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Jiuwei Technology: Comprehensive Analysis of E-commerce Logistics Center Picking Scheme
2021-08-31 13:44
What are the characteristics of picking operations in 1. e-commerce logistics centers?
Picking operations are closely related to the characteristics and requirements of e-commerce logistics itself. The biggest feature or requirement of e-commerce logistics is undoubtedly "fast"-rapid response, picking, packaging, transportation and delivery of massive and fragmented orders to enhance customer experience. At the same time, e-commerce orders have great volatility, especially in the "double 11" and other big promotion days, the order volume soared, the order picking pressure increased sharply, and so on.
Therefore, in the face of the particularity of e-commerce orders, its picking operation is more complex and requires higher efficiency than ordinary picking operations. This requires companies to continuously optimize the picking program to improve operational efficiency. For example, shorten the picking path, optimize the operation process and method, automatically filter orders and allocate inventory under the rules set by the system, replenish goods to the picking position in advance, and collect picking and other operation methods.
What are the main aspects of the difficulty of picking Tmall order characteristics?
Tmall Supermarket has developed rapidly in recent years, with the order volume increasing rapidly by more than 200, and the daily order volume reaching hundreds of thousands of orders. In addition to the general characteristics of e-commerce logistics and the requirements for fast delivery, the characteristics and requirements of its picking operation are also reflected in the following aspects:
(1) A single order contains many SKUs, a large category span, and many order lines;
(2) Pay attention to batch management;
(3) Strict response time, requiring efficient allocation and picking strategies to support front-office sales;
(4) Support multiple cargo owners, multiple suppliers, etc.
These characteristics and requirements will naturally lead to the difficulty of the layout of the picking area on the spot, the large area of the picking area, the large span of the picking of goods and so on. If all rely on manual picking, picking personnel undoubtedly need to repeat walking in a large area of picking area, not only consume a lot of physical strength and time, increase costs, but also lead to lower picking efficiency, a large amount of work is also prone to errors.
According to the degree of automation, it is mainly divided into ordinary picking operations and automated picking operations.
Generally speaking, for small-scale warehouses with an area of less than 10000 ㎡, due to the comprehensive consideration of economic cost and efficiency, goods are generally picked manually through paper picking lists or PDA. In the warehouse with small area and scale, the efficiency and economy of manual picking are obviously better than those of automatic picking. Although it is more labor-consuming, the operation flexibility is very large, and the operation rhythm and mode can be adjusted at any time according to the demand.
For warehouses with an area of 10000~20000 ㎡, mixed picking can be adopted, with some automatic picking and some manual picking. For SKU with high shipping frequency, automatic picking and quick outbound can be carried out. For SKU with low shipping frequency, sorting can be carried out through wave summary and then outbound in distribution mode.
For large-scale warehouses above 20000m2, due to the involvement of multiple business partitions or even multi-layer warehouse operations, picking often requires partition summary picking or partition relay picking, this business scenario requires the introduction of automated picking solutions. At present, Tmall Supermarket uses more picking technologies, mainly including PTL electronic label picking, which is very mature, and GTP (GTP), which is realized by automated equipment such as picking robots and AGV.
What are the main factors that e-commerce enterprises consider when choosing picking solutions? Which order picking modes are more suitable for e-commerce?
When an e-commerce company chooses a picking solution, it generally considers the following four factors:
First: order structure, such as single product order proportion, order line number, order number across region, peak order quantity;
Second: storage scheme, combined with SKU quantity, depth, and the nature of stored goods (full box/scattered), etc;
Third: operation plan, such as picking goods with packing boxes, whether it is necessary to send invoices, warehouse area, etc;
Fourth: timeliness, operational efficiency, input-output ratio, enterprises need to consider the investment situation of the project from the economic aspect, such as short-term or long-term investment.
There are many modes of ordinary picking operation, including order picking mode, order picking mode, single product operation mode, sowing mode, secondary picking mode, etc. Different operation modes have their own advantages and disadvantages, so enterprises need to consider their own specific business conditions when choosing order picking mode.
For example, for e-commerce enterprises such as Tmall Supermarket, which have a very small proportion of single product orders, complex order structure, large order lines, large SKU quantity and large commodity span, the picking modes such as partition relay picking and parcel picking are very effective. For enterprises with a very large proportion of single items such as shoes and clothing, it is more efficient to adopt the modes of single item picking and summary picking.
Generally speaking, each e-commerce enterprise has different business forms, so the selection scheme is also different. However, it should be noted that the selection scheme should have flexible and expandable functions and be able to adapt to the rapid changes of enterprises. It is best to cut peaks and fill valleys in the process, meet the challenges of promotion, and ensure that the storage operation is carried out in an orderly, stable and busy manner.
At present, there are many mainstream picking technologies in the market. What are their development trends and application trends?
At present, the most mature picking technology in the market is electronic tag picking, and it can be used with other technologies to achieve picking. In addition, in the field of e-commerce, as automation and intelligence are the trend, picking technology will also tend to be automated,rotating shelf, AGV robot picking system and other goods to people technology will be further developed. In short, its overall development trend will be to reduce labor intensity, reduce operational errors, improve picking efficiency, and improve input-output ratio.
In the future, with the change of e-commerce operation strategy, the different storage schemes and the change of order structure, warehousing logistics will become more and more complex. When enterprises have orders with various structural characteristics, they need a variety of picking technologies and mode support, and the coexistence of multiple picking solutions in a warehouse will become a trend. At the same time, the traditional manual warehouse relies on the optimization of the internal process of the warehouse to achieve time and labor efficiency win-win space will become smaller and smaller, e-commerce enterprises should consider the introduction of automation equipment and the overall optimization of the supply chain as soon as possible.
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