Introduction

Zone picking divides the locations in your warehouse into pick zones and directs pickers to service individual zones rather than walk the length of the whole warehouse to pick items.

By having many pickers do shorter tasks at the same time, you can save wasted walking time and get orders out of the door faster.

If the layout of your warehouse creates natural pick zones for instance mezzanine levels and annexesAs well as reducing walking and decreasing picking time it is also particularly well suited to optimising your processes in the following scenarios:

1. If there are areas of the warehouse that require special equipment such as ladders not needed in other areas

2. If you have some product types that suit being picked separately from other items due to their size or shape

3. For secure lock up areas that only certain staff can access

How does it work?

Is it for me?

Zone Picking can help with several different order picking scenarios, here we’ll outline some of the most common use cases and explain how the feature can help.

Use Cases

Single item orders: If you process a lot of single item orders from all corners of your warehouse Zone Picking can reduce walking and reduce picking time.

Multi-item orders with separate despatch: In this scenario, you despatch each item from an order separately, usually because of their size and weight.

Multiple people pick 1 order by zones: Useful if you have very large orders where it would be more efficient to have a number of people picking items based on their location and then collating them at despatch.

Multi-item orders with informal sort at despatch: A number of our customers already follow a process where the main items are picked as normal and then accessories or popular smaller items are grouped with them as part of the despatch process.

This can work well where there are repeated patterns and the team are familiar enough with the products that sorting them is quick and easy.

Multi-item orders with sort process - beta: For multi-item orders which will be packed and shipped together, we will be introducing a sortation process to follow picking. This will allow the items picked from different pick zones to be collated into complete orders and then passed on for packing and despatch.

Dependencies

On the whole, the new picking method works in a very similar way to the existing methods. The exceptions to this are:

1. You must first create pick zones and assign all your locations to them in PVX

2. The new sort process, if used, will require both operational changes as well as dedicated space in the warehouse and hardware to support the process

Setup

Enabling the feature

Zone picking is a premium add-on. Request access from the support desk who can provide a quote and enable the feature.

Zone setup

Before starting to use Zone Picking you must first create pick zones and then assign all your locations to the new zones.

Zones should be created:

• For areas with physical separations e.g. up stairs, in separate rooms or annexes

• For areas that require special equipment (e.g. ladders or forklifts), knowledge or training

• To break up large areas of the pick face and reduce walking time for pickers

Zone setup in the web app

1. Once enabled a new tab ‘Zones’ will show in the ‘Setup’ area of the Peoplevox webapp
   
   
   

2. Click ‘Add new’ to start adding Zones
   
   
   

3. The ‘Add new’ dialogue lets you name the new Zone, set a default priority and restrict who can pick from it.

You can also set a Batch quantity, this tells the system how many items to put into each action it creates for that zone. This is useful for larger items particularly, so you can set a smaller batch for your surfboard zone and a large batch size for your jewellery zone for example.

The final section of the window lets you assign locations to the new zone with the check boxes.

NB locations can only be assigned to a single zone. Once assigned to a zone they will be bolded in the treeview and the checkbox disabled for other zones.

Editing individual locations

You can also edit the zones for an individual location from the ‘Locations’ tab in the ‘Warehouse’ area.

Select a location and click the Zones button then use the drop down to select the appropriate zone.

Adding Zones to Locations by CSV

Integration templates in the User Interface (UI) can be used to import or edit locations in bulk - this includes editing Zone details for Zone Pick.

Prerequisites

• Zones must already be created

Exporting Existing Locations

• Obtain a complete export of Locations by following the below steps

  • Navigate to the Integration section of the UI

  • Navigate to the ‘Integration Templates’ tab

  • Select ‘Locations’ from the list

  • Click ‘Export’. It may take some time to generate the export.

• First, take a backup of the file

• Open the resulting file in a spreadsheet viewer (e.g. Excel) ensuring that no data is lost by number formatting, formulas, date type etc.

  • Depending on your version of Excel, the safest way to do this is by opening a new Workbook, navigating to the ‘Data’ tab and selecting ‘From Text/CSV’. Follow the steps and ensure that you change the data detection type to ‘Do not detect data types’, or the column format to ‘Text’ on older versions of Excel.

Editing the file

Barcode	Name	Sequence	LocationGroup	LocationUseType	ZoneReference
W.GA1.01	W.GA1.01	1	W.GA1	Pick	Zone01
W.GA1.02	W.GA1.02	2	W.GA1	Pick	Zone01
W.GA1.03	W.GA1.03	3	W.GA1	Pick	Zone02
W.GA2.01	W.GA2.01	1	W.GA2	Pick

• The Zone Reference column should be empty (for new setups). It should be completed for all locations that need to be added to a Zone. The Zone Reference is the ‘Reference’ of the Zone created in the UI. What is entered in this file has to match this value exactly.

