What is a Pick-to-Light picking zone?
How do I plan a picking zone?
Can several employees work in one picking zone?
How flexible is the system?
... and much more.
In this article, we explain the function and structure of a picking zone equipped with a Pick-to-Light system. We also show you how several pickers can work simultaneously in such a picking zone.
What is Pick-to-Light picking zone?
A Pick-to-Light picking zone defines a certain number of storage locations that are accessed simultaneously during picking. One or more pickers work in a picking zone.
How do I plan a picking zone?
The size of the picking zone depends on many factors, which is why only a thorough analysis can provide the correct answer. The most important thing is that the employees have very good orientation. Access to the goods should be fast and targeted. At the same time, the quality of picking must be as high as possible.
The system must provide optimum support for the employee!
On a semi-automatic picking system with conveyor technology, Pick-to-Light and flow racks, the picking zones are approx. 6-8 m long. The conveyor system also serves as a buffer, whereby the correct distribution of the goods in the zone is achieved by the A/B/C analysis. It is very important that the employee has a good view of all Pick-to-Light shelf displays and the shortest possible walking distances.
In completely manual systems with picking trolleys, the size of the picking zone varies greatly. Sometimes the zones are very long and are even operated by several employees at the same time. You can find out how this works in a moment ...
Fast navigation
A single picking zone can also have several hundred displays. Sometimes the picker also has to stand with his back to the Pick-to-Light (B or C articles). To maintain an overview of the storage compartments, special displays are used for fast navigation. The order picker can see at a glance where the active storage compartments are positioned (left-bottom, right-top, middle or at the back). This means that each storage compartment is assigned a segment of the navigation display. After each acknowledgement, the control system automatically updates the navigation display.
In addition to the graphic display of active orders, the navigation display shows the number of open picks. Practical experience shows that the use of navigation makes work much more relaxed and faster for the order picker. This results in an overall increase in performance of approx. 5-7%. The low cost of the function justifies the investment.
Can several employees work in one picking zone?
The answer is yes, as long as LUCA-Server is used. With our system, several employees can work in one picking zone. We have multi-colored LEDs on the displays. Each employee and their order is assigned a separate color. The problem of simultaneous access to the compartments is complex, but we have solved it very well. At LUCA-Server , we developed a special procedure for synchronizing the output and access to the same compartments.
This procedure enables correct coordination between the individual processes for several employees and orders. Each employee works with their own data. However, each process in the picking zone does not send the telegrams directly to Pick-to-Light, but to a synchronization module. The module is then responsible for the correct coordination of access to the shared storage compartments.
Would you like to know exactly how to do this? Contact us ...
How flexible is a picking zone?
The function is not easy, but it is possible. The challenge not only affects Pick-to-Light itself, but also the warehouse management system (WMS). We are not yet able to answer with a clear "yes" whether the dynamic division of picking zones is really practicable. We always examine these requirements very thoroughly and precisely before such systems are created. We have already developed many variants of the solution, but almost every solution was very customer-specific. We will soon be presenting some examples of these in our other blog articles.
Conclusion
The division of a Pick-to-Light system into several picking zones is absolutely essential. This allows several pickers to process different orders at the same time. The division and size must always be determined individually. In the LUCA system, several employees can even pick orders simultaneously and efficiently.
