ORDER PICKING OPTIMIZATION

Chapter eight RightPick RightShip: Order Picking and Shipping

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Table 8.2 To Zone or Not to Zone?

Zoning Pros

Notes and Comments

Operator travel time is reduced because operators

I always prefer to play zone defense in basketball because I do not have to chase anyone around the court and because I do not have responsibility for an opposing player’s scoring outbursts! Product familiarity should yield improved picking productivity and picking accuracy (see the section “Xerox Service Parts”). Minimizing congestion is the most important justification for zone picking. In some operations, the volume is so great that free-form picking creates gridlock-like bottlenecks. The order picking performance (productivity, accuracy, and housekeeping) can be recorded and posted by zone. The tradeoff is the loss in accountability for orders (see the section “True Value Hardware”). Because operators are assigned alone to dedicated work zones, there is little or no opportunity during a pick wave for excessive socializing. Some socializing is healthy, but zone picking helps to control and monitor it.

are assigned to small, dedicated work areas.

Operators become familiar with the products and locations in their zone. Congestion is minimized because not more than one operator is in an aisle at a time. There is operator-zone accountability.

It minimizes excessive socializing.

Xerox Service Parts I recently toured a Xerox service parts distribution center outside Chicago. During the tour, I spent nearly an hour observing the order picking operation. In that operation, order pickers are each assigned to a zone of two long aisles of bin shelving. Orders are progressively assembled by conveying an order tote from zone to zone. I especially enjoyed meeting the top-performing order picker. She had been with Xerox for over 20 years and had worked the same two aisles in the warehouse for five years. The housekeeping, productivity, and accuracy in her zone were the highest in the warehouse. Her pride in her job also was evidenced by the near-perfect arrangement of the merchandise in her zone. I could not help but comment to her about the excellent performance record she had and on the neatness of her work area. During the conversa tion, I noticed that the merchandise in the bin closest to the front of her zone and next to the take-away conveyor was not nearly as neatly arranged

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