Running a busy warehouse from a live map of the floor

The client

A UK online retailer sending out thousands of parcels on a busy day from its own warehouses.

The challenge

Order tools could say what needed to go out, but not how the warehouse should do it: where each item is kept, which orders to pick together, which route a picker should walk, and which box each order needs. In the run-up to Christmas, volumes rise to several times a normal day, and over the years the business moved into completely different buildings.

What we built

• A floor plan of each warehouse as a grid of bays, aisles, doors and lifts, which managers maintain themselves
• Automatic batching of orders into pick lists and waves, prioritised by dispatch deadline and courier
• A route planner that works out the shortest walk for each pick list, and re-plans in real time around areas that are blocked or full
• Handheld screens for every stage: goods in, put-away, picking, a pick wall for multi-item orders, packing and dispatch
• A separate flow for large and heavy items
• Box selection that finds the smallest box each order fits into
• Courier labels and branded picking notes printed straight to label printers
• Stock counts from a phone, transfers between sites, delivery booking and live wall boards for supervisors