New thinking in online fulfilment order picking that combines long established warehouse ‘wave’ picking techniques with state-of-the-art sorting robots is delivering eye-catching improvements in picking rates, says Frazer Watson, Global Vice President of Rainbow Dynamics
According to figures released by market analysts Statista, in 2023 the UK had nearly 60 million e-commerce users. By 2025 this figure is expected to have risen by another two million.
Unsurprisingly online sales peaked during Covid when they accounted for around a third of all UK retail trade and although the end of the pandemic saw high street shopping enjoy something of a renaissance, it is forecast that a staggering 38.1 per cent of the transactions undertaken between UK retailers and their customers will be carried out online by the end of 2025. With an estimated value of £152 billion this will make the UK e-commerce market one of the most advanced in Europe.
The relentless growth of internet shopping has inevitably brought challenges for the logistics industry; inventory management has become increasingly complicated as product ranges have grown, while the explosion in the number of orders received has put packing operations under huge pressure.
And, of course, meeting the promises of ever shorter delivery times that retailers make to woo customers in what is an ultra-competitive market requires super-quick order processing.
Efficient and accurate order picking has always been the cornerstone of any successful warehousing operation and it is fundamental to successful e-fulfillment. So, it Is perhaps a little surprising that despite their inherent inefficiency traditional manual order picking systems remain widely used at sites dedicated to getting online sales orders to the consumer’s front door in the shortest possible time.
But now, new thinking in fulfilment warehouse order picking that combines long established warehouse ‘wave’ picking techniques with state-of-the-art sorting robots is delivering eye-catching improvements in picking rates.
In simple terms it works like this: the Warehouse Management System strategically consolidates individual orders into cohesive “waves” or batches. Grouping orders in this way optimises the picking process by allowing operators to retrieve entire waves of items in one efficient sweep, significantly boosting the hit rate to remarkable levels with the added bonus of eliminating the need for warehouse workers to yomp what can be a considerable distance between individual picks.
The transformative impact of wave picking not only achieves picking rates of up to 2000 items per hour but also translates to a drastic reduction in on site labour requirements – a notable benefit given the current shortage of qualified and willing warehouse personnel.
Of course, the bundles of wave-picked items still need to be meticulously sorted to allow individual orders to be consolidated. With their ability to efficiently organise and route items with precision and speed, this is where specialised sorting robots come into play.
Integrating wave picking and robotic sorting delivers a blended picking efficiency that easily surpasses traditionalindividual single order picking solutions. By harnessing the synergy between wave picking and robotic sorting technologies, fulfilment warehouses can elevate their productivity levels, achieve greater accuracy in order fulfillment, and ultimately set new benchmarks for efficiency in the realm of logistics and supply chain management.
Rainbow Dynamics is a UK-based robotics and automation company focused on the design and build of sustainable robotic handing and sortation solutions for logistics warehouses, parcel handling facilities, manufacturing sites and e-commerce fulfilment centres.
www.rainbow-dynamics.com
