e-Commerce Warehouse Operative - How many parcels a day?
Discussion
What would be considered a fair amount of boxes a single operative should be able to comfortably pack per day?
The operative also answers the phone (couple per hour usually, most commonly that call is then put through to someone technical). Some of our products need some minor customisation (about 10 minutes extra per box, usually a couple a day)
How many would be expected per hour if not interrupted?
Just curious what other peoples companies consider a fair normal amount per day/hour.
I've implemented order management system that integrates with DPD & ParcelForce, I've bought extra tape guns for branded tape/standard tape, we stock lots of boxes, got air bag machine, outgoing parcel trolleys, I'm consistently tidying and trying to improve the warehouse. There is a full size packing bench + a work station with computer, two printers (parcelforce & DPD) all linked to the computer, we've even got a full size A3/A4 leased printer. What else can I do to make things easier/quicker?
The operative also answers the phone (couple per hour usually, most commonly that call is then put through to someone technical). Some of our products need some minor customisation (about 10 minutes extra per box, usually a couple a day)
How many would be expected per hour if not interrupted?
Just curious what other peoples companies consider a fair normal amount per day/hour.
I've implemented order management system that integrates with DPD & ParcelForce, I've bought extra tape guns for branded tape/standard tape, we stock lots of boxes, got air bag machine, outgoing parcel trolleys, I'm consistently tidying and trying to improve the warehouse. There is a full size packing bench + a work station with computer, two printers (parcelforce & DPD) all linked to the computer, we've even got a full size A3/A4 leased printer. What else can I do to make things easier/quicker?
There is no standard answer to this. Any warehouse operation will set a base pick rate for operatives but a supermarket running a freezer chamber at -25c hand picking pallets of pork shoulders is not the same game as a picker working through shampoo & lipstick orders for Avon. You have to take into account the picking system, nature of the product, distance walked, accuracy required & time spent on other duties. I spent years designing picking operations & incentive schemes for pickers & my honest advice is be fair & realistic in respect of what can reasonably be achieved so that you strike a balance somewhere between Mike Ashley & Willy Wonka.
You don't want to drive staff away, irrespective of how much of a bottom rung job it might be, equally you want your money's worth, so study the job, see what is possible & tighten it, with incentives if need be & they don't have to be much either, a tenner here, an hour off there, it all works.
Also, if you have distinct processes, it can be harsh to institute a set pick rate that is at risk of being unachievable if for example, the picker has to take five calls an hour or do additional work to the product. In those circumstances, you should divide the processes between staff, assuming the business has sufficient throughput to allow that.
You don't want to drive staff away, irrespective of how much of a bottom rung job it might be, equally you want your money's worth, so study the job, see what is possible & tighten it, with incentives if need be & they don't have to be much either, a tenner here, an hour off there, it all works.
Also, if you have distinct processes, it can be harsh to institute a set pick rate that is at risk of being unachievable if for example, the picker has to take five calls an hour or do additional work to the product. In those circumstances, you should divide the processes between staff, assuming the business has sufficient throughput to allow that.
Edited by banjowilly on Wednesday 31st July 13:44
As above, there is no set answer for this.
It depends on the product, how the warehouse is laid out, distance they have to travel, equipment they have available to use, etc, etc.
It could, literally, be 30 items per hour in one warehouse and 60 in another. Or more.
I assume you're trying to improve productivity so the first step is to measure accurately what you have. With a spread of operatives, you will get an average baseline for what productivity is possible in your current facility with your current layout.
Then, you can work on improving that through Lean processes, etc.
It depends on the product, how the warehouse is laid out, distance they have to travel, equipment they have available to use, etc, etc.
It could, literally, be 30 items per hour in one warehouse and 60 in another. Or more.
I assume you're trying to improve productivity so the first step is to measure accurately what you have. With a spread of operatives, you will get an average baseline for what productivity is possible in your current facility with your current layout.
Then, you can work on improving that through Lean processes, etc.
banjowilly said:
There is no standard answer to this. Any warehouse operation will set a base pick rate for operatives but a supermarket running a freezer chamber at -25c hand picking pallets of pork shoulders is not the same game as a picker working through shampoo & lipstick orders for Avon. You have to take into account the picking system, nature of the product, distance walked, accuracy required & time spent on other duties. I spent years designing picking operations & incentive schemes for pickers & my honest advice is be fair & realistic in respect of what can reasonably be achieved so that you strike a balance somewhere between Mike Ashley & Willy Wonka.
