One of the most widely used warehouse order picking and fulfillment technologies today is known as pick to light. To help you better understand this technology, we’ve answered some of the most common questions about pick to light systems:
- What is pick to light?
- What are the benefits of pick to light?
- What are ideal applications for pick to light?
- How does pick to light work?
- What is the best pick to light technology?
What is Pick to Light?
Pick to Light is an order picking technology that has been adopted by many warehouse fulfillment systems. Pick to light is a light-directed order fulfillment system that helps pickers increase speed and accuracy. By eliminating paper-based picking, operators no longer need to manually review a paper order when selecting items.
Instead, pick to light uses a computer to activate lights at pick locations (on carousels, carton flow racks, shelving, and other storage systems) to indicate which items to pick and in what quantity. Once the task is complete, the operator presses a button to confirm the pick. Similarly, in a Put to Light system, lights indicate where items should be placed in carts, totes, or bins.
What are the Benefits of Pick to Light?
Pick to light enables paperless picking, eliminating the time-consuming process of manually reading and selecting items. This streamlined system improves both productivity and accuracy by reducing labor-intensive tasks and unnecessary travel across the warehouse.
Orders are downloaded from your existing WMS or host system, optimized for pick paths, and executed using pick to light technology. In short, this system allows any warehouse fulfillment operation to:
- Reduce labor costs
- Increase picking speed and productivity
- Improve order accuracy
- Reduce travel distances within the warehouse
What are Ideal Applications for Pick to Light?
Pick to light systems are ideal for warehouses that handle piece picking or broken case picking, especially those with large numbers of SKUs and labor-intensive picking processes. If 20% of your products require 80% of your picking labor, a pick to light system can dramatically enhance your productivity and accuracy.
Some ideal applications include:
- eCommerce & Mail-Order
- Apparel & Footwear
- Automotive Aftermarket Parts
- Food, Beverage, & Grocery
- Pharmaceuticals, Health & Beauty
- Reverse Logistics
- Consumer Goods Manufacturing
- Value-Added & Customized Products
- Retail
- Vending
How Does Pick to Light Work?
We won’t dive too deeply into the technical details, but here’s an overview of how a typical pick to light system works:
Step 1: Integrate pick to light software with your existing WMS or host system.
Step 2: Install pick light modules in the areas where you want to improve picking speed and productivity. This system works best in zones where 80% of your picking activity comes from 20% of your SKUs.
Step 3: Train your order pickers on the new system—it’ll become their favorite tool for improving efficiency!
With pick to light technology, you can significantly optimize your warehouse operations and stay ahead of the competition in order fulfillment.