Top Tips to Prevent Picking and Shipping Errors

If you decide to do all logistics in-house, it is crucial that you ensure you pick your items accurately and ship them safely and quickly to customers in order to keep customers as happy as possible. Your shipping processes can make or break the trust you have with your customers, as receieving the incorrect or damaged items may lead them to not order from you again, or leave negative reviews.

There will always be natural human errors and mistakes made, but you want to have a solid plan and process in place in order to minimise mistakes as much as possible, in order to keep your business as profitable as possible.

This blogpost is going to dive into some of our top tips to try and prevent picking and shipping errors and allow your business to be as successful as possible.

Warehouse Organisation:

The organisation of your warehouse is one of the keyways to ensure that orders are picked correctly, as you want to ensure all stock is kept in the exact place it is meant to be. This can be done through zoning and keeping similar items in the same area in order to reduce confusion and improve speed. You may want to arrange your stock based on popularity, size, colour or dates (if it is products that may go out of date). It is a great idea to have set picking routes in your warehouse too, in order to minimise time and errors.

Ensure your pallets and shelves are all clearly labelled, with product information, the correct bar codes and SKU’s. It may be handy to do regular warehouse checks to ensure nothing is out of place, as well as keeping track of any incorrect orders being sent, in order to investigate. Implementing regular quality checks during picking can really help staff members catch potential mistakes.

Inventory Management:

You must invest in efficient inventory management technologies to ensure that your data is as accurate as possible, and you can keep track of your stock. Utilise technology to update inventory data in real-time as items are picked and be aware of exactly what stock is coming in and what stock is going out. You should conduct regular cycle counts to maintain accurate inventory levels and identify discrepancies.

Make sure to have a set process for returns too, to ensure no damaged stock is going back into your systems and ensure all stock that can be resold is checked and can go straight back into stock on your website.

Technology and Training:

You need to ensure you have a secure warehouse management system (WMS) in place and invest in the right technologies for this. Ideally, you want features like pick-to-light, voice picking, and barcode scanning in order to improve accuracy.

You must ensure management provide comprehensive training to warehouse staff on proper picking procedures and error identification, as well as training all new staff members thoroughly on this. Not only should they have warehouse training, but also product training, to ensure they know exactly what they are picking, meaning it should minimise mistakes as much as possible.

Training should be conducted in areas such as:

• SKU names and meanings.
• Measurement unit training.
• How to pack items safely.
• Types of packing/ packaging.
• Products
• Scanners
• Return processes.

Error Analysis and Improvement:

A great way to avoid future mistakes is by monitoring all orders and recording any mistakes that have been made. Make sure to analyse picking errors to identify patterns and areas for improvement. For example, if there is a bay in your warehouse that seems to have continuous mistakes, it should be investigated. It should also be investigated if certain employees are involved in the mistakes continuously, and they should be offered more training.

Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to track picking accuracy and identify areas needing attention. This can be created on an analytics sheet and should be checked regularly with all staff members.

Choose 3PL

One of the easiest ways to minimise errors as much as possible is to partner up with a 3PL (third-party logistics) partner. A 3PL provider has years of experience and highly qualified warehouse staff to ensure your orders will be picked, packed and shipped accurately to your customers. A 3PL has more control over picking accuracy, which therefore leads to lower error rates. By doing your research, you can find a 3PL warehouse that is perfect for shipping your orders to your customers and keeping your customers as happy as possible.

Here at GNOC, we thrive in helping businesses ship their orders to their customers fast, safely and correctly. We will store your inventory, and our well-trained staff can pick, pack and ship this for you. Not only can you rely on us to sort your logistics, but it can save your business time, money and storage space.

You can contact us today, or fill out our short form, letting us know all of your requirements and one of our helpful team will be in touch. Start your 3PL journey now, and watch your business grow and scale with GNOC.