You don't want to drive staff away, irrespective of how much of a bottom rung job it might be, equally you want your money's worth, so study the job, see what is possible & tighten it, with incentives if need be & they don't have to be much either, a tenner here, an hour off there, it all works.
Also, if you have distinct processes, it can be harsh to institute a set pick rate that is at risk of being unachievable if for example, the picker has to take five calls an hour or do additional work to the product. In those circumstances, you should divide the processes between staff, assuming the business has sufficient throughput to allow that.
How would I go about figuring out a base pick rate?You don't want to drive staff away, irrespective of how much of a bottom rung job it might be, equally you want your money's worth, so study the job, see what is possible & tighten it, with incentives if need be & they don't have to be much either, a tenner here, an hour off there, it all works.
Also, if you have distinct processes, it can be harsh to institute a set pick rate that is at risk of being unachievable if for example, the picker has to take five calls an hour or do additional work to the product. In those circumstances, you should divide the processes between staff, assuming the business has sufficient throughput to allow that.
Edited by banjowilly on Wednesday 31st July 13:44
We're a very small company, warehouse is only 10m x 5m of racking with boxed products so not much walking. A lot of goods come in daily then go back out same day. Most orders involve picking 1-3 items and putting in a box. And we're high-value low order count so we rarely have more than 10 parcels a day. Today for instance the operative has been packing since 9am, hasn't had lunch yet and there's 7 boxes in the courier racks. Two of these orders did involve some customisation but even allowing 1 hour for each box thats still 3 hours to pack 5 items along with a few phone calls.
As we're quite small I'm wondering if we're better off scheduling our day so that this operative can work uninterrupted between X and X but I'd have slightly higher expectations on box count.
What worries me is that we're low volume now but we're increasing and we're adding lots of lower value products so we expect order volume to increase over the next few months. We need to be doing at least twice as much consistently before we get a dedicated warehouse operative, but I don't think the current operative will handle much more than is being done right now.
Muzzer79 said:
As above, there is no set answer for this.
It depends on the product, how the warehouse is laid out, distance they have to travel, equipment they have available to use, etc, etc.
It could, literally, be 30 items per hour in one warehouse and 60 in another. Or more.
I assume you're trying to improve productivity so the first step is to measure accurately what you have. With a spread of operatives, you will get an average baseline for what productivity is possible in your current facility with your current layout.
Then, you can work on improving that through Lean processes, etc.
Trying to improve, reduce stress for that operative and build foundation for growth.It depends on the product, how the warehouse is laid out, distance they have to travel, equipment they have available to use, etc, etc.
It could, literally, be 30 items per hour in one warehouse and 60 in another. Or more.
I assume you're trying to improve productivity so the first step is to measure accurately what you have. With a spread of operatives, you will get an average baseline for what productivity is possible in your current facility with your current layout.
Then, you can work on improving that through Lean processes, etc.
We've put a LOT of work in lately, improving systems, sales platforms, how the products are listed, stock, software integrations etc.
I'm confident that we should not be stressing over 10 parcels an hour let alone a day. Others don't see it that way, but at the same time I want to make sure as the owner I'm making it as easy and efficient as possible.
If I'm packing then 10 items is usually done before the coffee van arrives at 10am!
Can you not measure if for a few weeks, work out Takt time.
You need to add in set up time, 15 mins, clean up time, 10 mins end of shift plus breaks. Also toilet times and other duties. You need to think about holiday cover and sickness.
You have to be resonable and it will be done day in day out, and motivation factor will be needed if just one person. So it might be better a few PT staff over just one FT, provides more flexibility.
You need to add in set up time, 15 mins, clean up time, 10 mins end of shift plus breaks. Also toilet times and other duties. You need to think about holiday cover and sickness.
You have to be resonable and it will be done day in day out, and motivation factor will be needed if just one person. So it might be better a few PT staff over just one FT, provides more flexibility.
Edited by Thesprucegoose on Wednesday 31st July 14:43
MrSparks said:
Most orders involve picking 1-3 items and putting in a box. And we're high-value low order count so we rarely have more than 10 parcels a day.
At risk of being flippant, your base pick rate is at best 3.75/hr which is...poor.The base rate is easily worked out by dividing the individual skus picked by the hours worked. That's what you're getting now. I feel the underlying question is - this isn't enough, how do I improve it for when we expand? And the answer to that is to observe the guys in action, which will usually generate an improvement on its own, then think critically about how the flow can be improved.