• Remove any locations that are not required to be deleted from the spreadsheet (delete rows).

• Save the file as a CSV (comma separated values)

Warning: this is a powerful feature. Ensure you don’t change other location details in the CSV before you re-import or you could change all your location sequencing!

User guide

Creating actions

Once enabled, a new action type will show when adding actions.

Select this and then you can search and select orders as normal and then click next where you will be shown a new screen. This screen shows the actions the system will create to fulfil the selected orders by zone.

In the example above, 2 actions will be created for the selection orders for pick zones A and C. The dialogue lets you add a comment and set the priority as usual.

Select ‘Go’ to create the actions.

Picking

The Peoplevox app will show a new ‘Pick by zone’ option under picking. Select this and Zone Pick actions will be displayed by zone.

Pick by zone option	List of pick zones with open actions shown first	Select a pick zone to see the actions for that zone

Select a zone to see the open actions for that zone. Pickers can be directed to actions for specific pick zones if required due to their knowledge or training.

Once they have selected a zone they can pick like normal.

Skipping with Pick by Zone

If the picker needs to skip and the next location for that item is in a different zone then a failed action will be created which will need to be handled to complete the pick.

Make this process smoother by adding a skip reason for this scenario - ‘Item not in zone’. This will make it clearer on the failed actions report to identify and resolve these.

Sort

Sorting requires a dedicated space for sorting picked items into complete orders within the warehouse.

Setup

Ideally this area should be positioned in between the pick face and pack benches so that goods can continue to flow through the warehouse without crossing over at any point.

Within this area you need:

1. Space for pickers to drop off their totes, with the other picked items from that action wave, ready for sorting

2. A put wall for sorters to sort items from the pickers’ totes into complete orders. The design of the put wall will vary considerably depending on the nature of your products. For some ‘pigeon hole’ style walls will work well, others will need large bins or a mix of the two.

3. The locations on the put wall organised into location groups

NB Sort locations must use the ‘Despatch’ location type:

Layout options

There are a number of ways of laying out this space, here are two options we have seen work well.

‘Surround’

• In this scenario the walls are orientated to surround the sorter to minimise operator movement required from them

• There should be a drop off area within easy reach of the put wall for picked items

• Despatchers should be placed on the other side of the put wall so complete orders will flow through the wall and avoid cross over

• Sort locations must be labelled and match on both sides of the wall

  • NB Large, clear location labelling will improve speeds and reduce errors

• Multiple packers and despatchers can work on a single sort wall.

  • Sorting is likely to be faster than packing so it’s well worth having 2 or 3 pack benches working a put wall

  • The put wall should be divided into sections with a location group assigned to each pack bench

  • Each pack bench will monitor for completed orders from just the section physically nearest to them

Surround layout -- Sort -- Pack

‘Linear’

Similar but with the putwall laid out in a straight line the sorter will have to do more walking.

Notes

• It is an option to use a pick face type wall without the ability to pass through orders but this will create inefficiencies as either sorters and packers get in each other’s way or the packers have to wait until sort is complete. We don’t recommend this setup

• In both scenarios the use of mobile put walls that can be wheeled around adds flexibility to change the layout and size of waves as you optimise for your order and product profile

• It’s important not to mix items between waves, a simple colour coding system can work well where all the sort areas are coloured. The pickers in a wave are then all assigned the same colour matching the sort area they need to return their items to

• The use of conveyors can help drive even greater efficiency by reducing operator travel time from pick faces to sort areas

• Automated sort machines are also an option to remove the manual sort step

Sorting process - v1

Sorting makes use of a new ‘Sort’ function in the PVX Mobile App. Using the Sort function in the mobile app the sorter can scan pick totes and items and the app will direct them how to handle each item.

Note: Sorting should not start until picking is complete to prevent incomplete sorts. Only one sorter should be used per action to avoid conflicts.

The mobile app Sort screen

1. When you first open Sort in the mobile app you are prompted to scan a ‘From’ location, this should be a pick tote of items.

