Improve Productivity in Retail Order Fulfillment

A leading retail order fulfillment company that processed orders for more than 250 retail stores recently replaced their paper picking process with voice picking technology, increasing productivity by an average of 35 percent. In addition to productivity gains, the new voice picking system provided an accuracy level of 99.96% to this company which has more than one million active SKUs operating in a 350,000 square foot facility.

Moving from a paper-based picking system to a modern voice picking system seemed like a monumental task, but with the help of an experienced warehouse automation company, they implemented the new automated warehouse technology with great success.

Numina Provides Warehouse Automation Solutions

The Numina Group was chosen to implement warehouse automation technology for this retail fulfillment giant, which was utilizing a manual system that was primarily paper based for all picking and replenishment functions. Numina Group was brought in to analyze the operation and provide a detailed design study with automation recommendations.

The current operation consisted of pickers following paper instructions and individually picking each item using price label sheets across four standard pick zones. Picks ranged from 30 items to 300 per store, all picked into totes. Once manual picking was complete, a conveyor sorted and transported the totes to the staging area to prepare for shipping. Employees picked items for an average of 63 retail stores per day. Some stores had shipping requirements of 35-40 totes per day while other larger stores required up to 175 totes per day.

This paper picking process was very labor intensive and was draining resources and profits.

Numina Performs Warehouse Design Studies

Numina Group began with a detailed process design study to evaluate the best automation technologies that would provide the most streamlined and cost-efficient solution with maximum return on investment. Numina partnered with company personnel including operations team members and executives to analyze the current order fulfillment process, then defined the leanest approach in a detailed flow chart showing projected return on investment.

Multi-modal voice picking technology with hands free barcode scanning was chosen as the warehouse automation technology which would provide the highest and fastest return on investment (ROI). Numina’s study showed that voice picking technology could provide a complete ROI within one year. Implementation of Numina’s voice picking system has exceeded expectations with improvements in productivity of 35% and accuracy to 99.96%, which will provide an even faster ROI.

For warehouse automation solutions, be sure to talk with the automation specialists at Numina Group. We provide comprehensive warehouse automation services from defining and designing warehouse systems to implementing Tier One Warehouse Execution and Control systems. Contact us today to learn how you can increase productivity and profitability.