Do you need one guy picking & another packing? Should there be someone else doing the modifications, freeing the picker to pick? Another to man the phone? Can you re-lay I.e. rearrange the storage of products to improve flow/reduce bottlenecks? Do you need to bring in some form of automation or IT assistance. Picking is a process thing & there's lots of stuff out there to give you ideas on how to speed it up.
One example from my own past is an operation encompassing about 1000 separate skus, generating about 200-400 parcels/day. That took about 30 pickers across two shifts to achieve. So we set it up that they had pick notes generated from the order system at the start. Tote bins in a pile, placed one bin per order on a metal conveyor & the pickers walked the pick, taking items from the racking between them and the conveyor. Once picked, the tote & pick note was passed to the checker, who verified the order accuracy. Then the tote went to the packer who filled the parcel & stacked it on a pallet, ready for despatch.
We regularly reviewed the product lines so we could ensure we picked from heavy to light so as to avoid crushing in the Tote bins & to make sure the pick wasn't held up by high volume products all clustered together in the racks. Then we trialled part pick, so that instead of one picker walking a bin round the line, they picked several bins from their zone & passed the bin to the next picker & so on. You get the idea - it's a process of continual refinement until you hit the productivity you think is optimal.
Just to add, I would expect a pick rate from someone picking average products that can be handled easily in a reasonably laid out operation to be well north of 100/hr, nearer 200 perhaps so that suggests to me you either have an absolute waster on the books or they're being pulled in all directions to the detriment of productivity.
If the operative is moving at a normal speed (you've checked this of course) then if they are not achieving the results you think they should then the chances are that they are slacking when you are not watching. Answer is to keep watching (a camera wil do this for you).
Otherwise there's a problem with your systems. Maybe you need to get in there yourself and have a go. it will soon become obvious what the problem is.
Otherwise there's a problem with your systems. Maybe you need to get in there yourself and have a go. it will soon become obvious what the problem is.
smaller pick & pack operations I have seen often suffer from the problem of the time taken to process that day's orders stretching out to fill the time available
if there are only 10 orders to pick & pack in a day, then those 10 take all day with a few interruptions, toilet breaks, faffing about with the bubble wrap etc.
if there were 20, they would get done in time too
is that happening at your place?
what do you think is a reasonable time to pick & pack your orders? what do you base that time on?
have you had a crack at it yourself?
look at it the other way perhaps too - how much do you pay the pick & pack person / people? how much £ do you want / need it to cost to pack an order?
if there are only 10 orders to pick & pack in a day, then those 10 take all day with a few interruptions, toilet breaks, faffing about with the bubble wrap etc.
if there were 20, they would get done in time too
is that happening at your place?
what do you think is a reasonable time to pick & pack your orders? what do you base that time on?
have you had a crack at it yourself?
look at it the other way perhaps too - how much do you pay the pick & pack person / people? how much £ do you want / need it to cost to pack an order?
banjowilly said:
Just to add, I would expect a pick rate from someone picking average products that can be handled easily in a reasonably laid out operation to be well north of 100/hr, nearer 200 perhaps so that suggests to me you either have an absolute waster on the books or they're being pulled in all directions to the detriment of productivity.
Great stuff, very useful info thank you!I'm not happy with 3.75 p/h and there's no way I'd get her up to 100 p/h but I'd be happy at 10-20 until we can justify getting someone in to do it as their sole job. Part time sounds like a good idea, especially as our cut off is 2pm so at our current levels we might not need anyone to work after the couriers have been.
singlecoil said:
If the operative is moving at a normal speed (you've checked this of course) then if they are not achieving the results you think they should then the chances are that they are slacking when you are not watching. Answer is to keep watching (a camera wil do this for you).
Otherwise there's a problem with your systems. Maybe you need to get in there yourself and have a go. it will soon become obvious what the problem is.
We've got CCTV so I can see what's going on in the warehouse, she's not slacking and she does a lot more than just packing so is over all valued. The problem is we don't have enough packing to get someone just to pack, and we don't have enough "other stuff" for her not do the packing. I'm confident that one person can do this job at this level without too much aggro. When me or the sales manager covers if she's on annual leave we don't tend to struggle. The problem will escalate real quick if we go from 10 orders to 20 orders let alone 100 orders and beyond.Otherwise there's a problem with your systems. Maybe you need to get in there yourself and have a go. it will soon become obvious what the problem is.