2. What happens next depends on what’s in the tote. Here is a summary of the process flow which shows the decisions the app is making (blue diamonds) and resulting directions to the sorter:

• So, if the tote contains items from multiple orders a message will be shown and the sorter will be directed to also scan the items:

The first item sorted for an order will direct the sorter to an empty sort location	Subsequent sorts for the same sales order will direct the sorter to the previously selected location

• If the ‘Auto Sort’ switch is on, the app will automatically record the sort, and return to scan another item in the tote, or return to scan another tote when there are no more items when the user hits the ‘Sort’ button

Advanced Sort Directions

• Storage types

  • The app will calculate the best storage type that will fit the whole of the order being sorted and will direct the sorter to that type if it finds one available

  • If it can’t find one it will take the biggest one that is configured

  • If there are no configured storage types it just show "EMPTY BIN OR LOCATION"

• Customising

  • Attribute 3 on sales orders can be used in the sorting process to customise where the sorter should put specific orders.

  • Where it’s populated for a sales order, when you sort the first item from that order it will be specified in the ‘TO:’ instruction instead of the default

  • Use it to specify a storage type, an area or a location for example

1. The sorter can select any empty location when sorting the first items for an order so they can choose one appropriate for the size of the item

2. If you run out of room in a location the sorter can then use a new empty sort location for overflow

   • This should be located near the first location for efficient collection at the end of the process

   • The app will alert the sorter when sorting to a different location in case it was accidental

3. When the last last item for an order is moved to a despatch location, the app will display a message to tell the sorter that the despatch location is ready to pack.

   • Make a visible change to the location so packers can quickly collect those with the flags showing

   • Move a tub from the location with the items into a mobile trolley of despatch locations. When the trolley is full it can be wheeled to any pack bench

   • Push the complete order tub down flow racking to a pack bench

• This can optionally be used to trigger an action by the sorter to speed up the pack process

• Alternatively the pack team can check which orders are complete and collect them from the wall, see below

[Beta] Sorting process - v2

The new beta version of sort (version 2) aims to improve upon the previous version in two key areas:

1. It supports multiple simultaneous operators sorting at the same time.

2. It allows the user to explicitly define their sort wall, which allows the app to make more relevant sort recommendations.

The sort workflow starts by prompting the user to scan a sort wall barcode (the location group prefix of the sort wall). This is an optional step. If the user scans a sort wall, then the app will only ever suggest that the user sorts into locations within that wall. If they do not scan one, then the app will consider all despatch locations when making recommendations.

If the user scans one, then it is remembered for the duration of their session. The user is then prompted to scan a location from which to sort:

Scanning the location and then the item will trigger the app to generate a sort recommendation. The app uses the following algorithm to determine where the user should place the item:

• If the scanned item belongs to an order that is already on the sort wall:

  • If it’s only in one location on the wall:

    • Then direct the user to move the item into that location

  • If it’s in more than one location on the wall:

    • Then direct the user to move the item into the location that was most recently used for the order – i.e. the last one into which that order was moved

• If the scanned item does not belong to an order that is already on the wall:

  • Then direct the user to move the item into any empty location on the wall

When the user scans the “to” location, the app validates at that point as well, and provides feedback to the user according to the logic below:

• If the location is already used for another order, the app warns the user that the location already contains another order.

  • They are able to override this warning and confirm the sort anyway.

• If the location scanned is not one that’s already in use for the order, and the app directed them to use a specific location on that sort wall (because the order already exists there), then the app informs the user that the order exists in {the suggested location}, and asks them to confirm that they want to sort the order into the scanned location (which would lead to a split order)

  • This does not block them from putting the item here, as there are valid reasons that a user may need to split across multiple locations like this – e.g. if they ran out of space in the first location.

• If the scanned location is already used for another order and the order already exists elsewhere on the sort wall, then the app displays a combination of the two messages.

Despatch

No sort

When using Zone Pick without sort, items can be taken straight to despatch once picked and handled as normal.

With sort

• Despatching can start before sorting has completed

  • You should ensure the despatchers and sorters don’t use the same space slowing both down - the pass through method described in setup is a good way of avoiding this

• Sort locations for a sort wall should be grouped into a ‘location group’

• Despatchers can scan the location group on the despatch screen and will then see the status for all orders within the contained locations as it moves through the process: Partially picked > Picked > Ready to pack

  • Sorting should not start until all orders are ‘Picked’

  • Packing can start as soon as orders turn to ‘Ready to pack’

Scan the ‘location group’ barcode

Status of orders within that group shown

• Once all the items for an order have been sorted then the status will change to ‘Ready to pack’ and the despatcher can collect them from the wall

Note: if you need to use overspill sort locations there may be more than one sort location shown for a given sales order. These are shown on both the summary screen and the despatch screen

• Despatchers can then collect that item from the sort location shown and despatch as normal

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