For decades warehouses have faced challenges specifically for pick and pack of shipments. In an
inventory setting, every second counts as money and the delay or early picking,
packing, and delivery means efficient use of time to increase business. 

According to the current trade of warehouses, it has been
observed that modern customers order a variety of SKU in a small quantity in a
single order. 

With the popularity of e-commerce websites today, most
inventories have to directly serve the customers. Here moving larger pallets of
similar SKU does not work. The variety of product that goes into one
consignment is way wider and may take a lot of time if not properly
channelized. 

However, packing a consignment with similar items is far easier
than accumulating a small quantity of a variety of products. But to increase
warehouse productivity, more emphasis must be given to study the trend of
customer approach. 

Along with individual customers, smaller consignments are
obvious of retailers as well. Therefore, warehouse planning should be rethought and reprocessed to increase productivity.

Here are a few best practices for efficient pick and
pack process

• Keeping abreast of inventory stock- An accurate inventory count must be made available
  at all times for reference. The use of barcodes with properly integrated
  software goes a long way to calculate the inventory at all times. However, if
  you still believe in manual stock-keeping methods, then this might not work for
  you anymore. With the increase in small consignments, it is extremely hard to
  check stock physically. Moreover, it increases the chance of unmatched
  inventory when done manually. 

• ●      
  Grouping frequently ordered items together and
  handy- As per inventory planning, you
  must have followed a trend of one or more SKUs that are frequently ordered in
  almost 80% of the consignment. Identifying and grouping such items will save a
  lot of time while picking and packing. It is also advised to store such
  products near to the packaging area to make it even easier to reach. However,
  this planning cannot be a one-time process. Frequent analysis of trends should
  be done to understand the change in pattern and thus the changes must be
  registered in the inventory planning further.

• Warehouse Management System integration- A warehouse management system works as the backbone of a
  warehouse. It takes equal note of stock-keeping, order processing, pick and pack, and shipping. A
  warehouse must have a well-integrated WMS system that suits their style of
  business requirement. 

• Use of technology- Today software is developed specifically to support
  warehouse picking and packing systems. Starting from a robotic approach to
  lighting approach, there is an availability of the most sophisticated software
  to make your pick and pack work
  easy. Access the need for your inventory and adopt technologies that help to
  increase efficiency and profit.

While you adopt new and innovative warehouse planning techniques, note that the requirement of every
warehouse may depend on various factors like:

• Geographical location
• Customer base
• Time of the year
• Latest trends

Hence, accessing the requirement of your warehouse is a
continuous process and is based on specific factors that are different from one
another.