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What's your speed?
I'm currently re-organizing my entire inventory to hopefully speed up picking orders. I'm currently averaging about 70-100 lots an hour. Hoping to increase it closer to 150 once the organization is complete. So what's the speed of everyone else here? Is this slow, fast? I have over 360,000 pieces in over 16,000 lots, so I do have stuff broken up quite a bit, which is probably slowing me down a bit.
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My main storage comprises drawers with lift-out internal containers, so I can grab a lot without disturbing the other lots in the drawer. And I try to avoid grip-seal bags (baggies?) because they take longer to deal with.
I used to stack a lot of tubs on top of each other but I rearranged my shelves so stacks only ever reach three high at most, which means I can get at the bottom tub just by lifting the two above, rather than having to shift a dozen or so to the floor first. Little improvements like that ultimately save a lot of time over 100s of orders.
What I've done is to centralize common parts (plates, tiles, common brackets), and keep ranges / systems together (technic in one section, minifig parts in one section, train related in one section). This improved my picking time drastically.
Before this overhaul I was at roughly 15 seconds a lot, but now I've brought it down to 8 seconds a lot. My ultimate goal would be 6 seconds a lot/ 10 lots per minute.
The storage system I use is a bit different than the stackons most people use. I've ordered open steel shelving from Uline. For small lots I use 8 open pull out bins per shelf. Those bins I've divided in four sections (a-d), and in those four section I keep baggies with the individual lots. For larger lots I have 3 open pull out bins per shelf with small open cups in it.
@Hoddie , how did you move away from baggies? Baggies allow a much denser storage, I'm a bit nervous that moving away from it creates a lot of empty space of unfilled cups or internal containers.
I am anywhere between 100 and 200 lots per hour picked, packed and shipped.
The lower end Would be large qty of each lots or when I have to go to post office to get receipt for insurance.
Technic is in a different location as are minifigures, yes it does mean there are always empty spaces, but never so many that itโs a problem
I haven't strictly moved away from them. My drawers comprise all the lots where I have a good quantity. Those parts that I only have a few of are still stored in baggies, several lots in each of 80 open trays on a dense shelving unit. But I don't like having spaces in the drawers because they're so much quicker to pick from - I fill up space with new stock or from the baggies every chance I get.
One last thought is that while I see others complaining about that other site and their inventory with around 275k parts I have not had any disappearing inventory that could not be easily explained by my own error. This is how I know the system I use works very well for me.
So 168 lots/hour, 611 items/hour. But for me that means very little.
Every order is different and all depends on the type of items and quantities. And how things are organized in your store. For us it is great when a buyer takes several different colors from the same item, but sometimes you would have wanted colors to be together in your inventory.
A 1 lot, 1000 items order can be done in the same 31 minutes, that would be 2 lots/ 2000 items per hour. So very different numbers.
And that's only picking the order, where the 87 lots will be checked, the 1000 items won't. And the latter one is easier to package. So lot/item numbers will go down from there.
What we look at is how much we have done in a week (looking at number of lots and items and money sold) and see if that counts towards the time it has taken.
But the most important (for us) is have we had 'fun' doing it all. Because we think that whatever you do, try to do it with a smile, maybe not all of the time, but should be most of the time.
1. Easier to move around if needed.
2. The table is on one end of the building. I can't pick at the shelving units; I have to bring the bins to the table.
3. Our listing area is in a different building than our storage, so we have to bring the bins over to the other building when listing pieces in that bin.
We put everything in baggies. Not sure how we could ever get away from that.
I currently had the bins organized by BL categories. New first, then Used; Animal to Windscreen. The problem with that was we had our own made up categories. "Brick Mod, Misc." "Slope, No studs". Made it a bit harder sometimes to know exactly where a piece is. And where I'm looking to train someone sometime in the future, it would take forever for them to grasp where everything is.
So now I"m labeling the shelves, giving each bin a unique code, and putting that code in the pieces' remarks. When I'm finished, each piece will specifically say where it's located.
Was thinking of getting a cart to use so I wouldn't have to travel to and from the table, but our aisles are small, so with a cart I would block the aisle for anyone else who would be putting orders together.
Slowly and surely, I'm trying to make the process more efficient.
Counting (or weighing) the required quantity of parts can take more time than fetching the lot from the shelf. ๐
Make sure to find one with the lowest steps (0.1g/0.0002lb min) and don't go for the highest max weight.
I recently upgraded to one with memory function for 10 unit weights, where I've stored 1x1 plate, 1x2 plate, 1x1 round, a few pins, etc.
So using a scale seems nice, but I think only for very large amounts (100+) of the same item (and color).
I have ordered large quantities and I can see where a scale was used, sometimes I get more than ordered, sometimes less. Maybe if you have a very good scale this doesn't happen.
All in all, you only need it when you get a lot of high item/lot orders and you then need a good scale.
But yes, up to 20 or so you can count by hand almost instantly, above that I've found it worth it. I've done some tests and I've found it very accurate once set up correctly. Even on >100 pins, after recounting the amount the scale indicated was 100% accurate.
With the small pieces I always add 1 pc more than ordered, and when parting out I leave a buffer as well. I did that before and after the counting scale, as I figured a 0.01$ piece is less expensive than another $2.93 shipment to get a single missing piece shipped after customer complaint.
When ordering the scale I also ordered a calibration weight set, as I figured with such low weight accuracy is hugely important.