Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) are designed to optimize inventory movement through advanced features. One of the areas that warehouse system accomplishes this is through various picking styles such as Wave, Batch, Zone and other options. WMS picking options vary depending upon the desired result; however, all have a common goal, in that using the power of technology to make each pick as efficient as possibles and therefore reducing labor costs.
The Wave Picking function allows a picker to gather multiple orders simultaneously on a pick run. Orders are picked directly into serialized shipping cartons. The advantage of Wave Picking is that orders are picked and packed and checked in a single handling step using bar code scanners.
Wave picking is very effective for operations that pick to cart when there is an average of one or two shipping cartons per order. It is also effective for high volume operations that pick product out of flow racking to conveyor belts that whisk away boxes after they have been filled.
Cartonization in Warehouse Management Systems
The cartonization function is a companion to wave picking. Cartonization automatically determines the number of shipping cartons required for a single order based on product and carton dimensions (ie. Width, Height, Length). It also takes into account the weight tolerance of both cartons and shippers.
Warehouse Pickers are then instructed to place product into the specific shipping carton that was pre-determined by the cartonization functionality of the Warehouse Management System.
The advantage of cartonization is that orders being shipped by common carriers like UPS or FedEx can be picked into their final, labeled shipping containers. Even if there are multiple boxes on a shipment, there is no need to consolidate the order in a staging area prior to shipment. In addition, Warehouse Management Systems, such as HighJump Warehouse Edge (formerly AccellosOne WMS) may be configured to automatically ship and manifest sales orders without any additional physical handling by shipping staff.
Learn more about HighJump Warehouse Edge WMS
