The Material Handling Blog

Out of all the different tasks you complete in your materials handling operation, order picking is by far the most expensive.  When you look at the cost involved with handling 1000kg of goods in different stages of the materials handling process, the contrast becomes clear.

Loading and unloading is quite cheap – in this example, we can put the cost of handling 1000kg at around £1- £2, depending on the equipment you use. Putting away and retrieving goods takes slightly longer, and the cost of handling the same quantity of goods is around £10- £20. However, picking 1000kg of items can cost up to £100, simply due to the amount of labour required.

If you’re looking to make your operation more cost-effective and efficient, it makes sense to focus on improving your order picking.

Order picking is a demanding process, and with the continuing rise of eCommerce, it's becoming a bigger and bigger part of the logistics chain. 

Compared to other materials handling processes, it's also very expensive. To illustrate this, we can look at the costs of handling goods in different parts of the materials handling process. If we estimate that the cost of unloading 1000kg of goods from a transport is around €1 to €2, and the cost of placing the same quantity of goods into storage is around €3 to €5, then the cost of picking 1000kg of goods can range from €30 to €100, simply due to the amount of labour involved. That's why if you want to reduce your operation's costs and boost efficiency, focusing on improving your order picking is a smart solution.

Sometimes, only the smallest change is needed to make a big difference to your materials handling operation — especially when it affects such a time-consuming operation as order picking (which is also the most expensive process in the handling chain).

For order pickers who spend their working days walking along aisles, removing items from the racking and placing them onto pallets on their trucks, an additional feature as minor as rising forks could have huge benefits — both to their health, and also to their efficiency and productivity.

If the surface you step on to get into your forklift is well-designed, you probably won't even notice it at all. But a lack of care from the manufacturer when it comes to this small detail adds to the strain that drivers experience on the job, which will ultimately affect your operation and increase costs.

Generally speaking, the step-in height on a forklift should be as low as possible. This means that it takes less effort for the driver to climb on or off the truck during a busy shift.