Fast-paced warehouse functions such as pick and pack fulfillment need clear standards to ensure the job gets done in the best possible way. Therefore, any efficient fulfillment operation will establish productivity standards that span the entire length of the operation, from the moment a trailer full of inventory hits the dock door until the individual item gets shipped to the end customer. These productivity standards play a similar role to warehouse key performance indicators (KPIs), though they skew more toward individual associates or teams.
Productivity standards vary between warehouses. Management should always ensure that associates responsible for picking and packing have clearly defined expectations in place tailored to the needs of the warehouse operation. Fulfillment centers gain a variety of benefits when pick and pack fulfillment follows productivity standards, such as:
While professional organizations publish carefully developed sets of productivity guidelines that fulfillment operations can draw inspiration from, it’s important to remember that every fulfillment warehouse is unique. Many distinct factors in a fulfillment operation may influence productivity guidelines, such as the commodity type handled, the facility layout, the size of the labor force, available technology, and much more. Some typical productivity criteria you can build upon may include:
Pinpointing opportunities to develop productivity standards begins with time studies on existing processes. For example, monitor pickers for an hour or two and determine:
Once you have sufficient data, you can extrapolate associated productivity standards based on what you’ve learned. Warehouse management systems (WMS) and warehouse execution systems (WES) may also provide more complex data sets to fuel the development of more robust productivity standards. For example, scan data and timestamps can tell you when and where products get picked. Then, comparing data across many orders can help develop a clear set of pick and pack averages that may function as a solid basis for productivity standards.
To generate an ideal set of pick and pack fulfillment productivity standards, use some combination of time study data, input from warehouse software, and feedback from management and warehouse associates.
For brands that rely on a 3PL for order fulfillment services, productivity standards in the warehouse play an additional role as the basis for determining the cost of activities performed by the 3PL. Poorly calibrated assumptions about productivity can lead to inaccurate pricing.
At Staci Americas, we have developed and implemented a comprehensive set of productivity standards at every facility in our national network of fulfillment centers. Each of our fulfillment operations follows careful productivity criteria explicitly developed to meet the needs of the individual facility and the customers it serves. To see how we can improve productivity for your order fulfillment operations, please contact us today.