The surge in eCommerce has had an impact on worker productivity. Speed of delivery is fundamental to consumers' purchasing decisions. Same-day delivery with the flexibility to cancel or change a delivery means that the warehouse needs to be flexible and responsive to the customer’s needs. Pick and pack is often the most costly and time-consuming process in a warehouse. Thousands of different SKUs (stock keeping units) need to be randomly accessed in small quantities. Travel time for manual pickers can occupy 60 percent of order picking hours. This can result in picking errors and an overall loss of efficiency. inVia’s AI warehouse execution software, inVia Logic, optimizes the pick path routes for manual workers. It finds the fastest route and can also place SKUs that are ordered more often closer to pack out. Human pickers using inVia’s PickMate technology with a color-based interface are then guided to quickly and accurately pick and pack goods, doubling the picking rates.
As a result, using the integrated PickMate metrics, picking rates surpassed 600 Units Per Hour. Metrics can be viewed using the inVia Logic dashboard.