Smart Picking Using Pick Path Optimization

This article talks about our smart picking methodology. This is an add on feature, which help pickers be more efficient.

Leanafy’s Smart picking is a premium add-on feature designed to streamline the picking process, helping pickers navigate the warehouse in the most efficient way. This document outlines the feature, its prerequisites, and how it works.

Note: This is a paid feature and may not be active for all warehouses by default. Please contact the Help Center to get it activated if you're interested in using it.

Prerequisites

To make the most of Smart Picking, ensure the following prerequisites are met:

1. Warehouse Location Weighted Map: You need a detailed map of your warehouse locations, with weights assigned based on their proximity, levels and accessibility. Leanafy support will help you with this, also this is a one time setup, however you need to update this again when you add/remove a location.

2. Prioritised Picking Areas: Identify priority or forward pick areas and apply biases for these locations within the weighted map. This allows the system to favor these areas when calculating paths.

How It Works

1. Path Generation on Picklist Creation:
   Once the feature is activated, every time a picklist is created, a background task automatically triggers to generate an optimized path. This task involves:

   • Fetching the locations of all items in the picklist.

   • Considering the biases assigned to priority locations.

   • Calculating the shortest possible path based on the relative weights of each location.

   • Reserving the inventory at the specific locations included in the path.

2. Guided Picking:
   When a picker starts a picklist on the mobile app, the system guides them to the nearest location first, followed by the next closest, continuing in an optimized sequence to minimize travel time. This ensures that picking is done as efficiently as possible.

3. Handling Path Changes:
   Sometimes, the initial path may no longer be valid if items have been moved, damaged, or audited since the path generation. In such cases, the picker has the option to regenerate the path at the time of picking. This recalculation, based on the latest inventory data, may take a few minutes, so please be patient.

4. Completing the Process:
   Once the items are picked according to the optimized path, proceed with the remaining steps in the order fulfillment process as usual.

Additional Resources

• How to pick an order using pick path
  Learn the step-by-step process of picking individual orders using the optimized path feature.

• How to pick a mixed batch using pick path
  This guide explains how to handle mixed batches, combining multiple orders into a single picking task while optimizing the path.

• How to pick an identical batch using pick path
  Discover the best practices for picking identical batches to streamline the process further.

• How to switch between brute force and path optimization methods
  Understand when and how to switch between brute-force picking and optimized path methods for different scenarios.

By following these guidelines, you can leverage Leanafy’s Pick Path Optimization to increase the efficiency of your warehouse operations and reduce travel time for pickers.