Picking
order picking · order preparation · pick and pack
Picking is the operation of pulling items from the warehouse to build a customer order. It is the step where a data line becomes a physical object — and therefore the last place a reference error can still be caught before the customer lives with it.
Director of publication : Florian Précigout
Two errors coexist and do not cost the same. A picking error — the wrong part taken from the right location — is visible at checking. An upstream error — the right part picked against a wrong line — passes through untouched, because nothing in the warehouse knows what the workshop actually wanted.
That is why scanning the EAN at pick is an effective but partial net: it guarantees conformity to the line, never the correctness of the line. A misidentified order will be picked perfectly, and refused all the same.
On cross-docked flows or at the end of a run, the checking window shrinks to almost nothing. Picking quality then depends on how precise the order was, not on the picker's vigilance.
The trap
Relying on the picker to catch a misidentified order. They verify conformity between line and parcel; they have no way of knowing the line itself is wrong.
Frequently asked
Does scanning eliminate order errors?
It eliminates most picking errors. It does not touch identification errors: a wrong reference scanned stays a wrong reference, now confirmed.
When is catching an error cheapest?
At order entry. Every further step multiplies the cost of the return: picking, transport, vehicle downtime, then the administrative handling of the credit note.