The use of technologies for the process of picking: implications and propositions

Abstract

In the present, businesses are facing numerous challenges with regard to their competitiveness in a global and complex marketplace, being required an ongoing review and evaluation of their management processes. The process of picking in Warehouses is one of the most critical, both for its complexity either by its high cost, so high levels of efficiency are necessary and desirable. The objective of this paper is to present the results of a research about the technologies on picking process in warehouses. They were developed a conceptual model and a methodology to support the choice of technological solutions for picker-to-part’s strategy. The proposed approach incorporates the various dimensions of decision process for assessment and selection of picking technologies based both, in the literature review, as from empirical contributions obtained from a provider of order picking technologies. In the decision process highlights the highly complexity, as it involves several levels of decision and several dimensions that pass through the layout of the warehouse, the methodology of picking, the level of traceability wanted, the coding model of products, among others determinant factors, beyond the cost of the technological solution itself.