Zone Picking

Works well in large facilities with many SKUs because pickers learn their zone and never walk the whole building.

What are the downsides of zone picking?

Orders that span several zones need to be passed or consolidated, which can create delays if one zone falls behind. It also needs balanced workloads across zones to avoid bottlenecks.

• Batch PickingA picking method where one picker collects items for several orders in a single trip, then items are sorted into individual orders.
• Wave PickingReleasing groups of orders to the floor at scheduled times (waves), often grouped by carrier cutoff, shipping method, or zone.
• SlottingDeciding where each SKU is stored in the warehouse based on sales velocity, size, and which items sell together.