manual digital picking system) versus automatic picking system.