How Does Sorting Happen in an E-Commerce Warehouse? Discover the Importance of Manual Sorting in E-Commerce Operations
A key component of logistics billing is order processing charges, which, among other factors, account for the resources spent on sorting shipments by delivery destination code. These charges are more than just contributors to profit margins; they, as per the unspoken rule of trust, promise the consumer that shipments will be handled with due care and delivered on time.
Therefore, growth planning in 3PL, warehousing, and other intralogistics-heavy operations is tied directly to the efficiency of core workflows such as sortation and poses the fundamental questions we will explore in this blog and its sequel. The prime focus of this blog is to understand the most preliminary sorting process: manual sorting and all its variations
Schema of Topics Covered: An Introduction to the Roadmap to Choosing the Best-Suited Warehouse Sorting Processes
Listed below are some of the common yet central aspects of warehouse sortation, particularly manual sorting:
- An overview of the warehouse sorting process
- What are the key types of sorting processes in terms of setup?
- The manual sorting workflow
- Setting up an effective manual sorting process
- Pros and cons of manual sorting
- The scalability of manual sorting
- Scenarios where manual sorting is used
- The scope of human-machine collaboration in the manual sorting process
We will also examine how Quinta proves to be an ideal partner for elevating warehouse sorting, regardless of whether the setting relies on manual sorting, an end-to-end automated sorting process, or any variation of the two.
Read on to be informed!
Wondering what warehouse sorting is all about?
Warehouse Sorting Workflow: A Bird’s View
Here is a high-level illustration of the sortation process (look at the notes below* for better understanding):
* Gathering parcels: In this step, parcels with destination codes that belong to the same code cluster are collected together.
* Placing Loads: Sleeves are assigned by the intelligent decision-making capability of the WMS software. This step is simply the putaway action.
Manual Sorting
What Is Manual Sorting? Discover Step-By-Step Process
Manual sorting involves warehouse pickers, equipped with warehouse barcode scanning machines or label readers, scanning shipping labels on parcels to identify their destination codes and ultimately, storing them on the shelves designated for the destination code cluster. These are the two principal steps of manual sorting; intermediate steps can vary across operations.
What Are the Requirements of Setting up Manual Warehouse Sorting?
Workforce strength and AIDC products, particularly warehouse barcode scanning machines, are the pillars of a manpower-driven sortation process. Additionally, intralogistics solutions, such as forklifts, are used to carry the parcels to the storage area.
A critical point to note is that while the core sorting process is manual, automation solutions such as AGVs, AGCs, and AMRs (including autonomous forklifts) can be used to transport the loads to the shelves, where pickers place the shipments.
What Are the Advantages and Challenges of Manual Warehouse Sorting?
Manual sorting is energy-efficient and a driver of job creation. Also, workforce expenditure is often less than the CAPEX of most industrial automation solutions, resulting in a more affordable upfront cost. Most importantly, the process is informed by the built-in adaptability of human intelligence, leaving much room for manoeuvre.
Does a warehousing business still need automation experts if it has manual sorting?
The answer is “Yes.” Apart from insights-driven assistance in selecting the right warehouse barcode scanning machine, other processes can be enhanced. To learn more, Discover Another Game-Changing Automation Solution
On the other hand, there are challenges involved in this sortation process:
- Human labour is prone to human errors, which are missorts, in this case; they lead to expensive opportunity costs due to the time wasted in finding misplaced items, and real loss, when missorts lead to misshipping
- Work fatigue limits net productivity hours
- Labour law restricts total work hours
- The sorting process involves a high probability of human errors
- Productivity declines progressively with passing work hours
- Scaling up, during peak seasons or a rise in day-to-day order volume, incurs massive overhead costs
- Worker safety is always a concern in industrial hubs, especially given that accidents, caused by forklifts (non-autonomous ones) and while managing many other types of machinery, are often severely damaging, if not fatal
What is the Potential for Scalability for Manual Warehouse Sorting?
As mentioned above, scaling up sorting with workers is expensive in terms of overhead cost, while that may not seem immediately as overwhelming as the alternative: an automated setup.
As a stopgap option, manual sorting is a low-investment alternative and given that the process requires minimal to no training, it is easy to carry out. However, eventually, manual sorting may not be scalable due to poor ROI.
Are There Any Useful Scenarios Where Manual Sorting Is Particularly Beneficial?
Here are the key scenarios where manual warehouse sorting is an excellent choice:
- Secondary Sorting
- Putaway
Scenario 1: How Effective Is Manual Sortation for Secondary Sorting?
Secondary warehouse sorting is the second layer of segregating load, where items are often not sorted by destination codes but by order. In other words, individual units from the various bins/ piles of packages are bundled to be shelved as a single order before being packed and shipped.
Here, the chaos of picking from different files becomes simpler with human agents without a substantial CAPEX.
Are you curious why secondary sorting is called that? To what is the process secondary? What is, then, primary sorting?
Scenario 2: How to Implement Automation-Powered Manual Sorting with Put-to-Light Systems?
Bulk manual picking and sorting become easy when Put-to-Light Systems are implemented. This automation setup is a key example illustrating that there is a great scope of automation in manual sorting.
In such scenarios, the item batches, created after automated parcel sorting systems segregate loads by destination code, are scanned by warehouse barcode scanning machines. Based on this input from the AIDC product, the WMS allocated slots on the putwall/shelves in the storage area. Thanks to put-to-light systems, which are networks of lit pathways and LED-illuminated shelves, the assigned shelves and the pathways leading to the shelves light up.
The role of the picker here is to execute this workflow:
- Following the lit path
- Placing loads in the shelves where the lights are on
- Pressing the confirmation button at the slot of the rack to record a successful putaway
Additionally, put-to-light systems, while they don’t eliminate the need for barcode readers, thanks to them, pickers to put away the loads without having to carry the scanner around—the difference is a significant ergonomic advantage!
Looking for an efficient sorting setup, where great automation solutions enhance the productivity of the manual pickers? Quinta, being one of the leading supply chain and intralogistics automation solution providers in India, could be your best bet! Check out why
Optimising Manual Sorting with Quinta
At Quinta, we offer industry-best warehouse barcode scanning solutions, which are as rugged as they are accurate and efficient. Moreover, our range of warehouse automation solutions includes excellent put-to-light system models, which, like other solutions we offer, are available as ready-to-install modules and can be further customised to suit the business-specific needs and workflows.
It is equally important to consider that, along with Quinta’s customisation-oriented approach, which prioritises problem-solving and efficacy, partnering with us is marked by our:
- Equally good hardware and software skills
- Value-added WMS and WCS integration
- Swift installation
- Comprehensive post-sale lifecycle management
- Complementary warehouse automation consulting session
Final Thoughts
Manual sorting—however, automation-assisted, might it be, the process’s efficiency plateaus with human endurance, hence it is best to reserve this technique for secondary sorting and putaway. Where manual sorting falls short, conveyor sorting systems, including the range of linear, loop, and Z-type sorters by Quinta saves the day. The task can also be sped up by leveraging robotic warehouse sorting with picking robots. We will explore these two processes in the next blog!
Till then, if you are curious to know more, contact us, and one of our executives will reach out to you shortly!