JPJPJP said:
smaller pick & pack operations I have seen often suffer from the problem of the time taken to process that day's orders stretching out to fill the time available
if there are only 10 orders to pick & pack in a day, then those 10 take all day with a few interruptions, toilet breaks, faffing about with the bubble wrap etc.
if there were 20, they would get done in time too
is that happening at your place?
what do you think is a reasonable time to pick & pack your orders? what do you base that time on?
have you had a crack at it yourself?
look at it the other way perhaps too - how much do you pay the pick & pack person / people? how much £ do you want / need it to cost to pack an order?
As she has other job roles she definitely doesn't drag it out (which also concerns me, if she's not dragging it out then either processes are wrong or she's just too slow!)if there are only 10 orders to pick & pack in a day, then those 10 take all day with a few interruptions, toilet breaks, faffing about with the bubble wrap etc.
if there were 20, they would get done in time too
is that happening at your place?
what do you think is a reasonable time to pick & pack your orders? what do you base that time on?
have you had a crack at it yourself?
look at it the other way perhaps too - how much do you pay the pick & pack person / people? how much £ do you want / need it to cost to pack an order?
I pack when she is off and if we're super busy, personally I love packing (I know, sad and probably wouldn't feel the same if it was my job!) so I can generally do quite a few.
This afternoon I and my sales manager have looked through the warehouse and planned it out a bit better, we've ordered a new packing bench, going to turn our existing packing bench into a processing/computer bench for customisation and printing orders etc. We've also added some more racking to solve a few minor issues with some of our products.
Once we get the new software fully integrated we'll do a few orders ourselves each day and try to iron out any issues and see where we get to. I'll also look to set times where she's packing and we cover the phones, even if it's only a couple hours a day un-interrupted that should be enough to get through most of the orders.
MrSparks said:
How would I go about figuring out a base pick rate?
We're a very small company, warehouse is only 10m x 5m of racking with boxed products so not much walking. A lot of goods come in daily then go back out same day. Most orders involve picking 1-3 items and putting in a box. And we're high-value low order count so we rarely have more than 10 parcels a day. Today for instance the operative has been packing since 9am, hasn't had lunch yet and there's 7 boxes in the courier racks. Two of these orders did involve some customisation but even allowing 1 hour for each box thats still 3 hours to pack 5 items along with a few phone calls.
As we're quite small I'm wondering if we're better off scheduling our day so that this operative can work uninterrupted between X and X but I'd have slightly higher expectations on box count.
What worries me is that we're low volume now but we're increasing and we're adding lots of lower value products so we expect order volume to increase over the next few months. We need to be doing at least twice as much consistently before we get a dedicated warehouse operative, but I don't think the current operative will handle much more than is being done right now.
Gut feel based on what you've said is that the operative is working at a pace commensurate with the workload they have in order to fill their day. Can you offer them "job and knock" whilst you're quiet? The incentive of being able to go home early once their work is done might see you get a more realistic pace of work out of them.We're a very small company, warehouse is only 10m x 5m of racking with boxed products so not much walking. A lot of goods come in daily then go back out same day. Most orders involve picking 1-3 items and putting in a box. And we're high-value low order count so we rarely have more than 10 parcels a day. Today for instance the operative has been packing since 9am, hasn't had lunch yet and there's 7 boxes in the courier racks. Two of these orders did involve some customisation but even allowing 1 hour for each box thats still 3 hours to pack 5 items along with a few phone calls.
As we're quite small I'm wondering if we're better off scheduling our day so that this operative can work uninterrupted between X and X but I'd have slightly higher expectations on box count.
What worries me is that we're low volume now but we're increasing and we're adding lots of lower value products so we expect order volume to increase over the next few months. We need to be doing at least twice as much consistently before we get a dedicated warehouse operative, but I don't think the current operative will handle much more than is being done right now.
From what you say,my guess is your operative is doing all sort of other stuff that's hitting the throughput. Only you know whether that's the case & if you're busy running a business, it's fair enough that stuff like this isn't a focus. I see it all the time with customers in my business but logistics is a sophisticated thing that can impact reputation - just ask ASOS! So it pays to look closely & see where you can bring things up to speed. Definitely sounds like more hands & more design to the process will help.
what exactly are you picking and packing?
