Picking and loading the van
Tom, warehouse lead at a cash-and-carry (sample business). Last night's orders become one pick wave on the warehouse phone, short lines are flagged before the van goes, and the stops are set in driving order.
Picking and loading the van: guided tour, 5 steps
Step 1 of 5: Tom opens today's pick wave. The orders for Van 1 are grouped into one pick wave on the warehouse phone: one walk round the aisles instead of five.
Pick list on the warehouse phone · sample data← → to move · Esc for the whole screen
05:30Step 1 of 5
Tom opens today's pick wave
The orders for Van 1 are grouped into one pick wave on the warehouse phone: one walk round the aisles instead of five.
The tour, written down
How to pick the morning's orders and load the van in stop order
Each order going on the van has its own pick wave on the warehouse phone. Scan each barcode as you pick; a line the shelf cannot fill stays part-picked and the wave will not complete, so tell the office straight away. Once the order is edited or the stock is found, complete the wave, then load the van in reverse of the route planner's stop order.
At half past five in a cash-and-carry, the orders that came in yesterday are still just a list. By six they need to be a loaded van. This tour follows a warehouse lead through that half hour on the warehouse phone, from opening the first pick wave to handing the driver his stops in order. Below is each step in detail, then a checklist, tips and the mistakes that cost the most time.
Step by step
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Open the first pick wave on the warehouse phone. Each order going out on Van 1 has its own pick wave, so five shops means five short lists rather than one long printed sheet. The list of waves shows which are waiting to pick, which are being picked and who has them, and each wave shows how many of its items are picked so far. Work through them one at a time, keeping the van's departure time in mind so everyone knows how long they have.
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Read the line you are on: aisle, bay, product, quantity. Each line tells you where to go, such as Aisle 3, Bay B, what to take and how many. The type is large on purpose. A picker with a trolley in one hand and a box in the other should be able to glance down and read it without stopping. Lines run in a sensible walking order, so you are not doubling back.
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Scan or type each barcode as you pick. Point the scanner at the case, or type the code into the box, and the picked count on that line goes up. A small badge such as "Scanned 3 of 4" tells you where you are on the line. Scanning is what proves the right product went on the trolley: the 330ml cola case and the 500ml water case look alike at speed, but their barcodes do not.
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Tell the office when the shelf runs out. In the tour the order wants three boxes of ready salted crisps and only one is on the shelf. Record the one you picked. The line stays part-picked, and the wave will not complete until every line is fully picked, so it cannot slip through unnoticed. Tell the office there and then: at quarter to six there is still time to phone the shop, offer a substitute or put the missing boxes on tomorrow's run, and edit the order to match. Without that call, the shop finds out when the van door opens.
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Check the rest of the wave. Below the current line, the rest of the wave shows how far each line has got. Before you finish, scan down it. Anything not fully picked is either something you walked past or a gap the office needs to sort out.
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Complete the wave. Once every line is fully picked, including any line the office has changed on the order, one button closes the wave and the order moves to packed. A wave with a line still open will not complete, which is deliberate: nothing goes on the van marked as packed while part of it is missing. Then move on to the next order's wave.
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Open the van's run in driving order. With the waves complete, the delivery screen shows Van 1's four stops, numbered in the order the route planner worked out, each with an expected time. This is the order the driver will follow on his phone later, so it is also the order you load to.
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Load the van against the stops. Work backwards from the last stop. The fourth drop goes in first, deepest in the van; the first drop goes in last, nearest the doors. Then the driver never has to dig past one shop's cases to reach another's.
