The latest innovation in order fulfillment automation, pick-to-light Pickcarts (or Pickcarts for short) have become increasingly popular in the order fulfillment market, and rightfully so. Pickcarts may be the best order fulfillment tool yet, providing an optimum in operational flexibility, order picking speed and accuracy, while minimizing most all the drawbacks associated with alternative technologies, such as RF and voice.

With Pickcarts, multiple orders are picked to their respective totes, in one go-around the warehouse. Orders are assigned to a cart from a central server, with each LED light mounted on the cart representing and individual order. The operator is directed, typically through a visual aid of some kind, a LED or a computer tablet mounted on the cart, to a location in the warehouse. The arrival at the specified location is confirmed through a scan of the barcode at the location or the SKU.

The LEDs which represent the orders on the cart requiring this specific SKU, will light up and show the operator how many to pick. Each pick, once completed is confirmed through an acknowledgement button push which extinguishes the LED light. Once all the orders on the cart are completed this way, the operator is directed to the next SKU location at which point the process repeats itself.

Pickcarts are being deployed in slower-moving SKU picking, in high SKU – low line order intensity operations, e-commerce operations, and multi-order picking scenarios.

The benefits of using any order pick technology solution over paper picking are numerous and obvious. Less obvious perhaps are the benefits of Pickcarts over RF or voice picking. Simplicity of operation for one. No complicated menus or voice scripts need to be learned. Simply scan the indicated SKU location, and the high visibility LED displays on the Pickcart, provide a constant reminder of quantities that need to be picked.

No extensive voice interactions with the operating system, slowing down the order picking process and isolating the operator from his/her work environment – as is the complaint with voice picking. With a Pickcart the operator remains constantly aware of his/her surroundings.

RF can be more cumbersome still, with the operator having to hold or carry the RF device, to confirm each pick, but also provide directions to the next location in the warehouse. Pickcarts tend to be faster and more accurate as a result.

Many operations using RF and voice will resort to bulk-picking, sorting the products at the end of the warehouse run. With Pickcarts bulk picking is not necessary (let alone single order line picking) as the orders are picked individually, directly on the cart. Depending on the order profiles and products picked, Pickcarts can handle 20, 40 or even over 100 orders at one time. It all depends on whatever works best for your operation.

Just make sure to partner with a Pickcart supplier who understands your needs and can translate these needs to an optimal Pickcart layout.

So, what is most important when selecting from the various Pickcart technology suppliers out there? There are a few factors to pay attention to;

  • Some suppliers only deliver complete solutions, i.e. including the cart hardware itself, whereas other Pickcart suppliers provide the option of supplying the lights and technology separately, allowing the user to retrofit existing carts, which tend to work reasonably well from a layout perspective, and thus minimize the investment.
  • Understanding your own operational flexibility needs, and how well the Pickcart design fits with those needs is also an important factor. If the operation changes often; How easily can the technology on the cart be reconfigured? Can the layout of the cart be changed easily? Tote sizes increased / decreased? Can the number of lights on the cart be changed easily if the order profile changes often? How flexible is the technology platform and the software used?
  • Even if operational changes are not that frequent, making sure the core of the Pickcart technology is as flexible as possible, keep options open for future changes, and that can never be a bad thing.
  • Easy to replace, modular Pick-to-Light hardware and components also ensure lower maintenance and support costs. Built-in displays may look good, but can prove difficult and therefore expensive to replace.
  • Most difficult to assess is the operator interface; how easy is it to configure, reconfigure, load orders and actually pick orders? Here too there are significant differences. There are carts that require constant communication to the WMS system, and therefore require good WiFi coverage throughout the warehouse. This is no different than RF or voice, but there are also Pickcart solutions that don’t. This potentially lowers the investment that needs to be made, certainly if no pre-existing WiFi network exists in the warehouse.
  • There are Pickcart solutions which actually will show the operator the shortest route through the warehouse, to fulfill the orders loaded on the cart walking the shortest distance. Not only more efficient, the operators will appreciate this as well. A warehouse map uploaded into a cart-mounted tablet showing the operator the optimal route, avoiding one way systems, warehouse obstructions, or size restrictions.

Pickcarts are quickly becoming known as the most effective and efficient order picking solutions for many warehouse operations and rightfully so. As a stand-alone system or as part of a hybrid order fulfillment solution Pickcarts will increase efficiency, create transparency in an inventory process and improve overall quality to customers.

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