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Part one of a two-part series. Click here to read part two: Optimizing Inbound Process Through Technology 

 

Picking is kind of a big deal.

If your inventory is late, your dock is congested or your employees waste time locating storage, the customer probably won’t notice. However, if their order is late or incorrect, they will notice real fast.

Picking matters simply because it starts the outbound process to your customers.

“It’s the star and for good reason,” said Luke Nuber, director of sales operations for DLN Integrated Systems, Inc.

 

3 Reasons Picking Gets All the Attention

Picking is labor intensive. Most distribution centers (DC) dedicate a majority of their workforce to picking. Often a DC will receive by the pallet, replenish by the case, and pick by the each. Rarely do they pick and ship in a higher unit of measure than they receive and replenish.

Therefore, picking has the highest amount of labor per unit. Sure, it may take longer to put away a pallet than pick a unit, but if there are 1,000 units on that pallet, the labor per unit is very low on that move. Labor per unit is usually higher in picking so it requires a lot of employees in the DC. This offers opportunities to improve labor productivity with technology and innovative companies gravitate to picking because of it.

“That’s the natural place to go,” Nuber said. “It’s going to have the biggest impact by focusing on picking.”

Picking impacts order accuracy. Often picking is where the order is made right. Mistakes can happen during the inbound process, but the picker is set up to ensure those errors aren’t duplicated, Nuber said. Ensuring the right items are in the customer’s order is a major driver of customer satisfaction.
Picking sets the pace. Typically the picking process requires the most time yet it still offers the most opportunities to make adjustments and still meet your goals. For example, if your DC is trying to ship orders out before a certain cutoff, you have to start with picking.

“I have to engineer it in a way that at least gives me a chance to meet those objectives,” Nuber said. “If the cycle time of picking is out of sync with your objectives, a lightning-fast shipping system is not going to do a lot to save the day.”

Why Inbound Processes are Equally Important

Andrew Clark, writer of the Get Control of Your Warehouse Newsletter on LinkedIn, said while picking can seem like the only thing that happens in a warehouse that is certainly not the case. It must be complemented by the other key processes within the warehouse, too.

“All of them must work together in a coherent system for your warehouse to be in control,” Clark wrote in a Dec. 22, 2022 post. “You won’t pick efficiently if the other activities are also not done to support the picking process.”

This is where the inbound process enters the spotlight.

If the items that must be picked are not where they need to be, when they need to be there, your picking performance will suffer. In other words, right product, right quantity, right frequency. Nuber describes this as a complex dance.

“There is a delicate balance and a lot of decisions to be made about how often we replenish and in what quantity, to make sure that picking is not starved for product, but also not made inefficient by oversized pick locations,” he said.

The accuracy of inbound transactions also plays an important role in the DC’s performance. Picking employees may catch mistakes made earlier in the process, but the order could be delayed or needless extra effort may be involved.

“These issues set the stage for incomplete or incorrect orders that impact our customers,” Nuber said.

Finally, optimizing the inbound process can ensure the DC’s resources are utilized to their fullest capacity, whether that’s labor, vehicles, or storage space.

“Improvements we can make in any of the inbound processes will free up those limited resources for other operations and keep the overall productivity high,” Nuber said

Understanding the Challenges of Inbound Process

After recognizing the inbound process is equally important to picking, you must understand its unique challenges, especially if you’re typically focused on picking. Nuber said three challenges standout from the rest.

Different Frequency and Cadence than Outbound Process

In most cases, the timing and scale of peaks occur at different times of the day and usually not at the same magnitude.

“It’s important to understand when and how those peaks will occur, and to have your buffers sized accordingly to absorb those peaks without gridlocking the operation,” Nuber said.

Then there are multiple replenishment cycles within the operation, to the building and to the picking area, and each has its own drivers and constraints.

“One of the most common mistakes in distribution center design is to simply assume that (inbound metrics) follow the outbound metrics, or worse yet, to just apply the outbound average,” Nuber said. “By designing a process around the average when the process is actually prone to big spikes, you can leave yourself ill prepared to handle those spikes smoothly when they occur.”

Larger Units of Measure

The second unique challenge of the inbound process is working with larger units of measure, pallets and cases rather than mostly individual units as in picking. Manual pallet and case handling presents ergonomic challenges like unloading floor loaded trucks, de-stacking tall pallets, and lifting heavy cases.

“It all adds up to jobs that are more difficult physically with case handling in both receiving and replenishment,” Nuber said. “We are all keenly aware of the challenges of today’s labor market and the difficulty of filling those difficult jobs, especially if ergonomics and safety are poor.”

High Degree of Specialty

Finally, the inbound process usually includes a high degree of specialty to ensure the wide range of inventory an operation receives into the system is ready to pick. They can be complex and time consuming, which impacts the cycle time of the process and the operation as a whole.

“A common pitfall in dealing with these processes is that the systems that run the DC are not configured well to handle these processes, or simply lack the needed capability altogether,” Nuber said.

6 Key Takeaways About Inbound Process

1

Recognize that the inbound process could involve as many resources as the outbound process.
2

Avoid extrapolating outbound metrics, ratios or assumptions to estimate capacity needed for the inbound process.
3

Understand the cycle of time of the inbound process.
4

Avoid overlooking the ergonomic challenges of handling larger units of measure.
5

Explore opportunities to automate repetitive and dangerous tasks.
6

Avoid underestimating complexity and exception handling in the inbound process.

Drive Success with a Trusted Partner

As you can see, evaluating your inbound process is important for your warehouse to operate efficiently. Often you need unbiased expertise to help you determine your individual needs.

DLN Integrated Systems is a trusted partner that is not committed to using specific brands of equipment or technology. It analyzes each situation uniquely and provides comprehensive integrated solutions using equipment and technologies from a range of manufacturers. This enables DLN to implement the most efficient and cost-effective solutions customized for each client.

The second piece in this two-part series will take the discussion further by sharing ideas for improving your inbound process through technology and design.