News

New Pick Scanning System quick to prove its worth for delivered operations

Tuesday 13th March 2007

A state-of-the-art pick scanning system is revolutionising the way orders are assembled and delivered at Bestpets and Bestway Direct.

According to information services controller, John Humphreys, incorrect picks of wrong products have virtually been eliminated and orders taking 20% less time to be completed.

Launched at Bestpets Newcastle in mid-2006, it has since been extended to cover other delivered operations at Glasgow, Leeds, Southampton, Swindon and the Bestpets depot at Exeter.

"It's a much more refined system than we trialled a few years ago," continued John, "and in addition to being faster, is much more versatile."

Based on sophisticated hand-help terminals, pick scanning removes the need for a printed order. Everything can be viewed on a screen by the user.

It works like this: a picker takes a scanner and scans in his ID card. An order is then downloaded and he scans his ID card again. Instructions then come on screen telling him the order he needs to pick in
and the bin location of the products - effectively creating a 'walking order'.

Items are scanned as they are collected, or highlighted and saved if they are out of stock, in which case an alert comes on screen notifying the picker when the next delivery is due. If there IS some stock in, but it is not yet on the shelf, it will re-route the picker to collect it before he starts another order.

Finally, a report is printed to confirm the order, together with an accompanying invoice for the customer.