SUPPLY CHAIN SOLUTIONS
OUT OF THE ZONE
When Covid triggered the e-commerce frenzy, many grocery retail logistics operations had little choice but to rethink their order picking methodologies and, as a result there is a trend away from traditional zone picking towards wave picking B to C strategies, says John Maguire, managing director of Narrow Aisle Ltd
T
he global pandemic has brought the essential role of the UK logistics industry – and the one million people employed by it – in underpinning our national economic and societal infrastructure sharply into focus. And as the world adjusts to the ‘new normal’ with social distancing and lockdowns looking increasingly likely to become a regular part of everyone’s day-to- day life for the time being at least, our reliance on supply chain efficiency will only increase.
Covid-19 – and the lockdowns introduced in an effort to restrict its spread among the population – has changed the way goods are stored, picked and moved to the consumer dramatically, with the switch to online shopping in particular forcing retailers and their logistics partners to radically rethink and quickly adapt well-established working practices. The pace of change has been breathtaking, 10 years of forecast e-commerce growth occurred in month one of the first national lockdown in 2020 and between February and October of last year online sales grew from 19.6 per cent of retail sales value to 28.5 per cent.
The logistics sector’s ability to scale-up and adapt its services in response to such massive and rapid changes in consumer spending patterns has been hugely impressive and without the expertise and dedication of the industry there can be little doubt that the public would find the restrictive lockdown conditions even more difficult to live with. For warehouse or distribution centre operators the need to keep pace with the shift away from bulk deliveries to retail stores towards the fulfillment of individual online orders directly to the consumer has necessitated significant adjustments across all aspects of the warehouse operation, but in many cases, it is perhaps the order picking process that has undergone the most significant overhaul.
30 MARCH 2021 | FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS
It has long been accepted that of all the processes involved in modern warehousing, the ability to quickly and accurately collate picked goods with an efficient order picking regime has the greatest impact on a warehouse or DC’s performance, costs and ability to deliver customer satisfaction. When Covid triggered the collapse of high street shopping and the concurrent e-commerce boom, many third-party storage operations had little choice but to rethink their order picking methodologies and, as a result, there is a noticeable trend away from traditional grocery retail zone picking towards wave picking strategies. In simple terms, zone picking involves dividing stock-keeping units (SKUs) into different product zones within the store and assigning pickers to work within each zone. Each picker is responsible for picking all SKUs located within their area of the store for each order; in this way, the roll container or pallet is loaded with similar product types to aid efficient decanting into shelves on arrival at the retail store. Also, passing through each zone within the warehouse allows any orders with SKUs in multiple zones to be filled.
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By working in a smaller zone, pickers become more familiar with the SKUs and pick locations in their area and, as a result, pick rates are faster and more accurate
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