Pick face

How a pick face works

Most warehouses split stock into two kinds of location. Reserve locations hold full cases or pallets, often high in the racking. Pick faces hold a smaller quantity at a comfortable height, close to the route pickers walk.

For example, serum SER-030 might have one pick face at B-02-01 holding up to 60 units, while four cases of 24 sit in reserve at R-10-04. Pickers only ever visit B-02-01. When the pick face drops to its minimum, someone moves a case down from reserve.

Setting min and max levels

Each pick face has a minimum, the level that triggers a top-up, and a maximum, the most it can physically hold. A useful minimum covers the picks expected before the next top-up can arrive, plus a little buffer. The maximum is set by the space, not by demand.

If the SKU above sells about 30 units a day and cases hold 24, a minimum of 36 and a maximum of 60 work well together: when the face drops to 36, one full case fits and brings it back to 60, and 36 units cover more than a day of picks while the move is made. Set the minimum too low and pickers find an empty face mid-shift. This is the same logic as a reorder point, applied inside the building.

Pick face vs reserve location

A pick face is chosen for speed of access. A reserve location is chosen for density. Mixing the two roles is a common mistake: if pickers are allowed to pull from reserve, the pick face stops being the single source of truth, and top-ups get missed.

Which SKUs deserve a prime pick face is a slotting decision. Fast movers get the positions nearest the start of the route and between waist and shoulder height.

How NextStock handles pick faces

NextStock lets you mark locations as pick faces for a SKU with min and max levels, and you can load them in bulk through import. Allocation can prefer pick faces first, so pick lists send people to the forward location before reserve. See order picking for how allocation and pick lists fit together.