Using Labour Optimization to Unlock Warehouse Picking Operation Efficiency
(i) From data on previous activity, periods of high labour activity may be predictable. Armed with such data, the warehouse manager can make a judgement about the supply of labour s/he will have or make available relative to the picking demand/load that the incoming orders represent for that labour. If the processing of the incoming orders requires a loading that cannot be met by the present labour provision, then the manager has to increase labour supply, which could be done by overtime, internal reallocation of workers to task, or the hiring of temporary workers.
If the warehouse system has high real-time visibility of sales, then the possibility exists that labour requirements (how many staff, when, and for how long) can be algorithmically determined, which would take a considerable estimation task away from the warehouse manager and allow for early planning of labour requirements.
(ii) During periods of low activity, the manager can have staff attend to housekeeping and other non-picking related activity. If possible¸ temporary staff should be acquired to boost productivity during periods of very high pick load. During periods of higher-than-normal pick load, excess work might be addressable through overtime by regular staff. During peak times, all available staff should be allocated to pick teams and the waves synchronised so that while one team is finishing its picking, the next is preparing to begin its picking (although waves are difficult to plan when picking is truly ad hoc). Ideally, there will be sufficient staff and a sufficiently capable system to manage both ad hoc/discreet picklists and assembled/organised picklists, so that labour can be utilised optimally. If the system can handle both ad hoc and planned picking and issue both simultaneously, then labour is leveraged: some staff can be allocated to less time-pressured picks; other staff to handling urgent ad hoc picks. Orders will be mixed, but patterns in popular items are often discernible by the system. If such patterns are identified by the IMS/WMS, then zone picking or other forms of picklist organisation will utilise the available labour much more efficiently than issuance of unadjusted picklists issued on a purely ad hoc/discreet basis.