Order fulfillment is key to a company’s ability to thrive in today’s e-commerce environment. As online ordering and fast shipping become the prevailing expectation of consumers, reliable and efficient fulfillment practices are required to maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Yet one of the biggest challenges to fulfillment efficiency is order picking, or pulling inventory off shelves in a warehouse to fulfill orders. In a world of online shopping, fulfilling single orders can bog down a warehouse’s picking process. That’s why many companies are turning to a picking method called batching — to get their orders out the door and into customers’ hands quickly.
But what does batching mean exactly, and could it be a better order picking strategy for your organization? Let’s explore more.
Batching (also known as fulfillment batching or batch picking) is a picking method that allows warehouse staff to fulfill multiple orders at the same time. In the batching method, the picker will have identical packing lists for multiple orders, so that he or she can pull stock of a specific item and fulfill it for each order simultaneously, instead of returning to the shelf repeatedly for each order.
Let’s say you sell pet supplies and need to fulfill three orders. Each order includes the exact same dog bowl. Order #1 needs two dog bowls, order #2 needs five dog bowls, and order #3 needs one. With batching utilized, the warehouse picker would grab all of the dog bowls needed for the three orders in one visit to the dog bowl inventory, instead of fulfilling one order, sending it off to be packed and shipped, and then coming back to get order #2, repeating the process, and so on. Batching even works when orders include multiple items that are the same in each order.
Batching can be an ideal strategy if your customers tend to buy similar or identical amounts of the same products, especially when you have a large volume of orders to process. Companies that sell subscription boxes, perishable goods, or provide customer rewards for product launches or crowdfunding campaigns will often utilize batching to get these regular products out efficiently.
When you’re trying to get your products to your customers quickly, batching is often the best picking option over other methods. Here’s what makes batching stand above the rest:
Unlike traditional piece picking, where you pick and pack one order at a time, batching allows your warehouse employees to pick multiple orders simultaneously, speeding up the process. Plus, with multiple orders gathered, it’s often easier for the packers to separate the items into their respective individual orders and packaging.
Imagine you’re a warehouse picker. If you keep walking to the same inventory storage over and over again to fulfill similar orders, you’d get tired right? Plus, all those trips would take extra time. With batching, your warehouse pickers can pull inventory for several similar orders at once without those back-and-forth trips, dramatically reducing foot traffic and picking time. Batching can be a major benefit especially if you have a large, spacious warehouse that requires a longer walking distance for picking. Your employees (and their feet) will thank you.
Batching is a faster picking method, hands down. With your ability to pull multiple orders on one trip, you’re reducing needed picking trips, enabling you pick and pack orders more efficiently. And by focusing on batching orders, you can fulfill large quantities of items during each shift, giving you the ability to prioritize the most pressing orders first. In fact, often all batched orders can be packed and ready to ship within one scheduling window for each picking shift, optimizing your picking process. This means your customers won’t be waiting long to receive their orders.
While it’s clear that batching can speed up your fulfillment process, how can you make it a reality in your organization? By partnering with the right 3PL, of course. At Smart Warehousing, we can provide a fully integrated warehouse management system (WMS) to manage your inventory and lay the groundwork for batching your orders successfully. In addition, our turnkey fulfillment services make end-to-end fulfillment accuracy and efficiency more achievable than ever. With our help, your fulfillment process can rise above your competitors and create happy, satisfied customers, leading to more orders in the future. Ready to get started?