What the warehouse lead sees at each stage
| Stage | On the screen | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Open the waves | One wave per order, items picked so far | How many orders are left and who is on each |
| Current line | Aisle and bay, product, quantity | Where to walk and what to take |
| Scanning | Scanned 3 of 4 | Whether the right product went on the trolley |
| Part-picked line | 1 of 3 picked | What the office must sort out before the van goes |
| Rest of wave | How far each line has got | Anything missed on the way round |
| Run | Four numbered stops with times | The order to load and drive |
A worked example from the tour's sample data
The sample order for the first shop has five lines: six cases of still water 500ml, four cases of cola 330ml cans, three boxes of ready salted crisps, two 10kg sacks of basmati rice and one box of milk chocolate bars. At £4.99 a case, the water alone is £29.94 before VAT. The crisps line is the one that goes wrong. Three boxes are wanted at £9.60 each, one is on the shelf, so only one is picked and £19.20 of the order is missing before VAT. The wave will not complete until the office has changed the order to one box, or someone finds the other two.
That £19.20 matters less than what happens next. If the office knows at quarter to six, someone can ring the shop before it opens. If nobody knows, the shop owner counts the delivery, finds two boxes missing, phones in annoyed, and the driver gets the blame. One call from the picker, prompted by a wave that will not close, changes which of those two mornings you have.
Tips for a faster pick
- Set the van's departure time and work to it. Waves picked against a visible deadline get picked differently from ones without.
- Keep bay labels in step with the system. The pick list is only as good as the location it names. If you move a product, move its location record the same day.
- Scan everything, even the obvious lines. It takes a second and catches the case of 24 that was really a case of 12.
- Pick heavy and bulky lines first. Rice sacks and drink cases go on the bottom of the trolley; crisps and chocolate go on top.
- Stage each order in its own spot by the door. Then loading in reverse stop order is a matter of carrying, not sorting.
Common mistakes
Picking from memory instead of the list. Experienced pickers know where everything lives, and that is exactly when the wrong size goes on. The scan is there to catch it.
Keeping a gap to yourself. If the shelf is empty, record what you did pick and tell the office at once. The wave will sit open until the order is changed or the stock turns up, and the longer nobody knows why, the less time there is to ring the shop.
Loading in pick order, not stop order. The pick follows the aisles; the van follows the road. Mixing them up means the driver moves cases at every stop.
Changing the trolley but not the order. The wave only completes when every line matches the order. If you send fewer, ask the office to edit the order first, so the wave, the invoice and the van all agree.
Not telling anyone about a substitute. If you send 1 litre squash because the 500ml is out, the order and the invoice still say 500ml. Ask the office to change the order so the paperwork matches the van.
Why picking on a phone beats a printed sheet
A printed pick sheet is out of date the moment someone takes the last case of something. It cannot tell the office anything until the picker walks back with it. A pick list on the phone records each scan as it happens, so the office can see each wave fill up and see which one is stuck on a line it cannot finish. The sheet also cannot check that the barcode matches. The phone can.
What to do next
Once the van has gone, the next jobs in a wholesale morning follow on naturally. The owner opens Home to see what needs attention today, including the orders out for delivery. Lines the shelf could not fill often turn into a reorder: if crisps ran out at the pick, they are almost certainly on the running-low list too. And later in the day the driver works through the same stops on his phone while the office marks each one delivered.
For the wider picture, read our guide to van sales and route orders, which covers how to plan drops and set a minimum order, and stock control, which explains why the shelf and the system drift apart and how to stop it. If the same products keep running out at the pick, a regular count helps; see how to do a stocktake.
Questions people ask
What is a pick wave in a warehouse?
In EasyTaskr a pick wave is the pick list for one order: every line with its location, product and quantity, on the warehouse phone. Each order going on the van gets its own wave, so the picker works through them one after another.
What happens when the shelf cannot fill a line?
Record what you did pick. The line stays part-picked and the wave cannot be completed until every line is fully picked, so the picker tells the office. They phone the shop and edit the order, or the missing stock is found, and then the wave is completed.
Do I need a handheld scanner to pick?
No. The pick list runs on a phone and you can type the barcode into the scan box. A scanner or the phone's camera only makes it quicker.
Who decides the order of the van's stops?
The route planner sets the stop order for each van. The office can see the stops for the run, and the driver sees the same order on his phone.
Should I load the van in the same order as the stops?
Load it in reverse: the last drop goes in first, at the back, and the first drop goes in last, by the doors. That way nothing has to be moved to reach the next delivery.
