In many warehouses there are weeks when orders multiply by five or by ten. The building is the same, the carrier's truck comes at the same time and you almost always have to add people who do not know the warehouse.
Before the peak
- →Look at last year's data: which days, which hours and which items.
- →Move what is going to sell most closer to the picking area.
- →Replenish the picking bins before it starts, not during.
- →Have plenty of spare cartons, labels and packing material ready.
The new people
The bottleneck is usually training. If a temporary worker has to learn the warehouse by heart, it will take them days to perform. If the PDA tells them what to take and from which bin, and warns them when they get it wrong, they perform from the first shift.
During the peak
- →Prioritize by each carrier's cut-off time.
- →Group orders (in waves or batches) to walk the warehouse less.
- →Watch for whatever gets stuck at one stage.
- →Keep the check at the packing table: it is the last filter.
Afterwards
Returns arrive two or three weeks later. Planning for them keeps them from piling up in a corner.
Ubika does not limit users or PDAs: in peak season you add as many phones as you need and each person logs in with their PIN. Picking with a PDA.
Keep reading
- What is cross-docking and when does it make sense
- How to handle an online store's returns in the warehouse
- The warehouse KPIs that really matter
- Location labels with barcodes: how to make them and where to put them
What Ubika does: warehouse management software · software for 3PLs · WMS for e-commerce