10 common problems with order picking and how to solve them
10 Common Problems With Order Picking… and How to Solve Them
Key takeaways
- Most picking problems stem from slow data, unclear workflows, or lack of real-time visibility.
- Simple workflow improvements can remove bottlenecks without adding labour.
- Fast-growing ecommerce teams solve accuracy issues with mobile scanning and guided pick paths.
Order picking should be simple, but rapid ecommerce growth makes even small errors expensive. Missed items, slow routes, and manual processes add friction you feel immediately. And over time, these issues ultimately lead to longer fulfilment times, unhappy customers, and exhausted teams.
This guide breaks down the most common problems with order picking and shows practical fixes so you can scale without adding headcount.
Top 10 problems with order picking
- Wrong item location in warehouse
- Mispicks; human error
- Paper-based picking
- No priority when picking
- Labour-intensive picking
- No designated location for half-picked orders
- Fixed locations in warehouse
- Relying on human memory
- One order per pick run
- No picker accountability
This article covers the solutions to these problems and also answers the common question: how to reduce manual picking errors.
Problem 1: Wrong item location in warehouse
This occurs when a picker goes to the warehouse location to pick an order, and the correct item is not there.
Impact
If an item is not where it should be in the warehouse, this means the picker needs to spend time looking for it. This delays the order fulfilment, which can lead to an unhappy customer and negative reviews. On top of that, it also makes for a highly inefficient warehouse operation.
How to solve it
With a warehouse management system (WMS), every item is scanned into a location. This means that when a picker is looking for an item, it will always be exactly where it should be.
Problem 2: Mispicks; human error
A mispick is when a picker makes a mistake, which means the wrong items or quantities are picked.
Impact
If the wrong items or quantities are picked, time is wasted at the pack bench where, hopefully, the error is noticed. If the fault is not realised, the wrong items are dispatched which will then require a refund or replacement. As well as costing money, it also paints a poor picture of your brand.
How to solve it
Get goods-in right the first time by scanning everything. Using barcode scanners in your ecommerce warehouse should make it impossible to pick the wrong item or the wrong quantity. With every incorrect pick, the scanner will create an error message, alerting the picker to their mistake.
Problem 3: Paper-based picking
You are printing orders on sheets of paper and sending the pickers to manually check off their pick lists.
Impact
This kind of operation is not only lengthy, but it is also highly inefficient and leaves a large margin for error due to lost or unfulfilled orders. Plus, the inventory is not automatically updated when items are picked.
How to solve it
Eliminate paper from your warehouse by using warehouse management software with a mobile app. The mobile app replaces the paper, a bit like your mobile phone replaced the handwritten letter.
Problem 4: No priority when picking
All of the orders are lumped together, and there is no process for deciding which orders should be picked first.
Impact
If your orders are not prioritised, then often the most recent sales order items are picked first by default. This can mean that older orders or more important orders are neglected or delayed.
How to solve it
Find a suitable method for sorting your warehouse orders. Once you have a method in place, no priority order will be left over at the end of the day.
Problem 5: Labour-intensive picking
Your picking process heavily relies on human effort and expertise.
Impact
If you have too many pickers working at the same time, you will likely be spending more money on labour than you are getting back in return.
How to solve it
Introduce automation into your warehouse. Automation should improve the efficiency of all your pickers, meaning that fewer of them are needed to fulfill the same amount of orders.
| Without structured picking workflows | With structured, guided workflows |
|---|---|
| Pickers walk too much and waste time between locations. | Routes are optimised automatically so staff move through the warehouse with fewer steps. |
| Frequent errors lead to repicks, returns, and extra customer service work. | Scanning confirms each pick and pack, so accuracy improves and mistakes drop. |
| New hires take a long time to learn locations and processes. | Guided mobile workflows show the next task on-screen, which speeds up onboarding. |
| Hard to scale order volume without adding more people to the team. | Higher throughput per picker means you can handle more orders with your existing staff. |
Problem 6: No designated location for half-picked orders
Workers realise partway through picking that not all of the items are currently available, and their work is wasted.
Impact
Orders that are only half-picked are generally put back if the remaining items are not available, and fulfilment is postponed. Doing this leads to unhappy customers and potential negative reviews.
How to solve it
Manage your allocation properly which means orders are only half-picked if you’re happy to do a partial shipment.
Problem 7: Fixed locations in warehouse
Having fixed locations eliminates the potential for flexibility to allocate high-demand items closer to the pack bench when necessary.
Impact
Inefficiency here usually means replenishment is made into a bigger issue, which results in more manual data entry to make stock location and inventory changes.
How to solve it
Introduce a WMS that allows for dynamic locations. This will mean that you can put multiple stock keeping units (SKUs) in one location, as well as putting single SKUs in multiple locations.
Problem 8: Relying on human memory
Time is required to train pickers on the layout of the warehouse.
Impact
Having this reliance on your pickers to know where everything is will cost time and money without providing a sufficient return.
How to solve it
With a WMS, the location of every SKU should be recorded. This means that when an item needs to be picked, the location is shown on the mobile app.
Problem 9: One order per pick run
Spending time walking through the warehouse to pick a single order instead of picking multiple orders along the way.
Impact
This is an inefficient process that wastes valuable time and resources.
How to solve it
By eliminating paper and using WMS workflows instead, pick runs can be devised in the most efficient manner.
Problem 10: No picker accountability
You can’t trace who has picked an order, and you can’t track the progress of the order through your warehouse.
Impact
No accountability in a team is divisive, demotivating, and hard to manage.
How to solve it
A suitable WMS with focused ecommerce workflows should provide you with full visibility on all inventory movements, including which member of staff has performed each action.
Order picking FAQs
What are the biggest order picking problems?
Common issues include wrong item locations, mispicks, paper-based picking, no clear order priorities, labour-intensive processes, no space for half-picked orders, fixed locations, reliance on memory, picking one order per run, and no picker accountability.
How can warehouses reduce order picking errors?
A key step is replacing paper and memory with warehouse management software.