Picking accounts for almost 50% of a warehouse's labor costs; streamline your batch picking processes to minimize non-value-added activities and get the most from a paperless picking solution.
What is Batch Picking? Batch picking allows you to pick items for multiple orders simultaneously, improving efficiency by reducing the number of trips a Picker must take through the warehouse. ShipHero has two different batch picking methods: Single Item Batch (SIB) and Multi-Item Batch (MIB).
- Single Item Batch Picking organizes single-item orders into batches. It can be useful for high-volume sales or if you commonly receive requests for an individual SKU.
- Multi Item Batch Picking allows Pickers to pick multiple orders with different quantities of products into unique totes. This process separates orders as you are picking, so you don't have to spend time sorting through products when preparing to pack and ship orders.
Batch Optimization Settings
To access the batch optimization and order processing settings go to the App Settings page. The settings below determine how ShipHero selects which orders will be included in each batch and how they are sorted.
These settings can be changed at any time. For example, in the morning, you can have it set to by Location Prefix, and when it's getting late and you need to concentrate on the required orders, you can change it to By Required Ship Date, then Priority.
These settings are:
- Sort Orders By
- When Picking Orders Sort by
- Multi Item Batch Picking Type
Sort Orders By
This setting determines how the line items of your orders are sorted within the picking batches and single order flows, not which orders are added to the batches. The system sorts the selected option alpha-numerically, impacting the picking path of your staff.
The two available options are SKU and BIN. If minimizing the number of steps your team has to take is a priority, we recommend using the BIN option to prevent a picker from being sent to the same location multiple times.
When Picking Orders Sort By
The When Picking Orders Sort By setting allows you to choose the order in which orders are sorted in the Single Order flows for the mobile and Packing App. It also impacts the selection of orders that are added to Single Item and Multi-Item Batches.
- Order Date: Orders will be sorted and added to batches based on the date the order was placed, with the oldest order coming first.
-
Ready to Ship Date: Orders will be sorted and picked based on the date the order became ready to ship "Yes", with the oldest ones coming first.
- NOTE: If an order's "Ready to Ship" status changes to "No" and goes back to "Yes", the system will use the most recent Ready to Ship Date to add the order to the batches.
- ShipHero Optimized: Orders will be picked based on the Multi-Item Batch Picking Type setting (explained below). With this option Single Item Batches and Bulk Ship Batches will be generated using the Required Ship Date as the priority.
Multi Item Batch Picking Type
These settings only impact which orders are added to Multi Item Batches, not how orders are sorted in the Single order flows. If you want to use one of these picking types, you must have ShipHero Optimized selected for the When Picking Orders Sort By setting.
The first two options considers where the line items for each order are stored in the warehouse. The last option follows similar logic to the When Picking Orders Sort By option explained above.
- Optimize Batches by Location to Minimize Walk: Best for smaller warehouses with mixed bins, meaning multiple SKUs per location. It groups orders with items from the same location to reduce travel distance. This setting will start with the oldest order and look for other orders with items in the same location. If you have multiple items per location, the system will likely find other orders that share the location.
- Optimize Batches by Location Prefix to Minimize Walk: Ideal for larger warehouses with many SKUs and works best if each SKU has its own location. It groups orders with items from locations that share the same prefix. The prefix is the first 3 characters of the location. For example, if the location name is 020-10-A, the prefix would be 020.
- Optimize Batches by Required Ship Date, then Priority: This looks for orders that need to go out first based on the "Required Ship Date" and does not try to minimize how far you need to walk to pick the batch.
Watch our video walkthrough on MIB optimization
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