no of picks, type of items how it goes out the door(packed in boxes etc)
wife runs a small business doing wax melts and bathbombs etc and we can turn out easily 10 orders an hour on a busy pick/pack per person
conversely many moons ago i worked for a supermarket picking in one of their warehouses, and we could easily crack 200 items an hour
no of picks, type of items how it goes out the door(packed in boxes etc)
wife runs a small business doing wax melts and bathbombs etc and we can turn out easily 10 orders an hour on a busy pick/pack per person
conversely many moons ago i worked for a supermarket picking in one of their warehouses, and we could easily crack 200 items an hour
banjowilly said:
From what you say,my guess is your operative is doing all sort of other stuff that's hitting the throughput. Only you know whether that's the case & if you're busy running a business, it's fair enough that stuff like this isn't a focus. I see it all the time with customers in my business but logistics is a sophisticated thing that can impact reputation - just ask ASOS! So it pays to look closely & see where you can bring things up to speed. Definitely sounds like more hands & more design to the process will help.
In hindsight I'm wondering if this is the main problem, I guess she's a bit slow at packing, but coupled with answering the phone and dealing with other bits it could be taking it's toll too much. I'm going to ask others to cover the phones first between 9am - 11am to give her a bit of un-interrupted packing time to take the pressure off. Then from 2pm onwards after our cut off she can do the book keeping and other bits. I'm going to be making more improvements to the systems, processes and physical warehouse layout and I'll monitor it, it's not always like today to be fair. Perhaps she's taking more phone calls then I notice, looking back at the call logs today it was a lot more than a "normal" day.
On the plus side our SOP manual has grown significantly, finally starting to feel in control ready to start scaling.
Hi Craig, I’ve found that packers like to pack, if you have 10 orders then can the packer be relieved of phone duty for the morning maybe (is the packer the right person to be answering your calls?)
With regard to carrier notes and labels can this be automated to print out on the pick bench?
This does sound very slow but maybe slow and accurate beats fast and wrong - but this is very slow.
With regard to carrier notes and labels can this be automated to print out on the pick bench?
This does sound very slow but maybe slow and accurate beats fast and wrong - but this is very slow.
Have you addressed this with your staff member? What does she think? Does she enjoy it?
Remember that you will enjoy the packing process as each item you box up and ship out is money in your pocket (assuming you're business owner). Employees are likely not going to enjoy it so much.
It's not easy to pack quickly and accurately while also taking phone calls and doing other stuff. It's not fair to look at numbers of items packed per hour when there may be 3 customer calls, 4 e-mails, a question about reconciling last month's credit card statement and having to go and find the new labels for the shipping label printer all in that same hour.
I think you'd definitely get a better rate if you specified set times of the day in which to get items packed - almost with a 'do not disturb' sign. You may have to have 2 sections during the day if you offer next day shipping if ordered before xpm.
Remember that you will enjoy the packing process as each item you box up and ship out is money in your pocket (assuming you're business owner). Employees are likely not going to enjoy it so much.
It's not easy to pack quickly and accurately while also taking phone calls and doing other stuff. It's not fair to look at numbers of items packed per hour when there may be 3 customer calls, 4 e-mails, a question about reconciling last month's credit card statement and having to go and find the new labels for the shipping label printer all in that same hour.
I think you'd definitely get a better rate if you specified set times of the day in which to get items packed - almost with a 'do not disturb' sign. You may have to have 2 sections during the day if you offer next day shipping if ordered before xpm.
DSLiverpool said:
Hi Craig, I’ve found that packers like to pack, if you have 10 orders then can the packer be relieved of phone duty for the morning maybe (is the packer the right person to be answering your calls?)
With regard to carrier notes and labels can this be automated to print out on the pick bench?
This does sound very slow but maybe slow and accurate beats fast and wrong - but this is very slow.
Thanks Dave, you are right it's a bit distracting to answer calls when trying to pack and can lead to mistakes. I'm going to get others to cover the phones for a pre-set period each morning to give her time to get the bulk done. Not every day is like today so maybe I'm just over-reacting to one day, but we're working so hard to grow so everything is under scrutiny.With regard to carrier notes and labels can this be automated to print out on the pick bench?
This does sound very slow but maybe slow and accurate beats fast and wrong - but this is very slow.
All labels and invoices are printed on the bench, we've a full workstation with two label printers, you name it. No excuses there.
Unfortunately she's not a packer answering phones, she's the office manager packing boxes. That's half the problem, but until we get 20-30 parcels a day I'm not sure we can justify a dedicated packer! This is why I'm so involved in where our sales are coming from, how many units etc as I'm trying to figure out who and when we employ next.
Growth pains, if it comes to it I'll go pack for an hour each morning to get some out the way
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