What is Picking and Packing?

Pick and Pack Services are the Backbone of eCommerce Fulfillment

Technology changes everything, and one important business function that has benefited from improved communication, better technology, and streamlined processes is warehousing, particularly the pick-and-pack process. Once an order is placed, picking and packing services ensure the customer gets exactly what they need. 

FW Logistics offers pick-and-pack solutions that provide your business with an efficient, accurate order-fulfillment process, backed by the latest technology and years of warehousing experience. This blog will examine what pick-and-pack services are, the different ways warehouses handle the process, and how FW Logistics is ideal for your business's e-Commerce needs.

The Pick

Picking is the physical retrieval of an item from the warehouse. For modern warehouses, this is a computer-driven process that tells where a pick item is located. The pick has long been a process that is fraught with errors, even with computerized assistance. It takes an experienced warehousing expert to devise an inventory management system that reduces errors while maximizing efficiency.

The Pack

Once all items to be included in a shipment are gathered and double-checked against the order, the packing process bundles the products and protects them for transport. The same software that generated the pick can also calculate the size of the box needed for each order. This reduces material costs and makes the packing process even more efficient.

How to Pick and Pack in a Warehouse: Common Processes

Different warehouses can use different systems for picking and packing. The choice of system is critical to how efficient picking and packing will be; the more orders processed and fulfilled in a given amount of time, the lower the fulfillment costs will be. 

Piece Picking and Packing

This is the most straightforward way of fulfilling an order. An employee takes a list for a single order, gathers all the items for that order until it is filled, and then moves on to the next.

This is the easiest to understand and may work for very small warehouses with only a few different products and a few orders per day. Large warehouses, however, will need to use more efficient processes. 

Batch Picking and Packing

While similar to piece-pick-and-pack, batch systems pick multiple orders simultaneously. Each batch of orders includes items in the same area of the warehouse, to give pickers an efficient path through the facility.

Batch orders are great when you have a moderate number of orders and can designate a single time of day to fulfill them all at once. While batch orders do save time, especially if you have multiple orders for the same item, multiple lists may confuse pickers and reduce accuracy. 

Zone Picking and Packing

Zone fulfillment places employees in a specific area to pick only products in their designated zone, then passes the pick list to a new location and a different picker. While this is much more efficient because employees stay in the same place, it can bog down if multiple orders need to be fulfilled across multiple zones. 

Wave Picking and Packing

A combination of batch and zone picking, wave picking has pickers fill batches of orders from a certain zone before passing the batch to the next zone. This system grew out of the need for large warehouses with thousands of items, across both high and low fulfillment volumes.

Is It Time to Outsource Your 3PL Pick-and-Pack Services?

The goal of picking and packing is to efficiently get a shipment out the door quickly and accurately, and FW Logistics makes sure we nail this for every client. How?

Ultimately, our full-service pick-and-pack solutions give you full control over your shipping and inventory, so you can focus on your core business.

We understand how to pick and pack in a warehouse, and we apply this expertise to every client. At FW Logistics, we have the space to ensure you always have a place to store your products. If you are disappointed with your current outsourced fulfillment process, give us a call.

We offer warehousing, fulfillment, logistics, and transportation services that are scaled to your needs.