In the retail store shelves cost rising and increasingly strict delivery cycle, under the double pressure of enterprise's distribution services need to be in accordance with the requirements of the order will be the right goods delivered to the right place, and need to gauge number full, on time delivery, to adapt to the trend of small high frequency order, help to store shelves, competitive price and other aspects. Moreover, it is clear that distribution has become a greater challenge given regulations and safety issues. Dematek has developed a new strategic concept to address these issues, classifying the application of picking technology into 10 mature picking strategies to achieve the success of distribution logistics.

       1、Improve order and warehouse management and control

       One of the top 10 picking strategies is to use information to enhance management and provide the information necessary to support accurate business decisions. Most enterprises, regardless of their size, use some kind of software for inventory management, material flow control, equipment control, etc       

        Modern Warehouse Management System (WMS) and Warehouse Control System (WCS) are designed so that all the order task information can be displayed in a single user interface through the host computer. Generally, WMS or ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning) systems are adopted.

       With well-designed software for information organization, enterprises will be able to achieve great supply chain benefits.

       2、Real-time logistics solutions to increase efficiency and reduce errors

       Manual efficiency in traditional shelf repositories can be enhanced by the addition of data-activated devices that can send instructions to production vehicles in real time, increasing throughput, productivity and accuracy.
Wireless terminal, voice system and mobile data terminal constitute a paperless environment, which is conducive to the realization of real-time transmission of information in the whole supply chain. Such devices not only increase operational efficiency, accuracy, and productivity, but also increase supply chain visibility and traceability, in addition to enabling companies of all sizes to find a business model that can respond to change and is highly flexible.

       3、Compress the picking surface and speed up walking

       Studies have shown that walking is one of the most time-wasted parts of order fulfillment. The picker is often required to constantly walk between different stalls. In a small manual distribution center, the problem of excessive walking can be easily solved in two ways, thus greatly increasing productivity.

       The use of pallet trucks, forklifts, laser guided vehicles and other equipment to speed up the picker walking speed, together with the intelligent storage system, can extend the picker picking operation time, shorten the walking time, so as to improve productivity.
The second method is to compress the picking surface, using only pallets or carton fluency shelves can be done. By compressing the picking surface by placing the goods in a slide behind the picking surface, the distance to the picking surface can be reduced by as much as 80%, significantly reducing the time spent walking the order picking process.

       4、Adopt intelligent location management conveying system

       Enable the order to find the picker to improve efficiency.
By using an intelligent material flow control and location control delivery system, orders can move between different areas without the picker having to move his         or her position.Picking location management solutions are especially suitable for order picking and large and medium-sized companies that want to introduce basic automation technologies.

       5、Realize multi-order picking at the same time, improve picking efficiency

      Combine orders from multiple customers into one batch. If the picker is able to pick the goods in batches at each picker location, the efficiency and throughput of the system can be greatly improved. FCL applications range from moving pick to conveyor belt, which can be used to transport bulk pick goods and automatically sort according to different order requirements using an intelligent conveyor sorting system.       

      In the dismantling application, the centralized picking technology can realize multiple order picking at a single station. Generally, the picker uses wireless or voice picking vehicles and electronic tag picking system to centralize the picking task of batch dismantling orders.

       6、Adopt intelligent software to achieve "two birds with one stone" picking efficiency

      There are a lot of companies do not realize that some pallets of FCL pick can not pick themselves. Unpickable opportunities can be identified using intelligent order fulfillment software. By analyzing and cross-matching the customer's needs, one customer's goods can be selected and another picking operation can be completed.This idea can be achieved by manual picking or machine picking. This technology can be used for both mixed and full floor picking operations, with picking efficiency up to more than 1400 cases per hour.

       7、Caching and sorting techniques were used to avoid walking

       The latest and most unique delivery logistics concept is to avoid walking altogether. PICKING technology has been around for years, but what really makes it practical now is the power of computers and new caching and sorting systems. Modernizing access engines and sorting technologies have brought about a revolution. High density, efficient, automated stereoswarehousing (ASRS) now handles large quantities of goods on demand and can be delivered to the picking or stacking point in the form of an optional bin or pallet.
In the high-flow dismantling and FCL picking operations, the new technology can be used to pre-pick, cache, sort and other processing orders of goods, and send them to the picking station for picking on time as needed. This is a new delivery solution with higher cost performance.

       8、Adopt the solution of picking and dismantling on delivery

       The picker stays in place in the ergonomically designed picker station without walking, which greatly improves efficiency and meets workplace safety requirements. In the delivery to person system, orders of raw materials to be fulfilled are moved to the picking staff position completely on demand. Picking stations and storage stations can be designed for discrete picking or bulk picking according to order processing requirements.
In addition, a variety of scanning technologies, electronic tag picking or voice technology can be used to further improve the efficiency of picking stations.

       9、Adopt FCL solution to speed up palletizing

       FCL Picking is very similar to Zero Picking and also uses intelligent ergonomic design stations for mixing codes. Because the pre-sorted and sorted mixed boxes can be coded in sequence at the coding station, the picker of the coding station only needs to slide the carton into place, making the selection easier, faster and safer.
Each station is usually built on the shelf platform, using integrated conveyor to feed the whole box of goods to the station continuously. After each layer of the pallet is completed, the pallet is automatically lowered to allow for the next layer of assembly, which greatly saves manual work and improves the safety, speed and quality of the order pallets.
When the pallet is falling, the packaging film can be used to surround the packaging method to keep the pallet stable.

       10、Adopt full automatic sorting and code tray solution

       The idea was to increase the efficiency of manual work by avoiding unadded labor. However, in some cases, if the goods are extremely heavy, or the volume of traffic is extremely high, a fully automated solution can be used.
Integration software, product storage, cache, sorting and identification, and many other fields have achieved the advanced achievements, together with high-speed multi-joint robot and multi-function fixture, greatly promote the development of automatic sorting and encoder system, which can deal with all kinds of rules, including different sizes of boxes and pallets, exposure, or silent goods cartons, bags and sacks, etc.
The above systems are extremely accurate, fast, reliable, and can stack higher, denser and more stable pallets. At the same time in the palletizer speed, accuracy and easy to use flexibility and other aspects of performance, and can even deal with a variety of mixed box rules. For picking, automatic sorting can be realized by using A-type sorting machine, but manual replenishment is still needed.