Name: Saad Mahmood

Warehouse Management
Quiz 03

Q) Why pick preparation is necessary. What are steps in Pick Preparation?

Order picking is the most costly activity within today’s warehouses. Not
only is it labour intensive, but it is challenging to automate, can be difficult
to plan, is prone to error and crucially has a direct impact on customer
service.

Companies target the picking operation as the area in which productivity

improvements can make a significant difference to overall costs. The trade-off
in this instance is between speed, cost and accuracy. Managers are looking for
quick response times, high accuracy and high productivity
but at least cost.
The order picking or order preparation operation is one of a logistic warehouse's
processes. It consists in taking and collecting articles in a specified quantity
before shipment to satisfy customers' orders. It is a basic warehousing process
and has an important influence on supply chain's productivity. This makes order
picking one of the most controlled logistic processes.

Steps In Pick Preparation:

 Receiving inventory: Essentially, an e-commerce company has two
ways to handle inventory. It can choose to receive and stock the inventory
in-house or it can use an e-commerce order fulfilment outsourcer to take
care of its stock and all the related tasks. In case it opts for the first
option, the company will be responsible for taking stock, examining the
inventory, labelling, and managing the inventory system. If the company
chooses to outsource or decide to dropship, these tasks will be handled by
the order fulfilments partner or supplier.
 Storing inventory: If you decide to warehouse the inventory yourself,
there will be another slate of tasks awaiting you once the receiving part is
completed. The main tasks on the list will be to shelve the inventory and
keep a close eye on what items come in and what items go out, so that
you can ship the orders without any delays.
 Processing the order: Businesses that outsource order fulfilments don’t
need to go into the nitty-gritty of order processing, as they simply pass on
the order request to their partner and let them handle the rest. For
companies that manage their own inventory, this is the part where the
order is picked off the shelf, transported to a packing station, inspected
for any damages, boxed and moved to the shipping station.
 Shipping the order: Depending on the size, weight and specific
requirements of the order, the best shipping method is determined.
Usually, a third-party carrier is contracted to fulfill this step.
 Handling returns: For online buyers, the ability to easily return
unwanted items is a major factor in the buying operation. To ensure the
receiving, replacing and refunding of the returned items are as efficient as
possible, you need to design a crystal clear returns policy that is easily
accessible to both your buyers and staff. Having this step automated can
help you avoid unnecessary chaos and errors.