Why it's important
A core part of the fulfillment process involves picking products from the locations where they are stored and packing them into packaging to be sent to customers or retail partners. This is called pick & pack for short.
Other related processes that typically come after are quality control, which is optional or dependent on workflow, and shipping.
Which orders can I pick & pack?
Orders that can be picked and packed are orders that have moved into the processing view.
However, there are scenarios where orders cannot be moved to the processing;
The order is in a backorder status due to not having enough inventory to fulfill.
The order is in a hold status for further review
Moving orders from pending to processing
Orders that have enough inventory to be fulfilled and that are not in an error or hold status will appear in the pending view. These orders need to be either manually moved to processing or automatically moved using rules.
Manually moving orders
You can easily move orders from pending to processing by;
Navigating to the pending view inside a WMS account
Finding a specific order or filtering for a group of orders
Selecting your order(s) using the checkboxes, or check all
Clicking Actions, then the Process option.
Picking & Packing Workflow Considerations
There are many ways to pick and pack orders; the right way depends on your operations, team, situation, and other factors that influence efficiency or constrain which options you can use in which scenarios.
Grouping Orders using Advanced Filters
Printing Packing Slips
Packing slips are optional, but most fulfillment operations print them to help their customers or even their team know what inventory should be in each shipment and other important fulfillment information.
4x6 Packing Slip | This can print out automatically with the shipping label. This option is covered by the default behavior of the system. |
8x11 Packing Slip | These can be printed manually in the processing view by selecting order(s) and clicking fulfillment, then clicking "print packing slip" in the pop-up. |
International Packing Slips | This packing slip functions as a trade document and is automatically generated instead of the standard 4x6 or 8x11 if the shipping destination country is different than the warehouse address: country. |
The other consideration is whether you want to print labels ahead of time or generate them after for a specific shipping scenario. If you are able to generate and print ahead, in most scenarios, this would be more efficient.
Different Picking & Packing Methods
There are many different picking and packing methods that can be used to ensure you get the most out of your fulfillment operations efficiency.
Most Common Methods
Single-order Picking
This is best used for larger orders or for orders with highly unique requirements. These should primarily be used in outlier scenarios and not make up the bulk of your picking and packing strategy.
This method entails picking a single order at a time by either;
Assigning a single (usually large) order to a picker
Printing out similar picking lists and picking and packing one at a time by scanning the barcode at the top into the mobile app.
Batch Picking
This method entails putting like and kind orders together to reduce the distance of travel and minimize location or bin touch points over the course of the picking and packing tasks throughout the fulfillment day.
A simple example is to group single item orders and pick them by;
Get large amounts of single item orders
Create and save a filter for orders with only 1 item
Pre-generate shipping labels
Use the filter created above by clicking on it
Select all orders ("Select All" checkbox) that match the filter
Go to actions & select "Batch Labels" to start generating labels
Print generated labels &
When the batch all or mostly green (sucessful label generation), click the green icon next to your batch to filter for those labels
Check the "Select All" checkbox
Click Actions, then select the "Print Labels" option
To use this method effectively, you can utilize the advanced filters at the top of the processing view to set up like and kind order filters to group orders and pick them together.