The 6 basics of improving order fulfilment processes

1. Defining order fulfilment
2. Six basics of improving order fulfilment
3. Organise stock
4. Utilise pick bins
5. Train staff
6. Keep picking zones safe
7. Better use of floor space
8. Use efficient packaging
9. Prepare for the unexpected
10. Summary

Think about the last time you went to the supermarket.

Chances are you had an idea of what you needed and where to find it. What’s more, all of the items related to each other, for example, everything you would need to bake a cake, tend to be in the same area.

Your own warehouse or storage facility should be set up and organised in this manner.

By grouping your inventory into related items and establishing a logical, defined order, you will help yourself find the products your customers have ordered (or indeed the materials/components you need to manufacture their orders).

Speeding up the time it takes to pick your orders means that your customers receive their goods quickly, too.

This, in turn, leads to improved satisfaction, your customers knowing that they can rely on you for last-minute or urgent requirements, and ultimately helps shape the perception they form of your company.

In contrast, if you take forever to get their orders to them, or even just longer than your competitors do, you could soon start losing business.

For many, however, organising stock can be a logistical nightmare. This can be particularly pronounced if your inventory consists of many small components, products, or parts, or is made up of many very similar lines (for example, different sizes of clothing items).

It may also be that your warehouse has a lot of racking or shelving that isn’t well-suited to your products.

The answer to both of these issues is making use of picking bins.

Depending on the specific application, these are usually manufactured from corrugated cardboard or various plastics (e.g., Correx bins) and allow for much better utilisation of warehouse space, help organise your stock much more easily, and reduce your picking times.

This final point is essential for the same reason as organising your stock is, in that minimising lead times on your orders will help to improve customer satisfaction and allow you to process higher volumes of orders too.

Saying that there are numerous other benefits of using order picking bins, including protecting stored items, easier management of stock levels, and improving the overall efficiency of your operations.

Order fulfilment can be quite labour-intensive depending on the type of picking processes and methods you have in place.

As a result, it is vitally important that your staff are well-trained, know where to find the items they need to fulfil a specific order, and are offered realistic incentives to keep them motivated and happy.

In fact, as with the previous two points, a motivated and efficient workforce will help you to reduce your average order fulfilment times and will be more productive in general.

It is also worth remembering that whilst staff must know their own job inside and out, if you have essential team members off due to holidays, illness, or other reasons, you have other employees who can step into their roles with minimal disruption.

This cross-training ensures that you will have a multi-skilled workforce that can handle more than one job in your warehouse and help out in particular areas that become exceptionally busy.

It may sound obvious, but keeping your warehouse safe is exceptionally important.

A high number of work-related accidents and injuries occur in areas assigned to order fulfilment and in warehouses in general. This can be anything from slips and falls and injuries caused by lifting and reaching, to forklift accidents.

The consequences of this can be severe; beyond your responsibility for your staff’s welfare, a high number of accidents can result in injury claims, lost productivity due to staff requiring time off, reduced staff morale, and even harder recruitment and retention.

By following health and safety guidelines (and training your staff on best practices), implementing efficient processes, and organising your warehouse, you can minimise manual handling and movement, reducing both risk and accidents.

One problem that many businesses face is a lack of space.

This can become particularly acute if you experience growth, have fast-moving seasonal products, or do not have a particularly big warehouse in the first place.

Besides making it harder to organise your stock (therefore affecting order fulfilment times), overloading shelves or even having stock placed on the floor in aisles can be a real health and safety issue (not to mention increasing the risk of stock damage).

So, if you can’t organise your racking or shelving more efficiently using parts bins, another solution may be to use what are often called “stacking parts bins“.

These are similar to picking bins but are free-standing, allowing you to house additional items at the end of your rows of racking on empty floor space that otherwise would not be used efficiently.

Depending on the material used for their manufacture, it may also be possible to assemble and use these only during peak times and store them flat when they’re not required. Being mobile, they can also be used to store particularly fast-moving lines in locations that reduce travel time for your packing staff.

Ultimately, making the best use of your floor space can not only provide you with extra capacity (either permanent or temporary) but also boost productivity.

Once your orders have been picked, the next stage is to pack them ready for dispatch.

However, this is an area that is frequently overlooked in terms of its impact on your order fulfilment.

For example, slow-assembling boxes have a knock-on effect on your team’s productivity (and therefore on how quickly your customers receive their items). Boxes that are not strong enough will result in damage in transit and high return rates. Boxes that are too big will require excessive void fill and cost more to ship.

Even having a large inventory of custom-sized boxes can be disadvantageous if not handled correctly, preventing you from realising economies of scale.

As such, analysing your packaging should be a project in its own right. Get it right, and it can improve productivity, reduce costs, and enhance customer satisfaction. Get it wrong, and the impacts can be highly detrimental to your business.

The final point to remember is that cheap packaging isn’t always the cheaper long-term option.

Whilst it could be argued that peaks in your order volumes at times such as Christmas or Black Friday are hardly “unexpected”, it is essential to be ready for surges in demand for your products.

It may be that a product you sell is featured on a TV programme, and the exposure leads to a dramatic spike in sales. Maybe an unseasonably warm summer pushes sales of specific lines above expectations. Perhaps a new line performs better than expected.

Regardless of what may cause increased (and potentially unexpected) demand, it is essential that your order fulfilment processes can cope.

All of the points above, such as organising stock well, maximising the use of floor space (including temporary storage if required/appropriate), and having a flexible, well-trained workforce that covers a variety of roles, will help maintain the level of service your customers expect.

Whilst it may be time-consuming, making plans for as many eventualities as possible can help you minimise the impact if the unexpected happens.

The basics of improving order fulfilment, whilst not necessarily complicated, can still be difficult to implement successfully.

However, do so gives your business (eCommerce or not), a solid platform to grow sales, increase your product range, and develop a reputation that will lead to repeat business and satisfied customers.

But once you have the basics in place, don’t stop there. Several advanced strategies for picking and packing can really drive your business to the next level.

That said, a good start for any business looking to improve its order fulfilment processes is to ensure the correct picking bins are used.

Still need help with your fulfilment processes, looking to find some solutions that will work for your business? Get in touch with our team of packaging experts today.