What Is Fulfillment Batching and How Does It Help Businesses?

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Businesses may choose from a variety of picking strategies such as batch, order, zone, wave, or cluster picking. However, your selection needs to be able to meet the unique needs of your business while speeding up the picking process significantly.

In this article, we’ll explore thebatch picking method (also known as fulfillment batching) which is a popular choice among warehouse managers in many distribution centers. We’ll discuss how it works, its benefits, and how it compares with other picking methods.

What is fulfillment batching?

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Fulfillment batching is an order picking method that allows your pickers to collect inventory for multiple orders at the same time.

In this method, multiple orders (having common SKUs) are grouped together. At a time, a picker collects multiple products of the same type, in batches. The products in each batch are then allocated to individual orders.

This ensures that warehouse employees don’t have to make repeated trips to a particular storage location, thus increasing operational efficiency. Compared to other picking methods, fulfillment batching reduces the required foot travel time since your employees need to move less around the warehouse, which speeds up the picking process. For instance, integrating an industrial automation relay board can streamline the sorting and routing of items, while a smart home relay module might seem out of place but actually mirrors the logic of batch grouping in a smaller scale.

Here’s an example to help you understand the fulfillment batching process better. Imagine that your warehouse staff has three customer orders that need to be fulfilled.

Customer A: 5 wooden spoons, 2 chef’s knives, and 1 cutting board

Customer B: 2 wooden spoons and 3 whisks

Customer C: 3 wooden spoons and 4 chef’s knives.

Instead of picking each customer’s order individually, a picker using batch picking will collect all 10 wooden spoons at the same time and put them in a designated tote on a pushcart. Next, they will collect all 6 chef’s knives and put them in another tote on the same cart.

Then they will collect the 3 whisks in another tote and finally pick the cutting board before bringing the pushcart to the sorting area. Here the items will be sorted into individual orders and packed for shipping.

Batch picking works best for businesses that process identical orders regularly. Kitting items that your customers often order together will make the fulfillment process simpler. Batch picking also works well for subscription boxes or newly launched products since most customers will get the same set of products.

What are the benefits of batch picking?

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Fulfillment batching brings efficiency and speed to the order fulfillment process. It provides many advantages over other picking processes including:

1. Multiple order picking

While there are other picking methods that let you work on multiple orders at a time, none are as efficient as fulfillment batching. It’s superior because the picker needs to only collect identical items in each trip and it’s easier for the packer to sort items into individual orders.

2. Less foot travel

Order fulfillment centers can be quite spacious, so making your staff collect items from multiple dispersed locations can take a significant amount of time. In batch picking, the items are homogeneous, which ensures that your pickers need to move less around the warehouse, significantly reducing the amount of time it takes to fulfill an order. This is similar to how a relay industrial switch minimizes unnecessary electrical pathways, or how marine smart lighting systems reduce energy waste by grouping lights in zones.

3. Faster picking rates

Speed is crucial to the success of your order fulfillment process. As such, batch picking reduces the overall time it takes to fulfill an order. It also requires less training compared to other picking methods that require your staff to memorize entire layouts of your fulfillment centers.

How batch picking works

The ecommerce fulfillment process starts when a customer places an order at your online store and it is electronically transmitted to your warehouses. Prior to this, inventory is shipped to your warehouses or distribution centers where similar items are stored together on shelves.

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Here’s how fulfillment batching works:

Step 1: Generation of picking lists

A picking list can be generated manually or using an order management system (OMS). It’s a document that informs your warehouse staff about the items that need to be shipped to each customer.

Printed picking lists are quite rare these days as modern warehouses often use wearable devices and voice technology to assign tasks digitally.

Step 2: Grouping of orders

This stage involves the grouping of similar items from multiple orders into a single picking batch. An inventory management system or a warehouse management system (WMS) can automatically sort through orders and group batchable items together.

Step 3: Assigning batches to pickers

Next, your pickers will receive their batch picking lists. You can use your WMS to generate a batch picking list for each picker and calculate the best route so that your staff can quickly collect all the stock-keeping units needed to fulfill orders.

Step 4: Picking of items

Your staff will follow the designated routes to collect the items in their picking lists and place them in designated totes on their pushcarts. Each picker must diligently follow the designated route to eliminate time-wasting. Using a dc 12v relay receiver or an ac wireless relay module can automate certain aspects of the picking process, like triggering lights or signals to guide pickers.

Step 5: Sorting and packing orders

Once the items are picked, they will be handed off to a packer. The packer is responsible for sorting items into individual orders and packing them into boxes. It is recommended that you use standard-sized boxes for different categories of products to speed up the process.

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Step 6: Shipping orders

Your packer must also ensure that these boxes are securely tapedandlabeledso that they are ready for shipping. tendlyn’s and Stickersoffer a sustainable way to showcase your brand as well as to secure your packages. These boxes can then be placed on the loading dock for your carriers to pick them up and ship them to your customers.

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Batch picking vs single order picking

Single order picking is one of the most common picking methods that comes with its own pros and cons. It simply means that the picker will collect items for one order at a time.

It’s simpler than batch picking, but it isn’t efficient since your staff needs to retrieve items one by one. That’s why single order picking is only suitable for small businesses with low order volumes or very few SKUs to sell (so the entire inventory fits in a small room).

Batch picking vs zone picking

Zone and batch picking are considerably more efficient than single order picking. However, zone picking is completely different from batch picking.

In zone picking, a warehouse is divided into zones with designated staff assigned to each zone. Multiple pickers will collect the different items in a customer’s order from their respective zones and bring them to the packing area to be collated.

Compared to batch picking, zone picking does not require orders to be identical. It is just as efficient as batch picking, but evenly distributing the workload can be quite difficult to accomplish.

Applying automation to batch picking

A manual picking operation that involves pushing a cart throughout the warehouse to collect items takes time and increases the chances of mistakes.

An automated batch picking operation can help boost efficiency and eliminate errors. It usually requires a minimum of two automated storage devices and a batch station located in front of the access openings.

Here is how it works: You can integrate a Smart automation switch to control conveyor belts or sorting arms, or use a remote garage switch to remotely activate batch stations. For more complex setups, an automation RF module or an mhz 2 channel relay can wirelessly trigger actions, while a mhz learning code receiver allows for flexible pairing with different controllers. In specialized environments, a boat relay board or a v marine relay can handle the rugged conditions, and an ac industrial relay controller manages high-power equipment. For water-related logistics, Boiler Feedwater Control and Residential District Water Supply systems can be automated using similar relay principles, and a light wireless controller can illuminate specific zones. Finally, a ch remote switch and Volume Based Manual Electrical Quotes can help manage custom orders and pricing for these automation components.

Wrapping it up

Batch picking offers many advantages for eCommerce businesses including greater productivity and efficiency. You can easily adopt batch picking in your warehouse operations if you often process identical orders. By automating this picking method and combining it with your OMS or WMS, you can further optimize your fulfillment process and serve your customers more quickly and efficiently.

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