Order picking in walk order

Picking errors fall into a few groups: the wrong item, the wrong lot, the wrong quantity, or the right item from stock that should never have left, such as a held lot. On top of that sits the cost of walking back and forth across the building because the list is sorted by order line.

Our guide to warehouse picking methods compares discrete, batch, wave and zone picking in general terms. This page covers what NextStock does.

Before anyone walks, order allocation decides which stock fills each line. Allocation runs automatically or can be done by hand for exceptions.

• FEFO for lot-tracked stock, so the earliest expiry ships first
• Whole-LPN allocation when an order line can take a full pallet
• Pick-face first, so pickers work from forward locations before reserve
• Backorders for demand that can't be filled yet
• Only available stock is allocated; quarantine, damaged and held stock is skipped
• Cut-off times and urgency decide which orders go first

Discrete picking sends one picker for one order. It is simple, easy to check and suits large or urgent orders. Batch picking sends one picker for several orders in one walk, then sorts the units to their orders afterward. It cuts walking when many small orders share the same SKUs.

In NextStock, both kinds of list are sorted by walk sequence, and a pick list is assigned to one operator so two people don't work the same stops.

The floor app shows one stop at a time: bin, item, quantity, and lot or plate where relevant. The scan is checked against the task before the pick is confirmed.

• Bin scan, if the warehouse requires it; a wrong bin is rejected
• Item scan at every stop; a case barcode counts the full case
• Lot scan when the bin holds more than one lot
• One serial scan per unit for serial-tracked SKUs
• Picking more than the allocated quantity is blocked
• Stock on hold, or an order on hold, can't be picked

Orders change. NextStock lets you edit an order's address and quantities after creation, split remaining demand into a new order, and cancel after pick with a guided restock that puts the units back where they belong. Picked units travel in a tote or carton that has its own license plate, so they are always somewhere in the system. From there, packing and shipping takes over with scan-verified packing.

Pick faces with min/max levels generate replenishment, so pickers don't arrive at an empty forward bin.

Wave planning, which releases groups of orders together by carrier or cut-off, and zone picking with pick-and-consolidate are on the roadmap and not available yet. Today, cut-off times and urgency ordering cover much of what small and mid-size operations use waves for.

Brands and 3PLs shipping many small parcel orders tend to use batch picking. Distributors with larger B2B orders usually pick discretely, often with whole-pallet allocation.