An order picking system is the combination of equipment, software, and station layout that gets the right units out of storage and into the right order, in sequence, at a known rate. It spans everything from a scanner and a cart to a goods-to-person station fed by shuttles.
Manual picking sets a low ceiling. A picker walking a zone with a paper list averages roughly 70 lines per hour, at error rates between 1% and 3%. Every mispick costs four times: the pick, the return, the re-ship, and the credit. Automated order picking reforms both numbers at once: it removes travel, and it verifies the pick before the carton moves.
Different order profiles need different equipment. We specify against your lines per order, SKU velocity, product dimensions, and volume. Automated picking methods we support:
Warehouse order picking design starts with your order profile, then works backward to equipment.
Labor-based methods. Pick-by-scan is accurate and quick to roll out, but its rate ceiling stays tied to headcount. Pick-to-light is faster on dense, high-velocity SKUs, though the fixed zones get expensive to relayout. Voice keeps hands free and holds accuracy across a wide SKU range, but it does nothing about travel time.
Batching. Put-to-light lets you consolidate batches without buying a sorter. The tradeoff is a second touch on every unit.
Automation. Goods-to-person removes travel entirely and improves cube density, but the capital cost and lead time are real. Robotics holds a steady rate on uniform product and struggles outside a narrow product tolerance.
Order picking solutions break down at vendor handoffs. Software, controls engineering, UL 508A panels, custom fabrication, and mechanical and electrical installation all sit under one roof.
Your WMS knows what needs to be shipped. A WCS tells the equipment what happens next. It reads scanners, photo-eyes, diverts, accumulation zones, and e-stops in real time, then coordinates each handoff across the line.
A WCS can:
Without that control layer, the equipment may run, but it does not operate as one coordinated system.
We work with mid-market operations running real volume, including 3PL buildings where every client has a different workflow, e-commerce fulfillment sites moving 200+ cartons per minute, retail distribution networks, and manufacturing lines feeding assembly.
It's the equipment, software, and layout that pull units from storage into customer orders at a controlled rate. It covers scanners, pick-to-light, voice, goods-to-person stations, conveyor, sortation, and the control software directing them.
Light-directed picking typically holds accuracy above 99%, and voice-directed picking reaches 99.99% – roughly one error per 1,000 picks. Manual paper picking usually runs error rates between 1% and 3%.
No. Your WMS owns inventory, orders, and labor planning. A warehouse control system sits beneath it, translating those commands into equipment actions and reporting what actually happened on the floor.
Yes. Most of our projects are retrofits onto live client lines, phased zone by zone and cut over on weekends. One recent line went in over a single weekend, increasing throughput by 30%.
Scope drives it. A zoned pick-to-light or scan-verification rollout typically goes in over a matter of weeks, while goods-to-person and AS/RS-fed stations carry longer equipment lead times and structural wor
Tell us your order profile and peak hour target. We'll tell you what it takes to hit it, and what it doesn't.
