Advisory Board: Why does a “put” strategy optimize order fulfillment?
By bringing the product to a location, you can increase picking rates and accuracy.
Ken Ruehrdanz, market development manager, Dematic -- Modern Materials Handling, 4/1/2009
Distribution operations that are required to ship product to the same location on a recurring basis can increase productivity with an order fulfillment strategy referred to as “put.” Put systems offer a greater range of process control, increased order fulfillment efficiency and improved access to operator metrics.
Retailers and wholesalers are prime candidates for using a put system in distribution operations since order fulfillment is performed on a regular schedule with many of the same items being sent to all or a majority of the stores. Typical delivery schedules may range from daily, to every other day, three times a week or perhaps once a week.
With put-directed order fulfillment, operators put product to a location instead of picking product from a location. In most operations, the typical practice is to move through the warehouse and build an order. Instead of picking items as they are passed, a single product is allocated (put) to the orders that require this SKU.
A put system is typically considered a “goods to the person” configuration. A container of one product SKU is delivered to an order fulfillment zone where an operator is stationed. The operator puts the SKU into shipping containers that will go to the retail store, industrial user or consumer. There is no wasted space in a container since the operators continue to put into the container until it is full. Specific carton contents are tracked.
Put systems can be expanded to support the pre-pick of the SKUs and direct the putaway and cycle counting of residual product.
Put systems have many benefits. The over-riding benefit of the put configuration is the elimination of the dedicated pick face. This means no need for slotting and re-slotting the warehouse. In most put configurations, all items are brought to the order selection operator; therefore, the order fulfillment staff does not need to move through the warehouse.
Pick rates for put systems are typically higher than conventional “person to the goods” configurations where there is a pick face for every SKU. Systems that migrated to put order fulfillment can increase picking rates from 1.5 to 3 times depending on the system configuration.
A general merchandise retailer redesigned its operation to incorporate put order fulfillment. With 125 stores, there is one pallet position dedicated to each store. A pallet of one SKU is moved on a pallet jack to the store pallet locations. Stores that require this SKU receive the required number of cases. Put instructions are provided to the operator with a wearable voice device. Pick rates in this application improved from 70 cartons per hour per picker to 122, while providing real time tracking of product.
An Internet retailer uses a high density staging device to store thousands of SKUs instead of providing dedicated pick faces. Multiple operator put stations are connected to the storage system with a conveyor network. SKUs required to fill orders are delivered to the put stations where operators put the items into a shipping container. When the single or multi-line orders are complete, the conveyor network takes the carton to shipping. In this configuration, put operators obtain 250 lines per operator per hour, a two-fold increase when compared to the previous system. Other benefits include reduced warehouse space requirements, controlled access to product and improved accuracy.
An apparel retailer uses a zone put system. There are 20 put zones in the system; there are 1,000 stores and 50 store carton positions per zone. One operator works in a zone. Cartons containing one SKU are removed from storage and routed to put zones that require the SKU. A carton of one SKU travels only to the zones where the store has ordered that SKU. The zone put system enables 325 puts per operator per hour.
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