Picking solutions
Boost picking performance
Boost picking performance
Summary
Profitable businesses depend upon efficient fulfilment – and that means fast, accurate and cost-effective picking performance. Having later cut-offs, speedier picking processes and higher picking accuracy will help you secure more sales, enhance your customer service, and ultimately, give you a competitive advantage.
Picking
Labour challenge
Labour is increasingly scarce and expensive and yet, peak sales events are becoming more extreme and more frequent, placing unsustainable strain on traditional labour intensive picking operations. However, there are many advanced technologies that can help you boost your picking performance.
There are two principle methodologies that you can deploy – Person to goods or Goods to person:
Person to goods
This is the traditional approach to order picking, involving walking between pick locations, which can result in significant ‘dead time’. However, there are several technologies that can assist a manual picker, allowing you to achieve faster fulfilment and greater pick accuracy..
Goods to person
This is where the items to be picked are automatically delivered to a workstation and presented to the picker. Intelligent sequencing ensures you have a steady flow of items ready at the pick face, cutting out ‘dead time’ by making the most productive use of your valuable human resources.
There are a number of advanced goods-to-person technologies available that can bring flexibility, scalability and increased capacity to your picking operations:
Pick-to-light systems
Pick-to-light systems help improve accuracy and speed by illuminating a stock location and displaying the pick quantity.
Voice directed picking
Voice directed picking is used to instruct an operator on location, item quantity and logs a voice confirmation from the picker.
Handheld scanners
Handheld scanners utilise bar code technology to inform pickers and confirm picks.
RF picking
RF picking guides the picker using a mobile radio terminal.
Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs)
Autonomous Mobile Robots where individual robots fetch and present mobile shelf units to workstations as commanded by the WMS. AMRs offer you a highly flexible and scalable low-CapEx proposition.
Automated Shuttle Systems
Automated Shuttle Systems are well suited to small loads with a fast throughput and are excellent for where high storage density is a must.
Mini-load solutions
Mini-load solutions are high-density crane based systems that present goods to the picker at super-fast rates.
Carousels
Carousels perform well in high SKU applications. These automated mobile shelf units are perfect for the dense storage of small items.
Integration designed to meet your needs
As an independent, full-spectrum automated warehouse solutions provider, we are free to select the most appropriate technologies for the task – from advanced, highly flexible goods-to-person systems, such as Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) combined with pick-to-light technology, to large, zone - picking solutions incorporating the latest conveyor and sortation technologies.
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Testimonials
What our clients are saying
Inteq has provided unrivalled support to the site team; from design through to implementation, the creative and flexible approach has brought the vision to life, resulting in a robust and flexible solution for our customer.
CevaLogistics
Since dealing with the Inteq project team for the Stanton / Under Armour implementation I have been impressed with the level of service, knowledge and can-do attitude. These qualities have continued within the residency solution whereby the site is supported in a number of key measures such as a detailed PPM schedule, training staff on equipment, stores / spares management and building support. The weekly review meetings with the team ensure everything is effectively managed within agreed time frames.
Marc BakerFacilities Manager at Ceva.
In the last 18 months I have seen Inteq grow from strength to strength, I was part of the initial process where we recruited Greenstone to support with the servicing and repairs of our Conveyer and box machines, they have grown in that time from suppling engineers to helping us optimise the equipment, expand the area and incorporate changes to layout and process. With the team now fully established at the SDC, I feel we are is such a better situation, with limited downtime, planned preventative maintenance and increased productivity. The Inteq team have done a great job, and I am extremely happy with the service that they have provided.
Paul MorrisFacilities Manager at Pets at Home
Our investment in collaborative robotic technology means we have greater flexibility in our operations for customers, enabling us to better manage the fluctuating product volumes associated with high volume eFulfilment work. Overall we were very impressed with the approach and the level of innovation that Inteq brought to the project, integrating multiple technologies to produce a highly efficient, robust and cost-effective operation.
Carl MooreManaging Director - eFulfilment at Wincanton
