Source: Deutsche Nachrichten
300 orders on Monday, 850 on Tuesday and more than 1,500 towards the weekend: Daily order volumes in e-commerce can fluctuate significantly. This creates a particular challenge for warehouse managers. Available staffing levels and warehouse space remain largely unchanged, while an increasing number of order lines must be picked within increasingly tight timeframes.
Simply hiring additional staff as order volumes rise often fails to address the underlying problem. Efficient e-commerce order picking primarily depends on how orders are organised, how warehouse travel distances are managed and how reliably inventory is controlled.
Single-Order Picking Becomes a Bottleneck at High Volumes
With traditional single-order picking, an employee processes each customer order separately. While this approach is straightforward for smaller order volumes, it creates unnecessary travel distances when demand increases.
If the same product appears in 25 different customer orders, its storage location may need to be visited 25 times.
Alternative picking strategies can help overcome this problem. With batch picking, items for multiple orders are collected during a single picking run. They are subsequently allocated to individual customer orders, for example through an order-specific sorting process.
Zone picking can also be beneficial when larger warehouse areas or different product categories can be separated into distinct picking zones.
The most cost-effective strategy depends on product characteristics, order sizes, warehouse layout and ordering frequency.
Warehouse Management Software Coordinates Order Fulfilment
To process multiple orders efficiently, inventory levels, storage locations and picking tasks must be connected.
The COSYS Warehouse Management System (WMS) helps businesses digitally manage their warehouse operations. Employees receive picking tasks on mobile devices and confirm item withdrawals by scanning barcodes.
This records which item has been picked, in what quantity and for which order. At the same time, barcode verification helps reduce picking errors by checking that the correct product has been selected.
This is particularly important when handling similar product variants, different packaging sizes or extensive product ranges.
A centralised warehouse management system also provides the foundation for managing orders as part of a continuous material flow, from goods receipt through to dispatch, rather than treating individual orders as isolated processes.
Mobile Order Picking Requires Suitable Hardware
When employees perform several hundred scans per shift, device selection should not be based solely on purchase price.
For larger e-commerce warehouses with intensive picking operations, the Honeywell CK67 is a suitable option. Its rugged construction and physical keypad are designed for demanding warehouse environments.
In smaller picking areas where employees move frequently, a lighter and more compact device may be more practical.
COSYS complements its software with suitable mobile data collection hardware, device configuration, repair and replacement services, and Mobile Device Management for the centralised administration of larger device fleets.
Forecasting Helps Businesses Prepare for Order Peaks
Efficient order picking begins long before a customer order enters the system.
With COSYS Forecasting, historical order and stock movement data can be used as the basis for demand forecasts. Seasonal fluctuations, recurring purchasing patterns and increasing product turnover can therefore be considered during operational planning.
Warehouse managers can, for example, estimate which products are likely to experience particularly high demand during a promotional campaign and whether additional picking capacity will be required.
Positioning fast-moving products in easily accessible warehouse areas ahead of anticipated demand can also help reduce subsequent travel distances.
Process Mining and Computer Vision Reveal Further Opportunities for Improvement
Not every warehouse bottleneck can be identified from order volumes alone.
COSYS Process Mining uses digitally recorded process events to examine how warehouse operations actually take place. This makes it possible to identify unusually long processing times, repeated activities or delays between order picking and preparation for dispatch.
COSYS Computer Vision can provide additional capabilities wherever visual information offers operational value. Depending on the application and technical implementation, packaging conditions or visible product discrepancies can, for example, be analysed automatically.
Neither technology replaces effective warehouse organisation, but both can help businesses systematically identify inefficiencies that would otherwise be difficult to detect.
Conclusion: Handle More Orders Through Smarter Warehouse Processes
High order volumes do not necessarily require larger warehouses or proportionally more employees. What matters is how efficiently orders are grouped, products are located and stock movements are recorded.
COSYS combines a modular, scalable Warehouse Management System with mobile data capture, hardware, technical services, Business Intelligence, Forecasting and Process Mining. Computer Vision can also be integrated where suitable inspection processes benefit from image-based analysis.
Tip: Would you like to explore digital order picking processes? Try the COSYS demo apps free of charge and without obligation in the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.